March 7th, 2010 |
Posted in Live Music Reviews by zack
Saturday night I went out to the Dream Factory for the benefit show “Dance for Haiti.” What a weird show! I thought it would be because the lineup was so eclectic, but I had no idea of the weirdness I was in store for. I showed up at about 10:30 or so. Maybe this was late, but, come on, this is Shanghai. Nothing gets started on time. So I missed Duck Fight Goose again. I have a curse with this band. I can only see their practices. It makes for an interesting view of the band. I have barely seen them play, but I have heard their practices many times. So basically I know the parts that they practice over and over, like three thousand times.
I walked in on Studio 188 and it was like walking into a room where your grandparents are having sex; it’s great they’re still doing it, but you really don’t want to witness. I even caught a version of “We Are the World,” which was like the worst grandma crotch shot you could ever envision.
And then the next band was Lions of Puxi, a terrific reggae band, really. It’s not just that they are the only reggae band in Shanghai anymore; it’s just that they are great. Gaulthier and Gilbert have other-worldly chemistry and presence up front, Vlad just perseveres within the groove, and Johnny holds it all down behind the kit. Damien Banzigou, Layabozi Interview Subject, was worked in on the bass and Layabozi interviewer Theo Croker embellished the sound to its fullest. They played a short, tight set, and left.
So that was the highlight. One of the promoters came through with a vanity project for a couple next songs, featuring Fabien on the drums, and then we were treated to Monroe Stahr. Except, “treated” is not the right word; it should read “subjected to”. I can’t put my finger on it with his band, but they turn me off. I’m not saying they are bad musicians, but it might have to be chalked up to juju. They need to be cleansed with herbs and smoke or something. I don’t think I am alone in this thought, either, because they almost completely cleared the floor for Weghur, the next band.
Weghur played with conviction and fortitude. Unfortunately, they had been undercut by the lineup order and they seemed despondent about it. They trudged through the first half of their set, up to a point where Hassan broke a string. Then, the incomparable Gaulthier came on for an impromptu jam of a French rap song and really brought the house (of about 30 people) down. After that Weghur continued, working all the angles for another half hour at least. Their energy for the second half of their set was better. The few people who stayed were rewarded for their persistence with a jam that bordered on transcendent.
Now is the time that I reiterate that this was a charity show. With all of the earthquakes going on, it was definitely timely. Big ups to Nate and Carl, the promoters. I hope the cause did well. And I’m also going to give them a back slap on the lineup, which had a lot of promise. They got handcuffed by a musician’s schedule on that night and that’s why they ended up with a wonky order. I’m sure that during a normal evening they would schedule accordingly. They should be commended for putting together such an eclectic show and pretty much packing it out for a while. Again, all for charity.
Three Chord Truth: props to you. Haiti (and Chile and Taiwan): Get well soon.
tags: Duck Fight Goose - Lions of Puxi - Monroe Stahr - Studio 188 - Three Chord Truth - Weghur
March 2nd, 2010 |
Posted in Articles, Live Music Reviews by zack
Most people have already commented on the Maybe Mars Showcase at MAO Livehouse last Saturday night and moved on, but I was busy this weekend and didn’t have time to collect my thoughts and put fingertips to keyboard until now.
To recap, the lineup was Birdstriking, a three-piece, kind of screamy, rock-type thingy; Guai Li (Strange Power), spacey, garage-y sourpusses; Carsick Cars, the old reliable station wagon; and AV Okubo, the souped-up sports car parked outside a pawn shop.
Birdstriking never really got a chance to show off their stuff. At least two songs were ruined due to a busted bass drum partway through their set, which also resulted in a ten-minute delay. They pulled out a below-average cover of Blur’s “Song 2,” also. However, I can’t really judge them on this performance, due to the break in momentum. Maybe they would have gone on to great heights, but, as things stood, they didn’t quite make it on this night. Too bad for them. I really felt bad for them and this is chance to scold MAO a little bit. Look, I don’t know what happened to the bass drum, but when was the last time you ever saw that happen? What else can go wrong with this place? More on MAO qualms in a bit.
Guai Li was on next and the bass drum came around. Their music is kind of hard to describe. It went in and out of little punky numbers into longer, sweeping rock epics. With an attractive (if skinny) female lead singer, this band should have been a slam dunk for me, but I never really entered the Guai Li fortress of solitude during their set. Something was off-putting about the singer. First of all, either she’s not a very forceful singer or her vocals were not loud enough, or both. I could barely hear her at regular intervals. Second, she just didn’t look like she was having very much fun. Obviously, she doesn’t owe me or the rest of the audience anything, but that didn’t help to endear me to a band I was seeing for the first time. Some people have It (see: Pupi and Feng, Helen), some people don’t.
Carsick Cars pulled the old switcheroo with AV Okubo for some reason. I’m guessing it was because it was the first time people there could buy the new AV Okubo record Greed of Man, and they wanted to make it like a CD release event, but I think they screwed themselves over. The show got off to a late start, the two openers played really long sets (for openers), and people immediately began streaming out after Carsick Cars. It was kind of ridiculous. At one point I was standing near the door to the backstage area, waiting for AV Okubo to start. Then their bassist came out and we started to chat. As I was asking him questions, I realized he was supposed to be playing music! I told him he should probably start and he ducked back into the “dressing room.” They started pretty quick after that, but I found it funny.
So AV Okubo began and they were a little sluggish at the start, but they came around. I thought “Breakwave” came off nicely. I’m going to have to give their change of drummers a great big thumbs-down, not just because I like Lucky personally. The new (old) drummer does not have Lucky’s percussive and rhythmic force. Whatever spurred them to make the change, it has not improved the band.
I really enjoy the darkness of AV Okubo, but it also kind of unsettles me. Lots of bands have an anger to them, but you kind of don’t take it seriously. AV Okubo makes me feel like they are dealing with some real, industrial wasteland depression. At least they’ve got music, but if I ever see a story about a dude in a captain’s hat on a murderous rampage in Wuhan, I can’t say I will be terribly surprised.
I didn’t say much about Carsick Cars, but what’s to say? They are damn good. There’s a reason why they and P.K. 14 are considered the best bands in China right now. They are damn good. The difference between the two 
shows is that P.K. 14 took their headlining mantle seriously at the last showcase and gave a great performance in the right slot. It was like a heavyweight champion defending his title against the best possible challenger, whereas Carsick Cars ducked him and went against the glass-jawed journeyman. And why? Because Zhang Shouwang wanted to DJ a really short and not very interesting set at LOgO? I wish I did, but I just don’t understand it.
Finally, on to the continuing problems with MAO. I think they are suffering from an expectation problem, for which they are at least partially responsible. However, it must be said that we, as in Shanghai underground music fans, are also to blame. I for one know that I expected a lot from this venue when it was getting off the ground. We wanted it to be like Yuyintang with better sound and more capacity. Well, we got those things. We really did. There are a great many kinks to be ironed out (Is it true they don’t actually have a music license? Eegads.) However, as Kerouac said, “Walking on water wasn’t built in a day.” I had a good time on Saturday night. It was better than a poke in the eye (with a broken beer bottle.)
Zhang Shouwang at LOgO
tags: AV Okubo - Birdstriking - Carsick Cars - Guai Li - Mao Livehouse - Maybe Mars
February 27th, 2010 |
Posted in Articles, Live Music Reviews by zack
Sorry about that headline, but I just couldn’t resist.
The 81Fur.com show went off without a hitch on Thursday night. There was a good crowd there, people were perusing literature and fully aware of the cause for which they came. Check out Kungfuology for more coverage and pictures, including this amazing one.
On a musical note, I was sad to be the dude who shows up late and missed most of the Forget and Forgive set, but what I did catch was really cool. They have nice riffs and energy, plus a band member whose sole job (as far as I could tell) was to scream! And he’s good at it. So there’s that. Candy Shop played a Candy Shop show. It’s not my favorite stuff, but it’s catchy. The kids seem to like it. Damn, I’m old.
Great job to the whole team.
Afterward, some f us headed over to The Shelter for some Teenage Kicks. It was a pretty sparse crowd, but the beats and drinks were flowing freely. I even got to break out The Running Man. Props to DJs Wongton, Oh Snaps, Sacco, and Morgan (what’s your DJ name, Morgan?). Morgan chased me from the club with a little White Zombie. Good times.
tags: Candy Shop - DJ Sacco - Forget and Forgive - Kungfuology - Morgan Short - Oh Snaps - The Shelter - Wongton - YuYinTang
January 25th, 2010 |
Posted in Articles, Live Music Reviews by zack
This was a most anticipated show everywhere and in between. I had high hopes for the gig and I was not disappointed. I think the main idea I took from the show was that Maybe Mars has a deep roster of talented bands that maybe lack a bit of that indefinable quality that is often labeled as charisma.
I was present from beginning to end and the beginning was Rustic, who have been taking more flak on the blogosphere than a Luftwaffe Messerschmitt. This humble essayer will go against the grain and praise the fairly new band for their youthful exuberance. Are they derivative? Unquestionably. Are they perhaps less than stellar on their respective instruments? One would have to say yes. Do they rock? Indubitably. They were the perfect opener for this show in which people were slow to get off their petrified asses in the first place. It’s quite disconcerting to watch people in the front rows standing stock still while a rock show is blaring forth, but whatever. Rustic did their best to impart a little spirit. I will trade quite a bit of musical virtuosity in exchange for some energy and fun, especially in a live setting. This is the bargain that I made with Rustic, a parody of a good time during their set. I believe I was much better off for it. And they must receive extra points for bassist Rikki Sixx’s ridiculous mane.
24 Hours was next, a band I always thought was cool, save for their atrocious stage presence. They’re like the Rustic foil in that they have all the chops in the world, but they don’t seem to be very confident. I missed their Halloween gig at YuYinTang, but I felt that way when they played the Dream Factory during the first half of the Get in the Van show. They have gotten a bit better in this area and their sound is a lot bigger and more defined. I really enjoyed their set, especially the latter half and uber-especially their cover of “Bang Bang” (a song written by Sonny Bono [?!], recorded by Cher and Nancy Sinatra, respectively, and popularized in the film “Kill Bill”.) That was fun.
To preface this next part I should say that I was very excited for the Gar, but that didn’t work out. Instead, we got Ourself Beside Me, who are pretty ballyhooed in their own right. However, I was not really feeling this performance. Their sound was very drone-y. I can’t even really tell you much about their set because I think I fell into a K-hole from a very early point in it (figurative reference). A bit disappointing for me.
P.K. 14 was the final installment in this showcase. All hell broke loose in my brain during their set. I had never seen them live before so I was expecting a lot. They delivered a KO punch to my senses right away and I was soon moshing about shirtless, losing my shirt and camera case in the process. If anyone has either of those items, hit me up in the comments or something. P.K. 14’s sound was just bigger than anything else going that night. The difference was morbidly palpable in my abdomen or maybe I should just quit smoking, like right now. At any rate, it is fun to see some skinny, nerdy guy rocking out so hard.
At the end of their set I was drained and we jetted home right away. It’s good to leave a venue tired, I think. That is the sign of a fun show. I have heard some people complaining about sound and/or lights, but those things become extraneous to me (unless the sound is egregiously bad) when I feel like I have heard some cutting-edge music that moved me.
I hope pictures will follow when I find a new Sony Memory Stick Pro USB adapter, which was also in my departed camera case. I’m blaming you for that, Yang Haisong.
tags: 2010 - 24 Hours - China - Indie - Live Music Reviews - Maybe Mars - Ourself Beside Me - P.K. 14 - Rock - Rustic
January 16th, 2010 |
Posted in Live Music Reviews by mache
Photos by Benoit Florençon
Last night The Shelter was as packed as People Square station on Chinese New Year’s Eve. There was a long queue to get in. Of course nobody liked that, but I thought it was great news for music. The Shelter recovering their investment and getting more and more popular is great news for everybody involved in music.
The music was cool when we finally made it inside. I went with a big bunch of Spanish ravers, celebrating a birthday, all hungry for fun, so I was in the mood for the party. To get inside, to get rid of the kilos of coats and scarfs, to finally make it to the bar, all took some time, but the group finally began to have fun. I ran to the front as soon as we got in so while everybody was accomodating, I finally checked the “legend”. So there he was, behind so many machines I couldn’t really see him very well, even when I made it to the very front of the booth. Anyway, I got to glance enough to check him scratching, turning, knobbing, and doing all those things DJs do. I couldn’t stay in front longer. I already got to see him, and I had to choose, either watch him scratching and stand up rocking to the right and the left on my spot, or go to the back and dance with the crazy Ibiza veterans. I chose the back. Naturally.
DJ Krush had the power/confidence/experience/name enough to do a first set with his tracks, scratching and playing with the machines in a concert-like way. He did many stops and silences, each of them to take a turn to another direction, all well elected, and nicely done. He was leaving a trail with this movements, only possible to create by having expertise and fame, or else the crowd could turn into a little monster and eat you. After picking a new sound, he did other silences and danced to the music, letting the masses have fun and releasing the concentration, like a smooth turn to the right. Everybody was having fun. The crowd was BIG, and it seemed to be a major event, and even though it was very nice music, it wasn’t Dam Funk. It was great and I don’t regret a bit of it, but if you were not there it’s okay.
The low thing, was that after he played, the music went down in quality immediately, and I could not hold it much longer inside The Shelter. When Krush played dance music, he played some Michael Jackson; okay, all producers love him, I like him. Once is fine. Then, later, the DJs after had to go to MJ again. “Um, right,” that’s a bit low. And then a third time again. Not only that, but they couldn’t keep the music together enough to really have fun. They took the anxious road, and began to do a tour from hip hop, to disco, back and forward, that only distracted me from dancing, and made me think once more on that situation when DJs forget that this is actually a party now, and we want to dance, we don’t want a lecture. So that was my opinion. Ibiza ravers could stay there still, but as much as my mood is for party, if the music is boring me, I just can’t avoid being affected and I wanted to have more fun, so I just left. But this was just about the DJs taking control after Krush. DJ Krush was fun and interesting. The Shelter had a great night for them, too, which is more good news. So, in summary, the night was great there.
My party went on until 6 A.M. almost, I was in the mood for fun and celebration. Good things were happening all night, so I had to go on. From The Shelter I went to grab the JZ cats and ducks, and continued my party around Shanghai with them and other beasts.
I ended up coming across “los moraos” – the Spaniards – again. They just were out of The Shelter, in the way to other club, as if it was 11 pm. What health! And I believe these guys are still partying now.
It was a good night.
tags: DJ Krush - The Shelter
January 14th, 2010 |
Posted in Live Music Reviews by m. e. seeley
There is no Santa Claus and this just might be a good thing. Instead of being tucked in our beds this past December’s Friday 25th waiting for the fat man in the red suit, some of us were out on the town, taking in the sights and sounds of Shanghai. For me, I found myself over at YuYinTang among a crowd of a hundred or so Chinese, and a few dastardly wai guo ren, for a band that rolled in from Nan Chang City in Jiangxi going by the name of Cigarette Butts (烟头). What did this indie band bring to the stage? Actually, they brought a strange thing for the venue: emotion.
When Cigarette Butts takes the stage, the presence of the lead singer and guitarist A Bu (阿布) is all consuming. He’s quite tall, ruggedly handsome and sings his wrought-iron lyrics with a gaze and a tenor that is serious and poignantly soulful with husky undertones that make up for his somewhat limited range. When he met my eye from behind his microphone, his guitar slung across his shoulder like a toy, I had to look away, then peek back in hopes he had picked some one else to fix his dark pupils on.
Backing up Bu is the adorable keyboardist and vocalist Wang Ranran (王冉冉), who worked as a strange contrast to the expressionless Bu, due to her gleeful expressions that popped up during the songs as if she was surprised that they sounded so good. Ranran’s bubbly demeanor certainly seemed mismatched with the somber and haunting lyrics of Bu, which leave no room for such smiles. These songs are about break ups and leave takings, the emptiness of the existential foundation that sits at the base of all human relationships, those with others and those with ourselves. Not exactly anything to grin about.
Cigarette Butts has been playing together since 2002 and are currently on tour for the release of their first EP. They are essentially a duo and were backed up at this show by the players from Yu Guo (羽果), another band from Nan Chang, who opened the show. Playing with Cigarette Butts, drummer Xie Jun (谢俊) maintained steady rhythms that kick started the songs and drove them solidly to their finish while bassist Lu WenJian (吕文坚) thumbed along with such timing that I thought the two might be brothers. The star of the show, for me, was the lead guitarist Wan Mai (万劢), whose nuanced finger work and grimacing concentration formed the back bone of every song. At one point, his solo brought the crowd to hoops and hollers and even I whistled. Such cries from an audience might not be unexpected at a show at YuYinTang, however, this band’s sound is the type that you listen to while you contemplate whether it hurts to jump from the balcony on the 34th floor of your apartment building or after your lover leaves you and your measuring out sleeping pills. I don’t mean to harp on suicide but only to give the weight to Cigarette Butt’s music that it deservers. It’s contemplative, pensive and dangerously sincere.
You can listen to some songs from Cigarette Butt’s EP on their Douban page here and check out Yu Guo’s entire live album also on Douban.
tags: Cigarette Butts - Indie - NanChang - Yu Guo - YuYinTang
