Tomorrow is Fish and Chips day at Joyce's and just like every other Thursday you can come down from noon and get your real Cod & Chips, Steak Fries, Tartar Sauce, Coleslaw and a side of Mushy Peas, and presto! you got yourself what is now the un-disputed best Cod & Chips in Bucharest if not in the Country!

Consistently the best (Bar one not up to standard side of fries! Sorry James) 

Anyway back to Tom Waits.  Any of you who know the Chef at Joyce's know he's eccentric to say the least! Fucking Brilliant but fucking eccentric and so is his taste in Music. 

I was havin a beer with him the other night and we met a lad called John Shade(y) who had been down 'Fishing and Chipping' in Joyce's earlier in the week.  He explained that he played in a Tom Waits cover band and like Tom Waits after copius amounts of Burbon it sounded like a good idea that he would play on a Thursday night at Joyce's.  The Chef recommended the idea and stated that Waits is a legend (AKA Leg-End) and that his delinquent style would suit many of the nationals and expat clientele alike!

Fortunately or Unfortunately drowned in Burbon we all thought, what the Fuck lets try it out and see.

Reality confronted me the next evening when we reminisced on the night before and then the memory of us shaking hands saying yes lets have a Tom Waits Cover Band play on Fish and Chips Night!.  I asked, who is this Tom Waits guy anway!  You Tube promptly served me up a rough lookin fucker singing a song called "Chocolate Jesus" through a megaphone!

Jesus! is right, not only did this melody scare the shit out of me, I wondered how could anybody do a take on this voice! then I started to do some more research to see was there anyway to rescue the potential catastrophe such a voice could yield on Fish & Chips night.  He was born in 1949 making him 62! (You mean he is still alive?)

His voice described by one critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."is pretty accurate.

OK, enough of the slagging, different strokes for different folks, Waits was the creator of many hit songs like Jersey Girl, Ol' '55 and Downtown Train, covered and made more popular by such artists as Springsteen, The Eagles and Rod Stewart.   So something has to be right? right?

So here goes, Tomorrow at 9:30pm, John Shade(y) from the UK and the man who sings! Gabi Ghita (Romanian) collectively known as 'Rain Dogs' will perform a bunch of Tom Waits hits.  My understanding is they also have a lady friend who has a crackin voice (Does some great Tracey Chapman songs) to add to the entertainment and at the end of the night the lads being the life loving people that they are will even let some wannabe musicians join in and play with them. 

I mean if nothing else the curiosity has to get you and if they can pull off Tom Waits voice and music they will have earned themselves some more notable recognition!

Gotta see this.  Entrance is Free, Fish and Chips can't be spoiled, they will always be the best c'mon down for a different night out.

A.