Live Rock Magic; how to be in the joy of CONTROL.

Saturday, September 13th, 8.30pm. Shanghai will be entering the red zone of the thermometers and the epicenter is going to be Dream Factory’s stage. Not far away from the harmonic Jing An Temple and the peaceful Jade Buddha Temple, the loudness and the chaos will explode in pleasant agreement with our bodies; we all will be rocking together to the wild guitars and combat calling drums of the four Rock bands playing out of CONTROL.

CONTROL is a Brad Ferguson’s production. Ferguson is one of the demons of Rock, who as many custodial demons, has been called to protect and feed the fires of Rock&Roll and during this present age Shanghai is the proud designated zone under his dark wings. While Shanghai was going through the controlled silence of last August, Shanghai’s favorite demon was carefully working on the details of the staging for this coming Saturday. Among all the bands targeted by him, he selected Boys Climbing Ropes, The Rogue Transmission, Hard Queen and P.K. 14.

Boys Climbing Ropes are a local/foreigner band, they have been together for more than two years, as described by Ferguson their style comes from the anti-folk / punk-folk / psychedelic, moving to new horizons with the addition of a new singer and keyboard player. Personally, I think any band who feels influenced by the iconic Pearl Tower of ours, deserves all our respects and attention.

The Rogue Transmission, a foreign Shanghai band, “are just straight-ahead rock” as Brad portrays them. He also highlights Dan and his powerful mustache, he is the lead singer and the showman you want to have rocking you on and on from the stage. Besides their flaming stage presence their guitar riffs will not let you rest peacefully.

Hard Queen, in Ferguson words, “are a local band: keyboard, bass, drums… minimal girlie garage rock”. An interesting band and very important to check.

P.K.14 reminds Brad of David Byrne and Talking Heads, the post-punk and new-wave years. He explains “P.K. 14 is not just a party band, they have strong lyrics, they are very poetic”. Yan Haison, the singer, is a published poet as well. Brad illustrates P.K. 14 poetic vibes sailing around the “stream of consciousness”, with some kind of Ginsberg air around.

These four bands are the menu provided to us by Shanghai’s demon of Rock. He was not only careful on the election of the bands, picking his personal favorites, but also he took special care on the location: Dream Factory is a place enough big to give space for all rock lovers in town to jump, dance, mosh, headbung, yell and be lighted on fire band after band, riff after riff and sin after sin.

This is the pagan celebration of music, the dancers around the fires of creation celebrating the force of live music, turning on the inspiration, the hearts and the engines. For all of those about to say there’s no rock in Shanghai, we recommend extreme care before pronouncing these words, you may be slapped by one of the dark wings of the demons flying over Shanghai. It’s as simple as if you don’t feel it, it’s just not for you. And for those chosen to participate, join the lines and spread the word: Rock is striking out Shanghai. Hell Yeah!!!!

More info about the concert here and here

Read also:

Live and Undead Recap
Friday's YACHT show at YuYinTang was a straight-up banger, as...