Over the past few months, a number of new, home-grown sites, including Chope and Reserveit.sg, have sprung up to meet a growing demand for such reservation services. Chope co-founder Arrif Ziaudeen says his website “currently processes a reservation roughly every eight minutes.”

The idea is simple. You log on to the site, choose a restaurant from a range of options—they’re listed alphabetically or you can also enter your preferences such as cuisine, price, location and in the case of Reserveit.sg “even mood or occasion,” says founder Jesper Gustafsson, select the date and time, and you’re done. You’ll get an email confirmation in your inbox before you can say, “I’m hungry.”

The best bit: All these sites are free and available 24/7, so you don’t have to wait for a restaurant to open to make a booking. This can be especially useful during public holidays. As Terence Tan of Reservations.sg explains: “During CNY, many non-Chinese restaurants were closed, but users were still able to place their reservations (for after CNY) online.” Another plus is that you can make multiple bookings, ideal if you’re super busy or double-booked for the night. So if you’ve yet to try one of these sites, maybe it’s time you did. Here’s who’s offering what...

The Players

I-S PICK: Chope.com.sg
Launched: 2011
Relative newcomer Chope boasts a sizeable and carefully curated selection of 83 restaurants at last count—including some of our own top picks such as The White Rabbit and FiftyThree. Its sleek design and layout makes it easy to navigate (we especially like the A-Z list of all their restaurant partners), and the abundance of good-looking visuals don’t hurt either. Our favorite part is the “The Buzz” tab, which incorporates critics’ opinions from publications like Wine & Dine and, yes, I-S to provide users with a better sense of what to expect. One gripe: their cuisine options could do with some expansion.

Eat2Eat.com
Launched: 2000
A regionally-focused portal established in 2000, Eat2Eat.com suits frequent travelers in the Asia-Pacific region who want the convenience of online reservations beyond our shores with listed establishments from Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan. Frankly, it’s not a real contender in the local market as far as we’re concerned, with only about 20 restaurants to choose from at present. Even if you can look past the severely limited options, it takes a while to find your way around this poorly-designed site. Also, the webpage is plagued by being periodically down (not terribly reliable), and frustratingly slow at other times.

NineLogic.com
Launched: 2008
Those who love different Chinese cuisines will devour this site. It offers the usual filters, but takes it up a notch with everything from Hainanese to Hakka to Sichuan to Shanghai cuisine. While considerably more cluttered than the competition, NineLogic wins hands down when it comes to sheer quantity; we’re talking over 3,000 eateries, dominated mostly by Chinese restaurants (not great if you’re in the mood for Western food). The portal also has a loyalty program that incentivizes consistent usage through a tiered, points-based membership scheme.

OpenTable.com
Launched: 1998
A US-based reservation portal that’s worth noting for its growing presence in Europe and cities like London, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur; sorry to say, it’s not a real contender in our local market with only four Singapore restaurants listed at the moment. The good news is, they’re excellent establishments such as Cherry Garden and Morton’s (it’s no coincidence that all four are located in Mandarin Oriental Singapore). Here’s hoping they’ll add more eateries to the list, although the fact that the last addition was back in 2007 doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

RUNNER UP: Reserveit.sg
Launched: 2011
Although only eight months old, Reserveit has recently undergone a facelift and emerged with a sexy black/white/red color scheme and a search bar with multiple preference filters. We dig the “mood” filter which lets you choose from “First Date,” “Out with the Boys” and “Business Lunch.” Like Chope, it hosts a similar wealth of alluring visuals and offers a fine selection of restaurants (130 and counting) from long-time favorite Senso Ristorante to oh-so-chic Open Door Policy. A mobile app is currently in development, too.

Reservations.sg
Launched: 2010
Admittedly, Reservations’ layout could do with some work, but it’s still got a decent selection of close to 70 venues including Magma German Wine Bistro and relative newbie Skyve Bistro & Bar. You can search for the most booked restaurants, the newest additions, as well as by lowest and highest average main course. What sets it apart is a rewards program called ResPoints that gives you points every time you book through its site, which can later be accumulated to redeem Res-Vouchers. While the site is slightly more cluttered than others, it integrates a real-time Facebook news feed which gives users additional information about ongoing promotions.

Pangdemonium kicks off the year with its highly anticipated production of the Broadway rock musical that won eight Tony Awards and garnered rave reviews. The bold, in-your-face and brutally blunt musical injects some fresh blood into the local theatre scene and is an enthralling blend of well-designed lighting, charming costumes, sensational singing and memorable performances.

The set design was relatively minimalist yet no stone was left unturned when it came to the details. A whitewashed backdrop of intricate fabric took us in the moment we laid our eyes on stage, and an angled protrusion at its front decidedly persuaded us that we were in their world. Without a doubt, the young sons of producers Tracie and Adrian Pang proved they had what it took as they lured the audience into the musical’s first scene.

The controversial (by local standards, maybe) Spring Awakening, which was first staged on Broadway, has Steven Sater to thank for its provoking lyrics, and was based on the play by German Frank Wedekind. Though set more than a century ago, Julia Abueva (as Wendla), Nathan Hartono (as Melchior) and the rest of the brilliant and young cast convey the coming-of-age tale of angst, disappointment, loss and discovery effortlessly to a modern audience through their powerful acting and mesmerizing vocals. We were taken on a familiar and relatable story of teenage curiosity clashing with parental authority, the discovery of first loves, the loss of innocence, the brunt of expectations, dealing with failure and reconciling loss with our evolving identities.

Julia Abueva does justice to her being profiled by Oprah Winfrey as one of the most talented kids in the world as she brings to the stage a sweet, beautiful and haunting voice that complements her gripping depiction of Wendla. First-time actor Nathan Hartono delivers convincingly as he steps out of his comfort zone to embody Melchior. Credit must also be given to Eden Ang for his compelling role as Melchior’s long time buddy Moritz.

Veteran Adrian Pang and a very capable Candice De Rozario are adept in portraying the whole range of adult men and women respectively in the musical – from eliciting boisterous laughs with their comedic scenes to an emotional performance by Adrian near the closing scenes.

Undeniably, this has to be one of the freshest and most daring plays we’ve seen to date—and Pangdemonium has established itself as a theatrical powerhouse presenting shows that are worth your every penny. We really wouldn’t mind watching this again.

Spring Awakening runs through February 26.

The Horrors aren’t exactly full-on psychedelic, neither are you completely indie-pop. How would you describe your sound?
Well, I suppose it’s quite… I don’t know… I guess it’s psychedelic music in the sense that it hopefully gives you ideas. We aim to product an atmosphere and an interesting sound, I don’t think it necessarily sounds ‘60s or ‘70s or whatever.

Could you describe how your band’s sound has evolved since Strange House?
It’s changed quite a lot. As a band we all share the desire to improve and explore, so I think that’s the reason.

Who would you say are the biggest influences on your band musically?
Well, I think we all have quite disparate influences. I think that we all have different ideas of what we’d like to bring to the band. I think it’s that combination that makes The Horrors sound how we do. I wouldn’t say there’s any one band we want to sound like.

Where do you say you guys get your inspiration from for your song writing?
I think we all listen to a lot of different music; we all have lots of different ideas. And we’re all trying to discover new music, the reason The Horrors met was from going to record shops, playing records and DJing, and that passion for discovering new music is still very important to the band.

Is there any one festival you guys have had the best time playing at so far?
Well, I always remember playing at Big Day Out in Australia a couple of years ago.

Is there any one band that you’d like to perform live with?
I don’t know really. I’ve seen Kraftwerk maybe three times, and I think they were amazing. Kraftwerk are probably one of my favourite live bands.

Is there a favourite song you love to perform?
I always enjoy playing ‘Endless Blue.’ The crowd reaction is always very good for that one, always feel very excited.

If your band could go back in time, which musical era would you choose?
I suppose the late ‘60s was a very exciting time for music. Like a time when a lot of things that hadn’t been possible were suddenly possible so I think that to be in a period like that would be very exciting.

Check out The Horrors at Laneway Festival Singapore, February 12 at 11.15pm. See our other Laneway interviews with Twin Shadow and Yuck.
 

How does your new sound compare to the work you did with Battles?
This solo music I've been performing recently has more of a sound design element to it at this point. I'm rediscovering this way of performing and am trying to find ways of surprising myself. The music is still routed in electronics and my love for strange arrangements and orchestral music, but it's simpler and more raw then what I've done in the past. It's all live, nothing sequenced and imperfect.

In what way has your father, the multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, influenced your work?
My father showed me the importance of building your own world artistically. He also showed me how exciting and gratifying the experience of being a composer can be.

What was it like working with the Wordless Music Orchestra?
One of the most fulfilling experiences of my artistic life. WMO is comprised of really great people, not to mention incredible musicians. I learned a huge amount and I can't wait to get an opportunity to work with them again.

What has been the most unorthodox object you've used to create your orchestrated loops?
The kazoo probably.

What projects and collaborations do you have lined up in the near future?
A bunch of things, really. I'm working on a new record mainly as well as a project I can't say anything about yet, but I'm really excited about it. I'm in the midst of finishing commissions for Bang on a Can All-Stars as Alarm Will Sound well as for a premiere at Carnegie Hall. I wrote some music for my brother’s short film Themes from a Rosary and finished a remix for Philip Glass.

Who is the one musician you would kill to work with before you die?
I'd like to work by myself for now!

Catch Tyondai Braxton at the Mosaic Music Festival 2012 on March 15.
 

We are still playing together after all this time because... we love doing it. Absolutely. It’s our greatest joy.

The most memorable gig we’ve had was at... Amsterdam. It was different and the environment was cool. The people were receptive to our original songs—Dutch society is by nature liberal. We busked in the streets, performed at arts events and parties, guested on radio shows and got written about in Dutch magazines one beautiful summer.

Some of our greatest heroes are... bands and artistes off the mainstream. Super groups like The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jethro Tull, Weather Report, The Doors, Darryl Way, Igor Stravinsky… the list goes on. But of course when we first started out, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones inspired us.

The local music scene is... still developing at a snail’s pace. Today, there are more platforms but local bands are still struggling for recognition. Support for original songs is very limited. Local tunes are hardly heard on radio and TV. The concert scene is awashed with international acts, meaning Singaporeans are spoilt for choice and in turn tend to shun homegrown events.

Performing together with The Rolling Stones will be... like making a full circle. Like I said, they were our early influences, and like the time we opened for Bob Dylan in Singapore, it will be a big thrill.

Heritage will still be around... for a few more years at least. We can never predict what’s going to happen. But even if the band doesn’t exist anymore, individually we will still be playing music until we won’t be able to do it.

Late Nite @ Esplanade: Heritage is on January 13 at Esplanade Recital Studio.