RocketShipX41's Last.fm Journal

Don't you move

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:59:42 +0000

I've posted a review with pictures of a recent Pet Conspiracy show over on my blog.

Pet Conspiracy show

Memories of the sky

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:24:05 +0000

Tue 30 Sep – 2008摩登天空音乐节

Over on my blog I have posted a review with pictures of the 2008 Modern Sky Festival appearances of 33 Dao (aka 33岛) and Cold Fairyland (aka 冷酷仙境). It's a pain to repost here, so I'll just provide a link.

Scoffing molds nark beside me

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:01:10 +0000

Sat 14 Jun – Ourselves Beside Me, Narc, The Scoff, The Mold

There are a half dozen or more clubs in Beijing where live original local bands play. I’ve written about Star Live, Yugong Yishan, 2 Kolegas, and MAO, so now it’s time for D-22. This place is generally regarded as the center of the creative rock scene, and I finally got there a couple weeks ago.

It’s located in the Wudaokou area, a part of town that’s home to several universities, most notably Peking University (known as Bei Da for short) and Tsinghua (it’s spelled the old-fashioned way rather than Qinghua). The area is home to many foreign students and teachers, and there are lots of Korean, Japanese, and other restaurants around. Getting there is easy on the subway. I grabbed dinner at a nearby Yunnan style restaurant, but the less said about that the better.

There were four bands on the bill: Ourselves Beside Me, The Molds, The Scoff, and Nark (or possibly Narks – I’ve seen it both ways). I recognized Ourselves and the Scoff from pictures I’ve seen, but I honestly couldn’t tell you which of the other two was which.

This band was up first, and apparently their name involves the word "mold" either singular or plural, with or without a definite article. Take your pick: Mold, Molds, The Mold, or The Molds. Maybe it's a matter of translation, and their "real" name is in Chinese.

They were a four-piece with a core style that might be called distorted surf-rock. They reminded me a bit of the drunken, slurred basic rock that Joyside is known for.

The leader was a good guitar player, with a great natural feel for what worked without being too cliché.

Here you can see that D-22 has an upper level.

People seemed surprised when Ourselves Beside Me took the stage second – I think they were supposed to play third. They were the band I was mainly here to see.

I don’t know if it’s an artistic choice or they’re just shy, but these two women spent a lot of time with their backs to the audience. Quite a few tunes were instrumental (or nearly so) so they didn’t need to approach the mics often.

Their music is a kind of arty, deceptively simple post-punk. They take their name from the title of a song by another female Beijing band, Hang on the Box, who are in the same vein but rock harder.

As usual, the drummer doesn’t show up well in pictures, but I will state for the record that this drummer is very good, solid and imaginative. I enjoyed the band a lot, and look forward to seeing them again.

Video clip:

Third on stage was the Scoff (which seems to be sometimes written without “the”).

They have a boyishly charismatic lead singer and a guitar player with a Ramones haircut (which seems to be pretty popular in Beijing these days).

Their music is pretty standard rock, sung in a mixture of Chinese and English, and seemed to include a lot of quotes from famous songs (or maybe they were drastically changed covers). I particularly remember “Who do you love?”

They were a lot of fun to watch even if they’re not musical groundbreakers.

Here's a fairly low quality clip from YouTube:

The evening finished off with Nark (or Narks, or The Nark, or The Narks).

This band is a five-piece fronted by a female singer, and I’m happy to report that she’s not a screamer like Kang Mao of SUBS.

By this time, decibel inflation had set in pretty solidly and they were loud enough that I can’t say a lot about their style.

Or maybe I just waited too long after seeing the show to write about it. In any case, I enjoyed them and would be happy to catch them again on a bill, though I might not seek out a show just for them alone.

And here's a video clip someone took of them:

And while it’s pretty easy to get to D-22 by subway, getting home to my neighborhood after the trains shut down is a bit of a pain – basically more than I like to spend on a taxi. But such is the lot of a dedicated chronicler of a developing music scene.
D-22

Mao's other house

Sat, 7 Jun 2008 07:49:50 +0000

Fri 6 Jun – SUBS, Sko, Fire Balloon, perdel

It’s been a while since I wrote about a local music show, mainly because I haven’t been to many. I caught a Hedgehog acoustic show at the Stone Boat a few weeks ago, but haven’t posted anything about it. Maybe I’ll get to that eventually. Last night I headed off to the MAO LiveHouse for a multi-band bill that looked pretty promising.

When I came in the door, the girl taking money pointed out a little sign. It said there was no re-entry to the club once you left, though you would be welcome to purchase another ticket to come back in. Cute. I paid my ¥50 and stayed in.

I never definitively caught a mention of a name, but I think this is Fire Balloon. I’ll post a correction if I’m wrong. As you can see, they are typical of Beijing bands in one way: it’s a three-piece with a female member.

The lead singer and guitarist, aside from a rather crazy hairstyle, is quite good at his instrument. He doesn’t play a lot of solos, but when he does, they’re worth listening to, with an interesting tendency to work into unexpected notes. His singing is of a mumbly, indistinct style that reminds me a bit of Joyside.

The bassist contributes backing vocals, and her bass playing is excellent. Whether using her fingers or a pick, she is really good, with quick, imaginative lines and solid rhythm. If they have a weak link, it’s the drummer, who is pretty steady in the main but awkward sometimes on his fills. I searched the net for information but came up with very little, just mentions of their name on other bands’ sites.

Next up was Sko (Myspace), who fit in with the kind of pop punk you hear from Green Day, Good Charlotte and the like. Not the most original music, but well written and very well played.

The lead singer is (from the sound of his accent when he spoke English) an American. He mostly spoke Chinese, however, and seemed quite fluent. Their lyrics were in both languages.

The main thing I noticed is that they are extremely precise in their playing in spite of the rowdy nature of the style. They also have a knack for coming up with sing-along choruses that are very catchy.

Next was a band called perdel (Myspace), and they’ve got a very different take on rock than any of the other local bands I’ve seen.

Their set started with a drum solo. Not a long or indulgent one, mind you, and he started out standing up.

Then the bass player walked out and joined in, playing a Rickenbacker-style Fernandez bass.

Keyboards next, with a burbling rhythmic sequence that he altered by fiddling with the knobs on a beat-up old Korg. I have a weakness for knob-twiddling keyboards, so this pleased me very much.

Continuing the progression, the lead guitarist was next. He’s quite good, with a style that mixes good melodies with outside touches.

Finally the lead singer and rhythm guitarist came out and the build-up worked into a song.

They had quite a lot of fans in the audience, cheering and singing along, including a group of girls next to me. This one took video of pretty much the whole show. Stylistically, they’re maybe a bit more poppish and melodic than most Beijing bands, and the keyboards give them a bit lighter edge, though they are nowhere near wimpy. Once again, lyrics in both English and Chinese.

When they finished their last song, there was a drawing when slips of paper with names were pulled out of a box. The winners came up on stage and took over the band’s instruments. The guy in the middle with the guitar was actually able to play a bit, and he sang part of a song while the others mostly just stood there.

The headliner of the evening was SUBS (Myspace), whom I have written about before.

They were pretty much the same as previous shows I’ve seen. This band gets tons of press here (comparatively speaking – it’s not like any Chinese rock gets mainstream notice here), and I guess I can see why, but I find Kang Mao's constant throat-rending screaming a bit much. When she makes an effort to sing, she reminds me a little of Lene Lovich or Pauline Murray, but there’s very little room for that in the full-on assault of angst-ridden noise.

After she screamed her last song, she left the stage to the band and headed for the mosh pit.

And that was a night at MAO’s house (the live one, not the dead one). The venue gets a thumbs up in almost every respect. Good size stage, good lighting system, decent sound, working air conditioners, reasonable drink prices, room for both dancing and avoiding dancers. All for 7 bucks, plus $4 for a gin and tonic.
home

Music with two good friends

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 09:11:59 +0000

Sat 7 Jun – 2 Kolegas Folk Festival

This weekend is a three-day holiday weekend in China: Duanwujie, the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. The Dragon Boats themselves seem to be a Southern China thing. From Beijing, you’d have to travel to the coast to see any. But there are plenty of other opportunities for diversion in lieu of cool watercraft.

My choice was the Second Annual 2 Kolegas Folk Festival. I saw a show at this club back in the winter time, and I must say it’s much nicer when the weather is. Incidentally, the Chinese name for the club is Liangge Hao Pengyou Jiuba (literally Two Good Friends Bar). The signs said that all proceeds from the ¥50 entrance fee will be donated to Sichuan earthquake relief.

As you can see, they have canopies set up outside, and the weather was pretty nice. The twist is that all the music actually took place inside the club. Apparently the Beijing security bureau has decided that there will be no outdoor performances for the time being. No official reason has been given, which leads to all sorts of speculation, most of which doesn’t put the authorities in a good light. Seems to me they’d be better off publicly stating their reasons, presuming of course that they are reasonable (which admittedly seems unlikely – I mean, what can honestly happen?).

Anyway, on the music. Virtually everything was in Chinese, so I can’t even provide artist names aside from reading them out of a magazine, and even then I can’t match up the names with the performers I saw. If any readers can help out, please post comments and I’ll update. I had some technical difficulties on Saturday, so no pictures.

I’m pretty sure the first performer I saw was Wang Juan. She’s a local singer-songwriter with an emotional, delicate voice. I have an album of hers, and it’s quite good.

(This is a picture from her band set on Sunday.)

Other performers included Xiao He, Zhang Si’an, and Wu Ningyue, who is also in a band called Buyi that I would really like to see. They mix rock music with folk from the Ningxia Autonomous Region to the west. There was also an American folk-blues guitarist who was very good, with finger-picking and nice slide work on a set of mostly blues standards. Mixed in with all the acoustic music were some electric and mixed electric/acoustic acts. For the most part, the music resembled American folk music, only sung in Chinese. Many in the audience were able to sing along with songs.

For food, they had yangrou chuanr (lamb skewers), grilled oyster mushrooms, grilled Xinjiang style bread, and little hard-boiled eggs (smaller than ping pong balls) heated on skewers. The woman helping out here is a Canadian from Québec who also played accordion with one of the groups.

Attendance was fairly small, maybe as many as a hundred, though there was never a time when everyone was inside at the same time.

I returned on Sunday afternoon with camera on board. Here are some shots of artists I saw, some labeled on the assumption that the published schedule was adhered to.

Liu Dongming

Malika

Luotuo
On Day Two, Wang Juan did a second set, this time with a band backing her.

Zhang Weiwei/Guo Long

As the afternoon turned to night, we got this trio.

She walked with a crutch and had someone help her onto the stage. She has a really beautiful voice that gave me goosebumps a couple of times even without being able to make out much of the lyrics.

Her guitarist was amazing, obviously trained in classical guitar from his hand positions. The flutist, who also played a djembe (which, as you notice from previous pictures, is downright ubiquitous in the Chinese folk scene), had an incredibly pure tone and perfect vibrato, probably also classically trained. Very lovely all around.

And to finish things off with a little more fun and energy, there was Mademoiselle et les Chinois.

Mademoiselle was our helpful grill attendant, and I could make out enough of her Chinese (and French!) to know that she was making many jokes about how tasty the food was, and encouraging everyone to eat more.

She was really funny, and sang songs from a variety of sources, from French standards to funky, sexy dance tunes. One of them was “Belleville Rendezvous” from the animated film Triplets of Belleville (though without the original accompaniment by bicycle and newspaper).

That made for a pretty full weekend. As it happens, in two weeks there is another festival scheduled at the same location, this time for Chinese independent rock. It’s called CH+INDIE III: The Search for Spock. Last year’s festival was CH+INDIE II: The Wrath of Khan. The week after that, there’s another festival called Beizhan, which will feature Zheng Jun as a headliner one night.

Old habits die hard

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 01:56:33 +0000

There's a pretty decent music store called Cool Music in the Dongdan area of Beijing. Unlike most shops that sell CDs here, it has a good selection of non-pop Chinese music. Things are more expensive there, though still reasonable by international standards. I stopped in last Saturday, and here's what I ended up with.

Cheer Chen - A Wonderful Adventure (AKA περιπέτεια or Peripeteia) I wonder why she did the title in Greek, but who am I to question an artist? I know this album is a bit out of the ordinary for her, more produced and orchestrated than her usual singer-songwriter releases, but I picked it for exactly that reason. I tend to like it when an artist stretches out and exhibits some ambition. While some of it verges on being a bit too sweet for my taste, on the whole it's quite charming and enjoyable, and she certainly has a lovely voice.

Hopscotch (跳房子) - A Wishful Way
I'd read about this band, but never seen a CD until now. On the first few listens, I like it a lot. It's kind of a Chinese take on trip-hop, mixing live instruments in with electronics. The songwriting is very good, and I love the vocals.

Hang on the Box - Foxy Lady
Not sure why I picked a compilation for my first HOTB CD, but it has convinced me I will have to get their regular albums. While on one level it is artsy female post-punk along the lines of Shonen Knife, there is definitely something unique. The English lyrics are often awkward and kind of goofy, but there's a tightness to the playing that is unexpected. At first you think they're going to be musically sloppy, but they turn out to be very solid.

Joyside - Booze at Neptune's Dawn
This Maybe Mars CD features the label's typical great design (as with Carsick Cars and Snapline), with the artwork screen printed directly onto the jewel case and no printed booklet, just a little paper sheet with lyrics and credits. The music is raunchy party rock more suited to drinking and yelling than sitting around thoughtfully, but it's a lot of fun.

P.K. 14 - White Paper
I downloaded a couple of these tracks from the band's Myspace page a long time ago, and they didn't really grab me. I kind of liked them when I saw them live, but it took several months to get motivated enough to buy this. I wish I hadn't waited, as it's really good. Noisy, artistic post-punk, in some ways like a lot of Beijing bands, but with their own sound. Time to seek out their others.

Milk@Coffee (牛奶@咖啡) - 越长大越孤单 (Closely translated as More Grown Up, More Lonely)
I was surprised to see this one, and snapped it up right away. I love the other CD, and there were several songs they did at the Beijing Pop Festival that weren't on it, including the great "我不是Rock 'n' Roll" ("I'm Not Rock 'n' Roll"). All in all, this album is a little mellower than the earlier one, but catchy as hell and really cute.

These artists have brought to my attention the new Last.fm "vote on the correct name for this artist" feature. While I see its possible purpose, I'm torn by many of the choices. Which is "correct" - Milk@Coffee or 牛奶@咖啡? Both appear on their CD covers, and usually the English is larger and more prominent. But they are Chinese, and most of their Chinese fans would call them "Niunai at Kafei". I think the answer is that both are correct. I haven't found any sort of explanation in the FAQs about the consequences of voting for this. Will it be used to redirect one name to the other, merging the pages? Or will it just be used to subject us to more of the annoying "incorrect tag" pages?

Make your own flag

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 14:28:35 +0000

Sun 2 Mar – Björk 2008 Shanghai Concert

Shanghai International Gymnastics Center

For once my timing seems to have been right on. It appears that I saw the first and last Björk concert ever to happen in mainland China. I’ll get to why I say “last” in a while.

The Gymnastics Center is in the Western part of Shanghai, but not too terribly far from the Zhongshan Metro station. One thing that seems a little odd is that there’s a Tesco discount market underneath the auditorium.

So you can save money on your shopping and catch a show in one convenient location.

And if you need to shop for any kids’ things, there’s a Baby Mall below the Tesco. This is one entrance, right next to the box office.

In spite of the sign outside that said “No Cameras,” neither I nor any others in the majority of the crowd had any problems taking pictures.

Björk is known for experimenting with different kinds of instrumentation from typical pop and rock lineups. This time she had a nine-piece brass section (three each of trumpets and French horns, two trombones, and a tuba), a keyboard player (clavichord, organ, piano and so on, all artificial of course), a drummer/percussionist, and two guys with laptops and keyboards. No guitar, no bass.

Anyone who’s heard her current album (Volta) knows that brass figures prominently in the arrangements, so those tunes came off much like the studio versions. The surprise was how well the arrangements worked on some of the older tunes which did not originally have brass, such as “Jóga” and “Army of Me.” I found it quite refreshing that the brass parts were not simple chordal accompaniment, but very nicely arranged polyphonic lines, with many touches of modern classical music. Kudos to whoever took care of that.

The show opened with an abrupt lights-out, then the brass section trooped in playing a catchy tune and wearing colorful costumes with flags attached. They took their places on the stage, and Björk came out to launch into “Earth Intruders,” the lead track of Volta. Her voice, the brass, and the electronics were all crystal clear in sound, loud enough to be impressive, but not so loud as to be uncomfortable.

The crowd was reservedly enthusiastic for the first four tunes or so, cheering loudly but stuck in seats, until she asked, “Can you dance?” The result was an instantaneous eruption of bodies from chairs; the center aisle on the floor filled up, and people approached the stage barrier. Half a dozen extra security guys rushed out to keep people back from the fence, but from then on there was no sitting that I saw.

Things really kicked into overdrive when her hit “Army of Me” started. A green laser beam flicked around the room, hitting strategically placed mirrors, and the energy level hit a new high, both on stage and in the audience.

There were some quiet, reflective moments as well.

For me, as a fan of the new album, I didn’t mind the concentration on new material. There were enough old favorites to keep me happy: “Hunter,” “Pluto,” “Possibly Maybe,” “I Miss You” and so on. Sure, I could have wished for “Human Behaviour” but there is nothing she played that I regretted hearing.

All through the show, I was amazed at the strength, accuracy and expression of her voice. I’m well aware that the excitement of seeing a good show can make things sound better than they really are, but I didn’t hear a single note off-key, and I noticed no fatigue as the evening wore on.

All too soon (around 9:30) Björk and crew left the stage. The crowd kept up a racket for a long time before the brass came out again, forming a half circle at center stage. Björk sang in the center, and when they segued into “Declare Independence” all the stops were pulled out. The lasers flashed around, the lights went crazy, everyone on stage was jumping around chaotically, and finally a snowstorm of confetti came over the arena.

Later, I heard many reports that she mentioned Tibet in the song, but I honestly did not hear it. Everyone was jumping up and down around me, and I was trying to get a photo around the 6’6” guy in front of me, and we were all chanting “Declare independence! – Don’t let them do that to you!” so loud that I missed the little interjections between the lines. Of course, when you’re in China, mentioning that an Autonomous Region should maybe have some other status (such as the one mentioned in the song title) is not looked upon kindly. It is not a subject of public debate. Once the story started spreading about what she shouted, people came to the likely conclusion that should she ever apply for a visa to perform (or even visit) China again, it was unlikely to be approved. There have also been stories that those at the Ministry of Culture who gave approval for her performance (given her track record on such issues) would be looking for new jobs.

Anyway, this is a show that goes right up there in the list of all-time best shows for me, which puts it in pretty good company.

Exposé #35 now shipping

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:34:30 +0000

I got my copies of Exposé #35 this morning, and it's chock full of interesting music. Check out this list, and if it seems like your kind of thing, head over to the web site and do something about it.

Articles:
Festival review of French RIO event: Salle Gaveau, Zao, NeBeLNeST, Present (acoustic and electric), Peter Blegvad (Trio +1), Faust, Guapo, Mats Morgan Band, and Magma. Whew!
Larry Coryell interview
La Maschera di Cera interview
Craig Padilla (aka Sound Explorer) interview
Ian Bruce-Douglas (Ultimate Spinach, Alzbrax etc.) interview
Tony Harn interview
Murat Ses (Mogollar etc.) interview
John Hackett interview
Secret Oyster interview
Paul Sears (The Muffins, Thee Maximalists) interview
Ritual (the Swedish one) interview
Ken Golden (The Laser’s Edge) interview

Roundtable reviews:
The Mahavishnu Project, Black Bonzo, Porcupine Tree, Upsilon Acrux, Deluge Grander, Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores, Mawwal, Far Corner, Cast (the Mexican one), Six Gun Lullaby

New releases:
Margarita Botello, Jose Luis Fernandez Ledesma, Cold Fairyland, Electric Kompany, Cedric Vuille, Uzva, Lindsey Boullt, simakDialog, Minoke?, James Sudakow, The Claudia Quintet, Nels Cline, Edward Ka-Spel, Jim Cole & Spectral Voices, Yeti Rain, Bill Holt, Janet Feder + Fred Frith, David Torn, Coryell Bailey White, Elton Dean, Bennie Maupin, Jakko Jakszyk, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Hail, Crime In Choir, Psicotropia, 33 Dao (33島), ÖRESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE, My Sleeping Karma, Saturnia, Causa Sui, Fit & Limo, Alison Faith Levy, Mushroom, Green Milk From The Planet Orange, Oki Hikoki, Tor Lundvall, Forrest Fang, Carl Weingarten, K. Leimer, As Lonely As Dave Bowman, David Sylvian, Robert Fripp, Steve Roach, Deborah Martin, J. Arif Verner, Alpha Wave Movement, Klaus Schulze, Xcross, David Helpling, Jon Jenkins, Ilitch, Taproban, Arti E Mestieri, White Willow, Goad, Periferia del mondo, Anekdoten, Gösta Berlings Saga, Alex Carpani, Villebråd, Lazuli, Van Der Graaf Generator, Amarok, Steve Hackett, Peter Hammill, Porcupine Tree, Ritual, Puppet Show, Mar de Robles, Ezoo, Claudio Cordero, Dino Brassea, Starcastle, The Flower Kings, Pendragon, Time’s Forgotten, The Pineapple Thief, Steve Thorne, Squonk Opera, Phideaux, Baku llama, Stuckey & Murray, Steve Peters, Mad Juana, Cathedral & Rum, IONA, Hoven Droven, Ranarim, Metaphor, The Mother Hips, Gravity Tree

Archives:
G.F.Fitz-Gerald, Lol Coxhill, Graham Collier, Robert Wyatt, Pam And Gary Windo, Matching Mole, Hatfield And The North, Edward Ka-Spel, Baby Grandmothers, Thierry Müller, Gigi Venegoni, Dark Sanctuary, Lasting Weep, Trance to the Sun, Rajna, Tearwave, N.R. Hills, Maneige, Magenta, Lady Lake, Odin

Reissues:
Pink Floyd, Nazz, Coxhill/Miller, Ray Russell, Egg, Mother Gong, Henry Cow, Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, The Work, Secret Oyster, Ken Hyder’s talisker, The Microscopic Septet, The Blitzoids, Nurse With Wound, Guru Guru, Faust, Os Mundi, Zweistein, Holger Czukay, Rolf Dammers, Amon Düül II, Epitaph, Eroc, Novalis, Morse Code, Bregent, L'Engoulevent, Rare Bird, James Tom Rivest, Dizrhythmia, Chris Squire, Trees, Jan & Lorraine, Jem Targal, Moby Grape

Rocking the Outside Boy

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 12:32:29 +0000

Cui Jian at Workers Gymnasium (not Workers Stadium, which is still being renovated.

Cross post from my blog

This being China, there was a large security presence at the venue, with guards of various kinds all over the place. There were metal detectors to walk through, and of course they beeped for virtually every person passing through, sine everyone has a mobile phone. When it beeped on me, a female officer had me hold out my arms as she ran a wand over me. It went off pretty much constantly, for my phone, by Blueberry, my camera and probably the magnetic key card in my pocket. But she went through the motions and said “Thank you” without asking to see what had set it off. I saw many other people going through the same thing.

We walked into the venue right at about 7:30, and we shouldn’t have been surprised that the show started right on time, unlike American concerts which always run late. Workers Gymnasium is where the Olympic boxing sessions will take place, and it’s ideal for that, as it’s perfectly round, with no obvious “front” or “back” and they had the stage set up in a strange variation of “in the round.” It was essentially two complete stage arrangements back to back. Our seats were at about a 45 degree angle to the main half of the stage.

When we came in, there was a drum corps playing a kind of samba beat along with the band, for a big rhythmic sound that was quite infectious. There were also some dancers dressed in costumes resembling Chinese army uniforms at the sides and back of the stage. At the end of the song, the samba club scurried out and left the band to carry on. The stage setup was very professional, and the sound was clear and not too loud.

He even played his trumpet a bit (it was his first instrument, before he took up guitar). Note the percussion setup behind him. It added quite a bit to the sound.

After 45 minutes or so, the samba club appeared over on one side of the stage, and the band took the opportunity to switch sides. They played the next bunch of songs facing the “back” of the house with a somewhat more acoustic set of instruments, and all we could see was their backs. There was a big video screen above the stage, but from our angle the speakers blocked it. It was funny how all the empty seats on that half of the arena suddenly filled up.

After a number of songs on that side, the lights went down and the samba club returned.

This time Cui Jian and company were taking a longer break. The crowd actually seemed to get a little impatient after more than five minutes of the drum corps, chanting “Cui Jian! Cui Jian! Cui Jian!”

When the drummers finished, the spotlight turned to the side of the stage where a woman played a very impressionistic solo on an instrument I didn’t recognize. It’s a little like a guqin, but not quite. Gradually the rest of the band returned to the stage and joined her for what was to me one of the show’s musical highlights.

I think it was the very next song that featured these dancers:

I’m not sure what the symbolism was. They started out wearing strange costumes and slowly worked their way from the side of the stage to the front. A single dancer in a similar outfit started at the other side. While they writhed in a mass, they pulled off the outer coverings of two dancers who made their way away from the group wearing dust-colored leatards.

After a few more songs, the band retired from the stage, and the crowd chanted his name. Eventually they returned and played “Yi Wu Sou You (Nothing to My Name)” – which is the 1989 hit that made him an icon among China’s dissatisfied students at the time. One more song after that and they were done. It was 10pm precisely.

Now that I’ve covered the events (short of providing a set list), I’ll present a few observations, starting with audience participation. It’s become one of the clichés of rock concerts for artists to do the call-and-response thing, with the crowd (or sections of it) answering their phrases or doing simple background harmonies. Sometimes things like that happen spontaneously on the most well-known songs. And sometimes you will hear a crowd sing along with a whole song. At this show, the spontaneous full-length sing-along happened on about half of the selections, and the spontaneous backgrounds happened on every song that had a memorable backing part. The singing was loud, pretty much on key, and featured such a high percentage of the audience that it was quite impressive to experience, even not knowing the words. There was such passion in the voices that it was clear these songs were deeply important to everyone; this man’s music has touched hearts in ways that few artists I’ve ever seen can approach. I’ve seen a lot of concerts since Three Dog Night at the Spokane Coliseum back in the early 70s, and this one was moving on a level I’ve rarely experienced. This is shiver-down-the-spine territory.

And while RR and I could admire the craft involved in putting on the show, from both the musicians and the technical crew, we couldn’t help but be acutely aware that we were outsiders who could never really know the deeper meaning of the event. There were very few foreigners there, and only one song (the Olympics-inspired “Outside Girl”) featured any English lyrics. This was Chinese music written for the Chinese people, and while (as far as I can tell) Cui Jian’s music is still not played on radio, obviously the word – and the melody – has gotten out. I wonder if any of the songs are available on karaoke systems…

Randomly rebuilding underwater hedgehogs

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:58:53 +0000

Sat 17 Nov – SUBS, Re-TROS, hedgehog, RandomK(e)
alternate listing

After reading about Beijing’s music scene for a year, I’m finally starting to get out and see what the buzz is all about. Last weekend I caught GuaiLi, Hedgehog, Snapline and Carsick Cars at Yugong Yishan, and this weekend I headed out to 2 Kolegas for Random K(e), SUBS, Re-TROS and Hedgehog.

This time I managed to talk RR into going with me. I was pretty sure he would enjoy it, and he was such a concert-hound back in LA that he’s been showing symptoms of withdrawal in Beijing. Neither of us had been to this club before, and the address was kind of strange (which is nothing unusual in this town): inside the drive-in cinema on Liangmaqiao Road. Right.

We had the taxi driver drop us off in the middle on Liangmaqiao and started looking for street numbers. It took us a while to find it, but there it was, a drive-in cinema, closed for the season of course. There’s a whole little collection of restaurants and bars inside around a little pond. I guess we looked like rockers, because a parking lot attendant asked me, “Jiuba ma?” Jiuba is a very handy Mandarin word: bar. He pointed off to one side, and we saw the 2 Kolegas sign.

The word “dive” would be appropriate here. It’s a pretty small place, with walls mostly consisting of bare red brick. Graffiti on the outside, snapshots of bands taped on the walls on the inside, prices for food and beverages hand-written stuck all over the place. We paid our ¥40 each (about $5). Gin and tonics were ¥20 ($2.60) and beers ranged from ¥15 up. The place was left than half full at this point, and the crowd seemed to be mostly foreigners.

RR looked around and said, “Yeah, this is already my favorite club in Beijing.”

First up was the oddball band of the night in more ways than one. First, Random K(e) consists entirely of foreigners (Brits and Americans by the sound of the voices); second, it’s not a trio; and third, they’re all guys. The first tune was very good and reminded me a bit of Radiohead, but from there on they took on a variety of styles. Instrumentation was electric guitar, electric bass, drums, and a guy who played both upright electric bass and a laptop with a bank of effects devices. Refreshingly, the guitarist actually had a pretty decent singing voice. They played with a visual backdrop of various still and moving black and white images projected over them, making photography pointless with my camera.

Next up, SUBS. I saw them do a few tunes months ago at Star Live, and I found the female singer so annoying I had to flee. The three guys backing her this time started out with a spacey instrumental tune that was quite good, kind of a post-punk Pink Floyd. But then Kang Mao came out in her funny hat and started screaming. When she settles down and sings, she seems to have some talent (aside from her looks), but she never settles down for more than a few lines of lyrics at a time before returning to shredding her throat.

Totally blurry picture, but I kind of like it. I can’t help thinking this band would really be something if she would just tone it down a few dozen notches.

RR came up to me after being AWOL for a bit (just lost in the crowd). He said he’d seen Hedgehog’s drummer going to the bar and getting a bunch of cans of Coke. So that’s where she gets her energy!

By this time it was getting very crowded and hot inside. Of course everyone was bundled up in heavy coats and layers of sweaters and scarves, which makes for a really awkward situation when there’s no coat check.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Re-TROS (Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, which has got to be one of the oddest band names ever in any country) since I first heard about them. I’ve got their EP, and like it quite a bit.

They did not disappoint. In typical Beijing fashion, the band is a trio with a female member, in this case the bassist. She and the lead guitar player arranged their microphone stands to face each other, so they were both sideways to the audience. Can’t say I’ve seen that done.

The lead vocals are a bit like a snarly version of David Byrne, and the music reminded me a fair amount of Gang of Four, though not so funky (or is it pseudo-funky?).

They are known for English lyrics featuring social and political commentary, but in a live setting it’s kind of hard to get much of that. Aside from the almost scary intensity, meaning is mostly reserved for the studio versions.

This time, Hedgehog was the headliner.

Their performance was similar to the one I saw last week, just a slightly different set list and a different drum kit. It seems to be the standard at clubs here for there to be a house kit that all the bands use.

For the light show, a series of images of the band was projected onto them, again making photography difficult.

Near the end of the final song, the guitarist pulled his strap over his head and dropped his instrument to the floor, finishing out the tune on voice only. Then when the others finished off the song, he staggered backwards and fell to the ground.

He was still lying there as his bandmates headed backstage. Atom came over and shook him, but he didn’t appear to move.

She hurried over behind the drum kit and got one of her cans of Coke, then brought it back to him.

She lifted his head up to pour some in his mouth. Eventually he sat up enough to drink on his own.

Now that’s rock ‘n’ roll. Either that or a Coca-Cola endorsement.

Once the music was over, we headed out straightaway. Not much reason to hang out at 1am in an uncomfortably warm room filled with smoke.