Nanwu wins out at Mao Live’s Summersonic Competition
I was a bit of a crazy night yesterday at Mao Live with the Summersonic Finals… some really good bands and performances throughout the night and huge surprises. I’ll have a semi-full recap later on next week.
The most important thing is that Nanwu, with 206 votes, took the crown and thus won the rights to represent China in Japan at the Summersonic festival.
Here are the final results of the voting, which was weird to say the least…
Voodoo Kungfu, which i expected to win, ended up dead last in the voting…. Army of Jade Kirin was freaking awesome!
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was it the same deal as the earlier rounds where the audience voted with tickets? seems like a really flawed system, the band with the most friends wins and people who leave early can’t vote fairly!
yeah, pretty much! Voodoo paid a dear price for going first before everyone else showed up.
Interesting system but vey much flawed indeed…
Congrats to NanWu and I am sure they will Rock Japan but I guess, again, too bad for flaws in these contests that determine lots of futures.
yup… that said, Nanwu were kings of the night! The crowd that made it to watch them was twice the size of that for any of the other bands. Amazing how big they’ve gotten since the first time i spotted them a few years back!
I agree Army of Jade Kirin was great – Bassist Yuan Qi had great charisma – as discussed, a good frontman is hard to find in this town.
I’ve always been a fan of Nanwu (Namo) and was upset I missed their set, but its more of an appreciation of lead singer/guitar/songwriter Liu Xiangsong, also a good frontman who unfortunately doesn’t make up for the lack of charisma from the other members.
Almost everyone I talked to that had stuck around until the end (thus giving all the bands a chance before voting) were shocked that Voodoo Kungfu got the lowest tally, who I think should have been picked by Mao to go by default.
According to Li Tong, they’re still figuring out who else is going, but so far the word is that The Ghost Spardac, Perdel and QueenSeaBigShark are among the pre-chosen bands.
At the end, it still is a good old fashioned popularity contest!
Voodoo is not the most friendly band to fans and maybe that would cost them in this type of event. They have that hardcore crew that is loyal but not much in numbers for Nanwu.
I’ll be curious to see who ends up going in the End. As far as I know, Ghost Spardac is already in but through the Japanese connection. They’re not there as a “mainland” band. I’ve heard that The Amazing Insurance Salesmen might also get a bye… possibly Muma with their new album. We’ll see how this goes!
I knew Nanwu would win on Friday night. The crowd went crazy for them! The locals just love the kind of music they make and their cutesy energy on stage.
I am totally pissed that I missed Voodoo. They didn’t deserve getting the least votes but who would’ve thought they’d go first on Friday?!
I think the judging panel should definitely be changed, so bands who make quality music and have stunning stagecraft get a real chance of winning in such competitions. It shouldn’t be crowd-pleasers winning!
FYI the AIS tried to participate in the contest but was not allowed for “having too many foreigners in the band”…..
Voodoo Kungfu came in last?!WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF?!
It was certainly interesting – and ridiculously hot in there! I happened to get there early as I had seen none of the bands (live) before. Voodoo Kungfu were surprisingly great and sound much better live than they do on Myspace, but my girlfriend commented, which I agree with, that they are lacking when it comes to the fact that they have a “backing track” to play along to (Mongolian matouqin sections spring to mind) and really need another member in the band to make up for it, although I know this is finickity of me at best. However the voting was confusing as although I was given 6 tickets it wasn’t obvious that you would vote for all bands you thought were “good”, or even how the the voting would work, and thus I think Voodoo really suffered, they got my vote anyway.
Joker lived up to their name and made me laugh a lot – I’m not the biggest emo fan and seeing a bunch of kids up way past their bedtime was funny as hell, but the girls liked ’em even if the singers face looked like it was gonna explode the whole time. Having said that they have a great singer (if you like emo) and guitar player but put together they sound like emo Iron Maiden which really isn’t that great. Anyway they are a bunch of kids am sure they can improve but their sound is very incohesive atm.
Only saw the last 2 songs of who I guess would translate as Big Plane & Skyscraper, which now I think about it is rather a controversial name, but their music is anything but, being somewhat bland rock n roll fare but certainly nice enough. They are skilled with their instruments and lead/singer guitar player is also great at breaking strings – he really kills that thing! Nice is the strongest word I can think of for them, anyway.
Nanmo fully deserved the win tonight – great band and great energy, helped more than a little by the fact they had a huge number of screaming fans there, myself included (minus the screaming) and was fully kicking myself for getting to Midi too late and missing them last time. 2 tickets for you (one from the young lady).
Misandao was my surprise of the night, being a massive fan of Sick of it All and various other hardcore punk bands during my teens they got that fire alive again, and I really liked the front-man who looked like he could kick as much ass in a fight as he does with his music. They got my vote.
Have to somewhat disagree about Army of Jade Kirin who I thought were far better when talking to the crowd than when playing. Totally generic nu-metal sound which was completely forgettable. Having seen far too many of this kind of band when Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Linkin Park were all the rage I left before they counted the votes. As you can see I am very biased as Misandao is generic hardcore but I thought that was awesome 😛
TL;DR?
A good evening marred by terrible air-con and with some surprises, highlights Voodoo Kungfu, Misandao and Nanmo. I dread to think what would happen in Mao if there was a fire, and makes me wonder; what did they even change after they were closed for safety issues? The amount they pay in harmony money?
and also – Voodoo Kungfu last? WWWWWWWWWWWWWTTTTTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF?