Well today was the last live of the trip. So sad, however, the line up at YYT was quite promising. The three bands playing were Rank, Plastic Chocolate, and Vidulgi OoyoO. For the majority of the lives I attended, I had a penchant for showing up to lives at just the right time--usually able to predict how late the live would start with 5 or so minutes of the live actually start. I was unfortunate this time. Since my cousins had to stop by to drop some stuff off, it was pretty much ensured that I would not make the intended start time or even the typical ~30 minutes late start time. Upon arriving, I had already missed the first band. I was quite disappointed because I had thought that only Plastic Chocolate and Vidulgi OoyoO were playing.
When the next band took the stage, I was quite excited, recognizing guitarist--it was Plastic Chocolate. Previously, I had described Plastic Chocolate as a sort of unrefined Rega. However, I now must recant my statement. I would still say they are similar to Rega but vocals had a larger part this time. This time, the mixing for PC was way better than when I first saw PC at Mao, which is quite strange since Mao usually has much better mixing. In any case, the levels of each instrument were set perfectly for their style of music. Since I was able to hear each part clearly and without any of the instruments impeding on the other instruments' sonic space, it was easy to hear the intricacies of their songs. The vocalist/guitarist kept the chord progression well while the bassist kept the groove with appropriately complex lines. The lead guitarist added flair with equal amounts of riff and effects (in this case by effects, I mean amelodic sounds). The drummer kept in line with expectations with interesting beats. One of their songs(I think it was the second song), was particularly awesome because of how their levels were set. It began with a soft flowing ambiance, and all of the sudden WALL OF SOUND. It was quite the transition, since from where I was standing, the sound instantly filled the room at a level Just below what would start to cause discomfort--the perfect level for wall of sound. It's unfortunate that PC is still a relatively new band and is only going to start putting out a CD next month. PC's guitarist said they will put all their songs on Douban, though.
Vidulgi OoyoO is a Korean band who can be categorized as noisy post-rock band. I would like to say that they are similar to Boredoms (But I don't remember what Boredoms sound like and I'm too lazy to check). Vidulgi's set would be best described as WALL OF NOISE. Now, the difference between wall of noise and wall of sound, is mainly the fact that the levels of Vidulgi's were set at uncomfortably loud levels. Additionally, their extremely high gain settings coupled with extremely sharp treble sibilance made it difficult to hear what the guitars were playing. However, once locking onto the chords the music became interesting. Another issue was that the bassist, whom often provided a more melodic structure to the wailing guitars, was often buried in the mix. Basically, I'm just bitching about Vidulgi's mixing since it was quite a contrast to PC's. In the end, I still bought their CD for a much more reasonable 50RMB(fucka yuuu Quruli) since they did seem pretty interesting if you disregard the mixing.
Damn I missed Rank both times they played, though.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Qururi
It's awesome that a pretty major Japanese band would come to Shanghai to play. It's even cooler that they would be playing for FREE. Tim had mentioned them to me a while ago, but I never really got into them. In preparation, I decided to download some of their stuff. I first downloaded their album Team Rock per Frank's suggestion, however, I was seriously turned off by the amount of UNSK UNSK. Two of the eleven tracks were basically techno while the remainder were not lacking in any synth. Since listening and being incredibly turned off by that album I became to lazy and unmotivated to download more. I was also put off by their collab with Rip Slyme.
What a fool. At the live, there wasn't a single song with synth in it. The music actually was quite good. I would say they are Pillowsy with a bit of Mr. Children and maybe a tiny tiny bit of Tokyo Jihen?(Perhaps it might have just been one song where this was especially true). The vocals were a bit nasal like the Pillows but the way the vocalist sung was very very like MS trying to sing with intermittent cracks and a screaming quality to some of the higher and longer notes.
It was quite funny seeing the vocalist try to MC in between songs, since they knew next to no Chinese. At one point, he tried to relate to the audience by talking about TsingTao, at which point he realized he was not drinking TsingTao. They refused to speak Japanese despite various people including myself shout in Japanese to them. In retrospect, this was probably done out of respect to the rest of the audience.
One thing I'd like to note, is that Mao's sound guy really did a fantastic job tonight. It was amazing. when the drums first came in every note was chest punchingly deep--very defined and not boomy at all. The guitar and bass was balanced well with good definition from each, though I personally would've preferred the bass to be louder for a few songs (I might be just a LITTLE biased though hahah). One complaint I had was about their setlist. It was too short. I got to the livehouse at around 10. By 11 they left the stage. WTF, perhaps I was expecting too much, but I really think an hour is a bit short. They came up for an encore after their show and man, they used the ultimate encore killer: "Just one song, okay?". Though their last song was quite good, the show was too fucking short.
As a final note, 200 RMB for a CD is pretty ridiculous for China. Needless to say, I will be paying a visit to Jpopsuki. I did buy a shirt at an equally ridiculous price since I feel a bit guilty for visiting Jpopsuki.
What a fool. At the live, there wasn't a single song with synth in it. The music actually was quite good. I would say they are Pillowsy with a bit of Mr. Children and maybe a tiny tiny bit of Tokyo Jihen?(Perhaps it might have just been one song where this was especially true). The vocals were a bit nasal like the Pillows but the way the vocalist sung was very very like MS trying to sing with intermittent cracks and a screaming quality to some of the higher and longer notes.
It was quite funny seeing the vocalist try to MC in between songs, since they knew next to no Chinese. At one point, he tried to relate to the audience by talking about TsingTao, at which point he realized he was not drinking TsingTao. They refused to speak Japanese despite various people including myself shout in Japanese to them. In retrospect, this was probably done out of respect to the rest of the audience.
One thing I'd like to note, is that Mao's sound guy really did a fantastic job tonight. It was amazing. when the drums first came in every note was chest punchingly deep--very defined and not boomy at all. The guitar and bass was balanced well with good definition from each, though I personally would've preferred the bass to be louder for a few songs (I might be just a LITTLE biased though hahah). One complaint I had was about their setlist. It was too short. I got to the livehouse at around 10. By 11 they left the stage. WTF, perhaps I was expecting too much, but I really think an hour is a bit short. They came up for an encore after their show and man, they used the ultimate encore killer: "Just one song, okay?". Though their last song was quite good, the show was too fucking short.
As a final note, 200 RMB for a CD is pretty ridiculous for China. Needless to say, I will be paying a visit to Jpopsuki. I did buy a shirt at an equally ridiculous price since I feel a bit guilty for visiting Jpopsuki.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Booji + Duck Fight Goose
Tonight was Booji + Duck Fight Goose. This was planned by Andy Best and possibly Jake Newby at YYT. It was supposed to be an awesome night of music and some photography. I'm not sure who started--Booji or Duck Fight Goose, however, It doesn't really matter since at least three of the members (out of four) are the same for the two bands.
The first arrangement was a bit similar to Boyzandgirl. Their music was pretty ambient although more structured than Boyzandgirl. Their vocalist had a ton of reverb for a very wailing type effect. By the fifth song, people seemed to be really starting to get into it, which would have been awesome except for the fact that that was their last song. Only 2 band and you play a 5 song set?
Well, the reason why was because the main part I suppose was the photographs. It seems photographic art might be something I will never understand. It was basically a lot of nude pictures and people doing weird ass shit with their genitals--like making a joke on da fei ji and a lot of much weirder shit. In any case, this was definitely not something I was expecting. Can you say trolled?
Finally, the last band played. Though interesting, their music was too creepy for me. It was the kind of French circus type creepy music (Think Love Replica but more creepy). Perhaps if it didn't creep the fuck out of me, I might have really enjoyed it. As a side note, I'd also like to mention that the drummer for Booji/Duck Fight Goose is awesome. She played really interesting rhythms for every song and made it worth staying through the whole set.
The first arrangement was a bit similar to Boyzandgirl. Their music was pretty ambient although more structured than Boyzandgirl. Their vocalist had a ton of reverb for a very wailing type effect. By the fifth song, people seemed to be really starting to get into it, which would have been awesome except for the fact that that was their last song. Only 2 band and you play a 5 song set?
Well, the reason why was because the main part I suppose was the photographs. It seems photographic art might be something I will never understand. It was basically a lot of nude pictures and people doing weird ass shit with their genitals--like making a joke on da fei ji and a lot of much weirder shit. In any case, this was definitely not something I was expecting. Can you say trolled?
Finally, the last band played. Though interesting, their music was too creepy for me. It was the kind of French circus type creepy music (Think Love Replica but more creepy). Perhaps if it didn't creep the fuck out of me, I might have really enjoyed it. As a side note, I'd also like to mention that the drummer for Booji/Duck Fight Goose is awesome. She played really interesting rhythms for every song and made it worth staying through the whole set.
Friday, July 30, 2010
0093 Anniversary Live
I didn't go to a live last weekend or the 2 or 3 potentially good lives during the weekdays because my brother was here. However, despite being balls tired from getting 4 hours sleep max per day during this week, I forced myself to go.
Since it was the Rock 0093 3rd year anniversary, there were 7 bands today, and this was part 2 LOL. Part 1, on Thursday, had 5 bands, which I unfortunately missed. The first band, Five Pence, was probably a relatively new band. They played two original songs which sounded pretty good with interesting riffs--especially the bassist, who was pretty Tetsu-esque. The last two songs were, unfortunately, covers of Highway to Hell and Sweet Child o' Mine. It would've been nice to hear more originals.
One thing I realized is how difficult it is to be the opening band. Since the mood hasn't been set yet, it's extremely difficult to get the audience into the music--even with the more familiar covers that they played. The whole idea of stage presence is super important and it seems the more inexperienced bands struggle with this by letting the audience's mood control how wild they are willing to act instead of trying to go all out and forcing a change in mood like the more experienced bands.
I say this because the popular numetal band, Five Pointed Star, followed Five Pence. The vocalist of that band was able to get a great reaction from the audience because of his experience MCing. Though they are pretty established as a band, it wasn't as if a majority of the people there were already fans of them. In fact, I don't think even 25% of the people there were fans of Five Pointed Star because the couldn't even get a real mosh going like they did at Mao. However, they were also the only band of the night to play an encore because the audience enjoyed it so much by their last song.
It also might be worth noting that, it seems that numetal has a greater advantage of engaging the audience. It might be because Chinese people LOVE numetal, but I think it's at least partly because numetal tends to have these half time feeling heavy riffs that are easy to headbang to.
The third band was a pretty sweet band. I think it was called New Vector. They are a three piece instrumental band that I would liken to a more noisy, less refined, shoegazier Rega. Also, they are not as technical. But in any case. The three songs they played were awesome. Of course, Chinese fags had to ruin it. I heard at least 5 different people ask why they didn't have a singer. WTF? Do people come to listen to music or a singer? In any case, they were awesome and the people who didn't like them aren't. Haha.
At this point, I am unsure of the order. 8 bands is hard to remember and I'm balls tired. I think, however, it was Momo that played next and they are, well, Momo. Their singer was absent today and the guitarist was singing. Her singing voice is the super little girl sounding voice like on the openings of cutesy anime. Also, their drummer basically manhandles the drum. They sounded even louder than Five Pointed Star.
I think Momo was followed by Hanging Gardens, whom I have a hard time recalling anything special.
Little Nature seemed to be the big band of the night, despite being in the middle. They had a few interesting riffs, and seemed like they would be alright at first. But most of their songs ended up sounding repetitive and generic. Also, the bassist/vocalist, isn't much of a vocalist. Mostly sounds like punky yell screaming. This brings me to another point though, either Chinese people love generic songs and along with their pretty boy image makes them a good band in the eyes of Chinese people, or they were so pretty boy that their looks overwhelmed their mediocrity.
After they played, tons of people left--mostly girls. Which brings me to yet another point. Half the time, the audience is just trying to take pictures/film the bands. This is especially true in during the sets of pretty boys as one might expect. But seriously, everyone needs to take a step back and learn from TJ's Put Your Camera Down, which has pwn lyrics BTW.
There were two bands after Little Nature. The first was Joker, I think. Don't have much to say about them except, folk rock is not really my thing.
The last band, which was Old Doll I think, played some really technical stuff. They are a Blues/Country band and have a very small fanbase it seems, despite their technical prowess. I should write more but I'm too tired. Maybe I'll edit this post tomorrow.
Since it was the Rock 0093 3rd year anniversary, there were 7 bands today, and this was part 2 LOL. Part 1, on Thursday, had 5 bands, which I unfortunately missed. The first band, Five Pence, was probably a relatively new band. They played two original songs which sounded pretty good with interesting riffs--especially the bassist, who was pretty Tetsu-esque. The last two songs were, unfortunately, covers of Highway to Hell and Sweet Child o' Mine. It would've been nice to hear more originals.
One thing I realized is how difficult it is to be the opening band. Since the mood hasn't been set yet, it's extremely difficult to get the audience into the music--even with the more familiar covers that they played. The whole idea of stage presence is super important and it seems the more inexperienced bands struggle with this by letting the audience's mood control how wild they are willing to act instead of trying to go all out and forcing a change in mood like the more experienced bands.
I say this because the popular numetal band, Five Pointed Star, followed Five Pence. The vocalist of that band was able to get a great reaction from the audience because of his experience MCing. Though they are pretty established as a band, it wasn't as if a majority of the people there were already fans of them. In fact, I don't think even 25% of the people there were fans of Five Pointed Star because the couldn't even get a real mosh going like they did at Mao. However, they were also the only band of the night to play an encore because the audience enjoyed it so much by their last song.
It also might be worth noting that, it seems that numetal has a greater advantage of engaging the audience. It might be because Chinese people LOVE numetal, but I think it's at least partly because numetal tends to have these half time feeling heavy riffs that are easy to headbang to.
The third band was a pretty sweet band. I think it was called New Vector. They are a three piece instrumental band that I would liken to a more noisy, less refined, shoegazier Rega. Also, they are not as technical. But in any case. The three songs they played were awesome. Of course, Chinese fags had to ruin it. I heard at least 5 different people ask why they didn't have a singer. WTF? Do people come to listen to music or a singer? In any case, they were awesome and the people who didn't like them aren't. Haha.
At this point, I am unsure of the order. 8 bands is hard to remember and I'm balls tired. I think, however, it was Momo that played next and they are, well, Momo. Their singer was absent today and the guitarist was singing. Her singing voice is the super little girl sounding voice like on the openings of cutesy anime. Also, their drummer basically manhandles the drum. They sounded even louder than Five Pointed Star.
I think Momo was followed by Hanging Gardens, whom I have a hard time recalling anything special.
Little Nature seemed to be the big band of the night, despite being in the middle. They had a few interesting riffs, and seemed like they would be alright at first. But most of their songs ended up sounding repetitive and generic. Also, the bassist/vocalist, isn't much of a vocalist. Mostly sounds like punky yell screaming. This brings me to another point though, either Chinese people love generic songs and along with their pretty boy image makes them a good band in the eyes of Chinese people, or they were so pretty boy that their looks overwhelmed their mediocrity.
After they played, tons of people left--mostly girls. Which brings me to yet another point. Half the time, the audience is just trying to take pictures/film the bands. This is especially true in during the sets of pretty boys as one might expect. But seriously, everyone needs to take a step back and learn from TJ's Put Your Camera Down, which has pwn lyrics BTW.
There were two bands after Little Nature. The first was Joker, I think. Don't have much to say about them except, folk rock is not really my thing.
The last band, which was Old Doll I think, played some really technical stuff. They are a Blues/Country band and have a very small fanbase it seems, despite their technical prowess. I should write more but I'm too tired. Maybe I'll edit this post tomorrow.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Surpise Live!?
So, I happened to check YYT's site again today and I found out that there was a new band live today. They had no information other than that there was a show. I reluctantly went because I was feeling lazy, but good thing I went. It was a free show. Not many people were there probably because it wasn't advertised very much. There were 4 bands. I only caught the last bit of the first band and it seemed like some kind of metal ballad or something. Kinda cool. The second band, was kinda metal but I would liken it more to hide's band Zilch (think Mr. Jones) but with some melodic vocals as well. The vocalist untrained but could definitely sing well if she had some training. The third band was a punk rock band who I think has only been playing for 1 year or something. Their riffs were really simple but with time, they could become pretty good.
The last band was a student trio. They were the only rock band I've seen in China so far. And by that, I mean just good old rock. Probably the band that fit my tastes the most so far. Their first song was good but nothing spectacular. What I really enjoyed was their second song. It was a heavy riff rock. Perhaps a bit similar to B'z. Quite good stuff. The third/last song was less awesome but also had it's moments. Fuck, I wish I remembered Chinese names better. Then I could Douban.
The last band was a student trio. They were the only rock band I've seen in China so far. And by that, I mean just good old rock. Probably the band that fit my tastes the most so far. Their first song was good but nothing spectacular. What I really enjoyed was their second song. It was a heavy riff rock. Perhaps a bit similar to B'z. Quite good stuff. The third/last song was less awesome but also had it's moments. Fuck, I wish I remembered Chinese names better. Then I could Douban.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
gimme a discount YYT :o
Man, it seems like every weekend is spent at YYT. They need to give me a fucking discount card. In any case, today's show was Ze Lu He Feng's showcase or something. It seemed pretty promising on douban, but I guess I didn't really listen enough.
The first band was Pinkberry, I think. And it was just some kind of poppy rock. Kind of reminded me of Japanese girl bands like Zone. They got a mini mosh going, but I couldn't really get into the music. Also, their vocalist looked like a Gundam Pilot.
The next band played very soft mando-poppy songs. Should've known from the overly cute vocalist. But their bassist had mad skills--definitely the best bassist I've seen in China so far. I heard they found him as a sub recently or some shit. God, my Chinese sucks. The guitarist seemed to be really good also. Everything he played was exceptionally clean. However, he seemed to limit himself to more simple chords and the like. Sometimes it confounds me when I hear exceptional musicians play mandopop.
The third band, whom I also have yet to figure out the band name was the only band I enjoyed tonight. They were kinda like a more melodic and slightly softer Boyzandgirl. At first, they reminded me ALMOST of Noodles (I say Noodles and not Pillows because noodles is more ambient and less melodic than the Pillows) but that could've been my imagination. We'll see if I can get a copy of their CD eventually.
The last band, of course the most popular, was... well I don't even know how to categorize them. It was like punky disco pop or something. It seemed like a lot of girls seemed to enjoy it. I guess it was cause the guy was good at MCing or something. I don't fackin know I can't speak Shanghainese.
The first band was Pinkberry, I think. And it was just some kind of poppy rock. Kind of reminded me of Japanese girl bands like Zone. They got a mini mosh going, but I couldn't really get into the music. Also, their vocalist looked like a Gundam Pilot.
The next band played very soft mando-poppy songs. Should've known from the overly cute vocalist. But their bassist had mad skills--definitely the best bassist I've seen in China so far. I heard they found him as a sub recently or some shit. God, my Chinese sucks. The guitarist seemed to be really good also. Everything he played was exceptionally clean. However, he seemed to limit himself to more simple chords and the like. Sometimes it confounds me when I hear exceptional musicians play mandopop.
The third band, whom I also have yet to figure out the band name was the only band I enjoyed tonight. They were kinda like a more melodic and slightly softer Boyzandgirl. At first, they reminded me ALMOST of Noodles (I say Noodles and not Pillows because noodles is more ambient and less melodic than the Pillows) but that could've been my imagination. We'll see if I can get a copy of their CD eventually.
The last band, of course the most popular, was... well I don't even know how to categorize them. It was like punky disco pop or something. It seemed like a lot of girls seemed to enjoy it. I guess it was cause the guy was good at MCing or something. I don't fackin know I can't speak Shanghainese.
SO MUCH YYT
Another day, another night at YYT. To the much appreciated recommendation from Frank da Tank, I went to see the Maybe Taiwan... live at YYT tonight. The three bands were The Pairs (which have gotten much attention recently), Birdstriking and of course, the headliner--BoyzandGirl.
Described as a punk duo, this band consisting of a guitarist and drummer, have been playing a lot of shows recently. I think this was the third or so time in like 2 weeks. In any case, this band is definitely not something I like. I think they are pretty good trolls to be honest. The drummer plays with just a floor tom, bass drum, hihat, ride(i think), and snare. The guitarist had her sound set to already pretty high gain on the Marshall and her main effect, a Boss DS-1, was pretty much set with all knobs max. In the first song the drummer, who is also the vocalist, was screaming indiscriminately into the mic and sticking it into his mouth at some points WTF. The second song began with him standing on top of the bass drum and he was just screaming random shit again and hitting the floor tom while standing on the bass drum. For their last song, he even brought the floor tom and the hihat into the crowd and let the crowd play along with him. Troll much?
Birdstriking, a band from beijing, was really quite good. This punk rock/noise band has a good bit of ambient feel going on. The guitarist has a lot of pedals, and uses them pretty well. He also used two mics. One with no effect and the other into some kind of echo for a really interesting vocal. This band, unfortunately, wasn't powerful enough. They couldn't do it. Despite this, I would definitely like to hear more of this band. Too bad it seems like most bands here don't sell merchandise after their lives.
BOYZANDGIRL. Man, as I said many times before, I really like post-rock a lot more live and mostly only live. Recordings often times just don't do it. Everything sounded way better live than it did in the recording. When they opened, I pretty much was already into the music. Jumping and headbanging pretty much by myself. By the third song I look back and OMFG THEY DID IT they were TOO POWERFUL. Fucking Sing for China, man. Even birdstriking, who were gonna leave, came back to see why it suddenly got so live-ly. Jumping around pushing each other. THIS IS HOW IT"S SUPPOSED TO BE. At one point a guy hoisted a girl on his shoulder and was in the middle of the mosh like that. And at the beginning of the next song, Another guy had a guy ride his shoulder and there was an on land chicken fight LOL. The show was pretty fucking awesome. Though I do think the vocals could've been more forward. It was barely audible. Everything else had a pretty good balance though. At one point also, I think the girl hurt her fretting hand, but the show went on. A trooper. They came back at the end for an encore, and I got one of the drumsticks the drummer threw into the crowd. :D
Described as a punk duo, this band consisting of a guitarist and drummer, have been playing a lot of shows recently. I think this was the third or so time in like 2 weeks. In any case, this band is definitely not something I like. I think they are pretty good trolls to be honest. The drummer plays with just a floor tom, bass drum, hihat, ride(i think), and snare. The guitarist had her sound set to already pretty high gain on the Marshall and her main effect, a Boss DS-1, was pretty much set with all knobs max. In the first song the drummer, who is also the vocalist, was screaming indiscriminately into the mic and sticking it into his mouth at some points WTF. The second song began with him standing on top of the bass drum and he was just screaming random shit again and hitting the floor tom while standing on the bass drum. For their last song, he even brought the floor tom and the hihat into the crowd and let the crowd play along with him. Troll much?
Birdstriking, a band from beijing, was really quite good. This punk rock/noise band has a good bit of ambient feel going on. The guitarist has a lot of pedals, and uses them pretty well. He also used two mics. One with no effect and the other into some kind of echo for a really interesting vocal. This band, unfortunately, wasn't powerful enough. They couldn't do it. Despite this, I would definitely like to hear more of this band. Too bad it seems like most bands here don't sell merchandise after their lives.
BOYZANDGIRL. Man, as I said many times before, I really like post-rock a lot more live and mostly only live. Recordings often times just don't do it. Everything sounded way better live than it did in the recording. When they opened, I pretty much was already into the music. Jumping and headbanging pretty much by myself. By the third song I look back and OMFG THEY DID IT they were TOO POWERFUL. Fucking Sing for China, man. Even birdstriking, who were gonna leave, came back to see why it suddenly got so live-ly. Jumping around pushing each other. THIS IS HOW IT"S SUPPOSED TO BE. At one point a guy hoisted a girl on his shoulder and was in the middle of the mosh like that. And at the beginning of the next song, Another guy had a guy ride his shoulder and there was an on land chicken fight LOL. The show was pretty fucking awesome. Though I do think the vocals could've been more forward. It was barely audible. Everything else had a pretty good balance though. At one point also, I think the girl hurt her fretting hand, but the show went on. A trooper. They came back at the end for an encore, and I got one of the drumsticks the drummer threw into the crowd. :D
Broken Boner
YYT it was tonight. The samples on Douban were pretty good, so I had some high expectations. Unfortunately, I got there late and I ended up missing more than I thought. Originally, I had thought that there were 4 bands playing, but I think there were only 3 bands tonight. YYT's site is apparently down right now, so I will get the band names later.
I only heard 2 of the songs for the first band, and it sounded not bad. I didn't hear enough of them to really be able to categorize them, but they were more indie rockish. Of the songs I heard, one of them was not bad.
The second set, started out with some pretty nice guitar, but then the vocals came in--it kinda broke my boner. It was like really typical pop melodies over rock instruments. But then HOLY SHIT. When the guitarist's solo kicked in, it was pretty fucking sweet. He was definitely the best guitarist I've seen thus far. Fortunately, only the first song was very poppy. The other songs were a bit poppy at times, but man. That guy could really play some singing guitar solos. At times, the vocalist also surprised me. With such a poppy first song, I wasn't expecting much, but she came in later with some nice ringo-esque growling. Naise. Their album should be worth checking out.
The final set, which I thought was the second to last set, was being set up. They took forever to get set up. First it was only the drummer, who came in with K custom rides, and an A custom crash. Expensive gears. The lead guitarist came on with a giga delay, tube screamer, rat, and a holy grail reverb, while the singer had a tube screamer, sansamp gt2, and a morley volume pedal. Also seeing him with a Jaguar started to hype me up a bit--especially since the other two bands were pretty good. So, after the gear is set up, I see only the drummer and the bassist on stage. The guitarist comes on and it is still dark. Gradually, I hear some UNSK UNSK and it eventually becomes unbearably loud. I then hear some techno reminiscent of L'arc's Dive to Blue, but way shittier. The singer steps on stage and I hear tons of cheers. At first I thought it would be like a Chinese ver. of L'arc, but as the show progressed, I noticed that the guitarist had yet to play anything more than three notes with delay used as an effect, so it sounded like he was doing a lot more than he actually was. But I persevered because they had to play SOMETHING right? Oh China, how you love to smash my dreams. The solo came and I was bombared with what was quite possibly the most beautiful solo ever--PURE RAKES and not a single note. Yeap, that's right. Not even the infamous J could top this as a solo.
But whatever, this was the first song. The second HAD to be different, right? This time the singer picked up his guitar. Okay maybe this time will be different. More UNSK UNSK. The song starts and they start moving on the stage. At one point, the lead guitarist and singer are facing each other while playing. And in an effort to look like they play and enjoy playing music, the singer begins to air hump the lead guitarist? WTF. I look around. Only now do I notice that there are a shit ton of girls around me taking pictures of what I now realize are pretty boys. Yes, they even brought with them those cameras with huge ass lenses for maximum damage. The solo comes and the lead guitarist finally shows his true skill squeezing out as many notes as he could almost surpassing the J's skill, but not quite. I found out after this song that they were the headliner.
Needless to say, I left broken bonered and raging mad.
I only heard 2 of the songs for the first band, and it sounded not bad. I didn't hear enough of them to really be able to categorize them, but they were more indie rockish. Of the songs I heard, one of them was not bad.
The second set, started out with some pretty nice guitar, but then the vocals came in--it kinda broke my boner. It was like really typical pop melodies over rock instruments. But then HOLY SHIT. When the guitarist's solo kicked in, it was pretty fucking sweet. He was definitely the best guitarist I've seen thus far. Fortunately, only the first song was very poppy. The other songs were a bit poppy at times, but man. That guy could really play some singing guitar solos. At times, the vocalist also surprised me. With such a poppy first song, I wasn't expecting much, but she came in later with some nice ringo-esque growling. Naise. Their album should be worth checking out.
The final set, which I thought was the second to last set, was being set up. They took forever to get set up. First it was only the drummer, who came in with K custom rides, and an A custom crash. Expensive gears. The lead guitarist came on with a giga delay, tube screamer, rat, and a holy grail reverb, while the singer had a tube screamer, sansamp gt2, and a morley volume pedal. Also seeing him with a Jaguar started to hype me up a bit--especially since the other two bands were pretty good. So, after the gear is set up, I see only the drummer and the bassist on stage. The guitarist comes on and it is still dark. Gradually, I hear some UNSK UNSK and it eventually becomes unbearably loud. I then hear some techno reminiscent of L'arc's Dive to Blue, but way shittier. The singer steps on stage and I hear tons of cheers. At first I thought it would be like a Chinese ver. of L'arc, but as the show progressed, I noticed that the guitarist had yet to play anything more than three notes with delay used as an effect, so it sounded like he was doing a lot more than he actually was. But I persevered because they had to play SOMETHING right? Oh China, how you love to smash my dreams. The solo came and I was bombared with what was quite possibly the most beautiful solo ever--PURE RAKES and not a single note. Yeap, that's right. Not even the infamous J could top this as a solo.
But whatever, this was the first song. The second HAD to be different, right? This time the singer picked up his guitar. Okay maybe this time will be different. More UNSK UNSK. The song starts and they start moving on the stage. At one point, the lead guitarist and singer are facing each other while playing. And in an effort to look like they play and enjoy playing music, the singer begins to air hump the lead guitarist? WTF. I look around. Only now do I notice that there are a shit ton of girls around me taking pictures of what I now realize are pretty boys. Yes, they even brought with them those cameras with huge ass lenses for maximum damage. The solo comes and the lead guitarist finally shows his true skill squeezing out as many notes as he could almost surpassing the J's skill, but not quite. I found out after this song that they were the headliner.
Needless to say, I left broken bonered and raging mad.
Our Great Mao?
So, it was Mao livehouse this time. At first, I was having a hard time deciding between YYT or Mao, because CANDYSHOP was playing there. Gross. But in the end, since I've never been to Mao and it was FREE, I was happy I went to Mao.
Getting off the train station, I had a rough idea of where to go but I couldn't find the fucking streets google map showed me. So at the shadiest alley I decided to turn, since there were a lot of people. It was quite creepy. But lo and behold, Mao Livehouse, a really nice looking place located in a really shitty area. I guess, however, that's part of the appeal.
The first thing I notice was that this place was fucking huge compared to YYT--many times bigger. They had nice amps also--JCM900 half stack and an Ampeg SVT4 full stack. It was well ventilated despite being pretty packed (never got hot though it was cooler outside so that probably helped) and the lighting was also notably nice. The bar is located on the side and there are seats in a U around the stage. In the middle there is a fenced off area for people to stand--a pretty nice design.
The first band was Five Pointed Star--a numetal band which was, well, whatever. People got pretty hyped and started to mosh, but it was only like 4 or 5 people. During the middle of the set, they had to dedicate a song to a friend of theirs, and of course they choose to cover LINKIN PARK. Oh, China... In any case, as far a numetal goes I can still get a little excited just because it was live.
The second band was Candy Shop. FUCKA YUUUUU WHALE.
After Candy Shop came Plastic Chocolate. FUCK, I missed out buying their CD also. Man, 0 for 2. But their music was pretty sweet. Mostly instrumental experimental post rocky stuff and the drummer was pretty fucking sick. As usual, 95% of the people weren't really moving. But surprisingly, a lot of girls cheered. Weird, right? In any case, their stuff was awesome. I dig it. The live was going pretty well at this point despite Candy Shop, but I should've known. There truly is nothing FREE in this world.
Turns out in between the third set and fourth set, there was a BONUS set and by bonus I really mean shit. These two faggots come out and I'm like "Oh cool, it's the fourth set". NOPE. MINDGAMED, FUCK. They announce that they are a little different and only need a CD to perform. DOUBLE FUCK. Yea it was a Jaegermeister sponsored rap duo. And by rap I mean Chinese/Shanghainese sing-talk. It's hard to say whether Candy Shop is better or worse since they have a faggot sing-talker too. I was, however, promised a really good fourth set, so I persevered.
The fourth set was a Death Metal band Loudspeaker. One thing I learned, is that it's easier for me to dig music if it's live. Loudspeaker is not something I would listen to regularly but I don't think I mind watching them live--especially since they got the crowd going. However, crowd in this case is like 10 people. It was quite hilarious though because these ten people cleared out the standing area with the exception of the people in front by the fence(me included) and the girls who had to crawl on the other side so they wouldn't get hit by the moshers. At one point, the two biggest guys moshing almost got in a fight--a white guy and a Chinese guy. It stopped the show temporarily... pretty crazy.
All in all, a pretty good night. YYT tomorrow. New Band Showcase. YEAH!
Getting off the train station, I had a rough idea of where to go but I couldn't find the fucking streets google map showed me. So at the shadiest alley I decided to turn, since there were a lot of people. It was quite creepy. But lo and behold, Mao Livehouse, a really nice looking place located in a really shitty area. I guess, however, that's part of the appeal.
The first thing I notice was that this place was fucking huge compared to YYT--many times bigger. They had nice amps also--JCM900 half stack and an Ampeg SVT4 full stack. It was well ventilated despite being pretty packed (never got hot though it was cooler outside so that probably helped) and the lighting was also notably nice. The bar is located on the side and there are seats in a U around the stage. In the middle there is a fenced off area for people to stand--a pretty nice design.
The first band was Five Pointed Star--a numetal band which was, well, whatever. People got pretty hyped and started to mosh, but it was only like 4 or 5 people. During the middle of the set, they had to dedicate a song to a friend of theirs, and of course they choose to cover LINKIN PARK. Oh, China... In any case, as far a numetal goes I can still get a little excited just because it was live.
The second band was Candy Shop. FUCKA YUUUUU WHALE.
After Candy Shop came Plastic Chocolate. FUCK, I missed out buying their CD also. Man, 0 for 2. But their music was pretty sweet. Mostly instrumental experimental post rocky stuff and the drummer was pretty fucking sick. As usual, 95% of the people weren't really moving. But surprisingly, a lot of girls cheered. Weird, right? In any case, their stuff was awesome. I dig it. The live was going pretty well at this point despite Candy Shop, but I should've known. There truly is nothing FREE in this world.
Turns out in between the third set and fourth set, there was a BONUS set and by bonus I really mean shit. These two faggots come out and I'm like "Oh cool, it's the fourth set". NOPE. MINDGAMED, FUCK. They announce that they are a little different and only need a CD to perform. DOUBLE FUCK. Yea it was a Jaegermeister sponsored rap duo. And by rap I mean Chinese/Shanghainese sing-talk. It's hard to say whether Candy Shop is better or worse since they have a faggot sing-talker too. I was, however, promised a really good fourth set, so I persevered.
The fourth set was a Death Metal band Loudspeaker. One thing I learned, is that it's easier for me to dig music if it's live. Loudspeaker is not something I would listen to regularly but I don't think I mind watching them live--especially since they got the crowd going. However, crowd in this case is like 10 people. It was quite hilarious though because these ten people cleared out the standing area with the exception of the people in front by the fence(me included) and the girls who had to crawl on the other side so they wouldn't get hit by the moshers. At one point, the two biggest guys moshing almost got in a fight--a white guy and a Chinese guy. It stopped the show temporarily... pretty crazy.
All in all, a pretty good night. YYT tomorrow. New Band Showcase. YEAH!
First Blood
OKAY so, first time at yuyingtang. God, my whole fucking shirt is wet. It was so freaking hot there. There were four bands playing tonight: Momo, Bang Bang Tang, 甜品店, and FAF.
Momo was like a typical girl band. Pretty poppy stuffs... not that great. People didn't move much to this band despite their efforts to get people to, which I can kind of understand why.
Bang Bang Tang was pretty good stuffs. One of their songs was pretty poppy but the rest were generally pretty good. Xiao Bai is a pretty good vocalist with a powerful voice at times. The instrumentals were good and interesting, especially some of the things the guitarist did--like plucking the string at the tuning peg part as sort of a harmonic type effect. I wanted to buy their CD's but they said they didn't have any. It was also Xiao Bai, their singer's, birthday today so that was pretty cool. People didn't react to this band either. I even tried to pull a Sing for China. Actually, I have to bitch about how clingy Chinese people are. I was in the front and there were two couples right next to me--one on each side, and they both practically making out the whole time WTF. I'm also pretty sure that my hair was hitting them when I was trying to Sing for China. However, I failed... I will definitely go to watch this band whenever they play again and try to get a chance to talk to them.
甜品店 was your typical Chinese scr/emo band... and it seemed like all the girls were there to see them. I guess they'd be Chinese scene girls and they were head banging to some of their stuff. Despite their music kinda sucking, for the sake of awesomeness, I tried to pull another Sing for China. I thought since the crowd was getting more energetic, they would follow suit. But fuck, Chinese people are just too powerful. I need blackup guys. At this point I was pretty sure Shanghai people didn't enjoy music.
WOW OKAY, listening to this band's douban, made me very very hesitant, but still I decided to give them a chance. Especially since when they first came on stage, I only saw the guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist come on. So I thought maybe they linked the wrong douban. LOL NOPE, I was mind gamed, they played a brief intro which wasn't terrible, but then HOLY SHIT this faggot and this chick walk on stage and people went batshit crazy. I was pretty sure that I was doomed. The first song, as expected, was shitty ass typical mandopop/rap. And they LOVED it. At this point the situation pretty much reversed. Everyone else started to Sing for China, while I was dead still. The second song was a heavier song like a Chinese pop ver of Blink182 maybe. And I was thinking that okay, maybe the douban didn't represent their music accurately since the second song was pretty different from the first. NOPE, wrong again. The third song was the shitty ass love song they have on their douban... and the crowd loved it. after the third song, they mentioned a shout out to Xiao Bai and mentioned that they left right after to celebrate her birthday, which was my cue to leave.
In conclusion, most Chinese people like shitty music.
OH and BTW, no pictures because I don't own a camera. So yes, none of this ever happened.
Momo was like a typical girl band. Pretty poppy stuffs... not that great. People didn't move much to this band despite their efforts to get people to, which I can kind of understand why.
Bang Bang Tang was pretty good stuffs. One of their songs was pretty poppy but the rest were generally pretty good. Xiao Bai is a pretty good vocalist with a powerful voice at times. The instrumentals were good and interesting, especially some of the things the guitarist did--like plucking the string at the tuning peg part as sort of a harmonic type effect. I wanted to buy their CD's but they said they didn't have any. It was also Xiao Bai, their singer's, birthday today so that was pretty cool. People didn't react to this band either. I even tried to pull a Sing for China. Actually, I have to bitch about how clingy Chinese people are. I was in the front and there were two couples right next to me--one on each side, and they both practically making out the whole time WTF. I'm also pretty sure that my hair was hitting them when I was trying to Sing for China. However, I failed... I will definitely go to watch this band whenever they play again and try to get a chance to talk to them.
甜品店 was your typical Chinese scr/emo band... and it seemed like all the girls were there to see them. I guess they'd be Chinese scene girls and they were head banging to some of their stuff. Despite their music kinda sucking, for the sake of awesomeness, I tried to pull another Sing for China. I thought since the crowd was getting more energetic, they would follow suit. But fuck, Chinese people are just too powerful. I need blackup guys. At this point I was pretty sure Shanghai people didn't enjoy music.
WOW OKAY, listening to this band's douban, made me very very hesitant, but still I decided to give them a chance. Especially since when they first came on stage, I only saw the guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist come on. So I thought maybe they linked the wrong douban. LOL NOPE, I was mind gamed, they played a brief intro which wasn't terrible, but then HOLY SHIT this faggot and this chick walk on stage and people went batshit crazy. I was pretty sure that I was doomed. The first song, as expected, was shitty ass typical mandopop/rap. And they LOVED it. At this point the situation pretty much reversed. Everyone else started to Sing for China, while I was dead still. The second song was a heavier song like a Chinese pop ver of Blink182 maybe. And I was thinking that okay, maybe the douban didn't represent their music accurately since the second song was pretty different from the first. NOPE, wrong again. The third song was the shitty ass love song they have on their douban... and the crowd loved it. after the third song, they mentioned a shout out to Xiao Bai and mentioned that they left right after to celebrate her birthday, which was my cue to leave.
In conclusion, most Chinese people like shitty music.
OH and BTW, no pictures because I don't own a camera. So yes, none of this ever happened.
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