The Chu Bar, on Saigon's Dong Khoi St, definitely won't win any awards for class. But in the past at least, what it lacked in class it more than made up in character.
I've had some great nights there.
Last Friday, I decided to pop by for a nostalgic drink.
I was a semi-regular customer at Chu more than a decade ago. At that time, many Chu diehards were veterans of the South Vietnamese military. I also recall a lawyer who had been a young staffer of President Nguyen Van Thieu, president of South Vietnam from 1965 till 1975.
Several of these guys were also musicians who’d been pioneers in Saigon’s early 1960s rock music scene, before going off to war - including Chu Bar owner, Chinh.
As vanquished South Vietnamese soldiers, some had fled Vietnam for the US after the war, only to return in the late 80s and early 90s. Others tried to leave, but never made it out.
They were typical of Vietnamese war vets from both sides of the conflict. There was no evidence of self-pity or bitterness. And they had the vitality of men far younger than their years.
Some of them had met playing in bands before before ’75. Others met in a post-war reeducation camp - camps created to "reeducate' former southern soldiers in the wonders of communism and the errors of their pre-75 Saigon ways.
The teaching methodology was harsh.
Others met in Saigon in the early 90s.
These guys were out most nights, smoking, drinking, telling tales and enjoying the tunes. They welcomed us into their ranks. They shared their stories. It was a great time.
Photo: Mark Bowyer Chinh and Danh, Chu Bar Saigon
Photo: Mark Bowyer Chu Bar, Saigon
Photo: Mark Bowyer Mr Thai, 60s rock guitar hero of Saigon
Last Friday, a few of the old guys were on deck - now in their late 60s and early 70s.
Some of the group had passed away they told me. Others don't get out much anymore.
When the band fired up, it was back to the best nights of Chu.
Danh, the lead guitarist, was inducted in the early 60s into Saigon's emerging rock scene. He was in his teens.
Creedence tunes were well represented in the set list, the singer's raspy voice reminiscent of John Fogerty.
Sitting quietly watching the band was an older looking man, Thai. I’m told by the other guys that Thai, now well into his 70s, was a rock guitar sensation when he burst on to the scene in the early 60s - before the war hotted up.
This assembly of Saigon’s pre-1975 rockers gets together most Fridays from around 7pm at Chu for an early set. It’s a casual 1960s Vietnamese take on rock - and some of the musos were playing back then. That’s pretty special.
It’s not all 1960s tunes, and if your musical sensibilities are too refined to hear another rendition of What’s Up (1992) by Four Non Blondes, (it’s a Vietnam favourite) stay well clear.
Chu Bar is located at the bottom of the art deco Catinat Building on the corner of Dong Khoi and Ly Tu Trong Sts. It’s one of the city’s most striking colonial era apartment blocks - and like others before it, it's facing demolition.
Next door at 22 Ly Tu Trong is the Pittman apartment building - site of the infamous helicopter evacuation of Saigon on 29 April 1975, captured by photographer Hu Van Es.
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