They Are Still Singing for Their good and that of the Gansu Children

Yet another date circled on the calendar for quite some time and how could i not? Zhao Lao Da, Buyi, Li Dong, Song Yunzhe, Ajinai, Xiao He, Yan Juan, Dong Zi and the list goes on, all playing the same night at 2 Kolegas.
It would have taken one hell of an alternative for me not to go there, especially once i found out that the whole thing was put together to raise money that would go towards buying winter shoes for needy children in Gansu Province.

I don’t think I really need to go over any of the musicians’ performances on this one in details. These guys are all seasoned veterans but I’ll cover some of the surprising more interesting points on here:

The crowds were on time for a change at 2 Kolegas. It was a strange type of audience that pretty much sat down from the beginning of the show until the end. and when i say the end, I mean they stayed until pretty much the last note was played way past 1:00 a.m which i never expected them to have in them.

Huge props to Dong Zi for putting together this little shindig and even bigger props for praying with his strumming hand in stitches. If anyone else is doing similar type of folk in China with such emotion, please let me know! I’d love to know who they are.

Buyi is continuing a trend of doing really unusual things: They used 2 bass players as well as 2 drummers for the gig. I’ve gotten used to the drummer thingy now, but getting Shigeta up there was new. In fact, he was on bass duty the first time i ever saw BUYI play. Their set had me scratching my head: It’s uptempo rock and those folk just sat down! I wanted to shake my bombom man!

Lidong is better with Wu Kejia. his intricate guitar harmonies bring a whole new dimension to the songs/music.

It was my first time seeing Wang Juan play and I’m looking forward to seeing her again, either solo or with her band. Funny thing is you look at her there and her appearance screams “Folk Singer”. simple clear voice even though the melodies were a bit repetitive.

Dawangang or in this case it’s more appropriate to say Song Yuzhe and Zhao Lao Da make a mean pair. Their style is definitely neither understated nor subtle.

What is it about Zhao Lao Da that makes him who and what he is? You look at him and it’s easy enough to just see an old fool with a strange hairdo. Then, he opens his mouth and it’s magic… the guy has so much freaking charisma! I should know better but i’m much like everyone else, completely under his charm.

Xiao He, oh Xiao He, what do i do with you? He played with a guitar simply and that was some of the most amazing work I’ve heard him do ever. We should ban laptops from stage just to keep getting this from him. Seriously folks, he is that freaking amazing. It bears mentioning that he travelled from Hangzhou to Beijing by way of Wuhan that night just to be there and highlight this event again.

The highlight of the night though was seeing all these guys come up onstage for improvised jam session, one of which streched for quite some time with Xiao He, Song Yunzhe and Lao Da bringing the melodies….

As I mentioned earlier, this was a fantastic night and I really wish it had a bigger turnout. Sure, the price was on the steep side at 100 RMB but with all those artists on board and the whole thing being for charity, it was more than worth it.

Just as a side note, there was 101 paying audience members for a grand total of RMB 10,100.00, all going to benefit the kids.