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Jan
4th1/1/11 at 2 Kolegas: Aces all around as Buyi, Nucleus, Rustic and SUBS Start the New Year with a Bang2010 was closed out in Beijing with a number of concerts that were pretty darn good by all accounts. Your truly managed to miss them all but I was determined to make up for it and get 2011 started on the right musical track! While there were a few quality lineups around town, there was no way I would miss out on SUBS, 24 Hours, Rustic and Candy Monster at 2 Kolegas….halfway through saturday, word came around that 24 Hours pulled out and was replaced by Buyi and Nucleus…. not exactly the same but I love both bands.. wasn’t about to change my mind on it. I got to 2 Kolegas at 10 p.m with Candy Monster getting started. It was my first time catching these guys for an extended set and they were not bad! It’s not music that’s gonna save your life but it’s non-offensive! Given their pedigree of performing with Twisted Machine, Brain Failure and Miserable Faith amongst others, I expected them to be heavier. Singer Bian Bian is highly entertaining and was good about interacting with the crowd, thankful for their first time playing 2 Kolegas. Apparently, they have an American Keybordist who was MIA that day. decent popish punk overall! Next up were old friends,Nucleus, with Liu Miao (more on him later) back on drums. These cats are either getting better all the time or I’m getting too used to them. Li Xia’s voice is improving and the band looked like it was having fun. [...]
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Dec
31stYear End Music Quickslants: Free Birds, SUBS, MIDI & The King will Rock You into 2011Beijing’s music community is closing the year in style and starting things off with a bang. Some great shows are lined up for tonight, saturday and sunday, some of which can be considered must-see music.. let’s get this baby started: Friday Dec 31: MIDI Awards @ Star Live: The granddaddy of rocknroll awards in China is holding its second edition at the starlive with some of the better bands playing. Miserable Faith, Hanggai, Nanwu etc… are all on hands to entertain the crowd and hopefully collect a few awards. Audience is limited to 800 so check online if it’s not sold out yet. NYE @ 2 Kolegas: The drive in will be home to a gigantic party with Free The Birds, reTROS and one of my favorite newcomers to the scene, The Ghost Spardac. The party is probably gonna drag on til the wee hours of the morning especially with FTB’s Helen Feng hosting the MIDI awards before trekking over. very recommended. Cui Jian @ Worker’s Stadium: Steven Schwankert of City weekend called him “The King of F—-ing Everything” and i gotta agree. Whatever you think of him, Lao Cui has cemented his place is the annals of Chinese Rock. You’ll find him tonight joining the orchestra he started with for a greatest hits type of performance. He might be older but he hasn’t lost any of his swagger. Saturday Jan 1: SUBS & 24 Hours @ 2 Kolegas: There is just no freaking way in hell I am missing [...]
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Dec
17th24 Hours Rock, Lazy Camels Standstill and Dama Llamas Grow Uplast saturday, I checked out of Santacon a bit early hoping to catch Omnipotent Youth Society at Mao Live. Unfortunately, the show was beyond sold out so I backtracked and headed over to 2 Kolegas for the Burns Guitars launch event with 24 Hours, Lazy Camels and Qingdao’s Dama Llamas.. definitely a worthwhile journey. I had seen the Dama Llamas a while back, also at 2 Kolegas, and remember referring to them as High School rock. Tell you what folks, they’re all grown up now. The band is tighter, more secure in their playing and just overall better. They play a mix of funk, metal, alternative rock that mashes well and stays high energy which is something i can appreciate. Their onstage antics are also fun with stage freezes, great play off of each other etc… This is one band that has improved a lot in 6 months. Next up were Lazy Camels who i had not seen in over a year. They, on the other hand, have not changed a bit! They’re really a perfect mid-bill band in that they’re not offensive, they’re mildly interesting and have potential…. and that’s been their description since they started. They brand of punk is sincere if a tiny little poppish and fairly uninspired. A good band to stick in the middle as a measuring stick for the opening act and the closers. 24 Hours came on after that and proceeded to blow the roof of 2 Kolegas! I shit you not folks, [...]
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Nov
3rdHalloween Shindig at 2 Kolegas: Rusty Birds & Rustic, Amazing DH, interesting 24h and welcome The KAlex over at Beijing Gig Guide labelled it his gig of the week and I agree on principle. A lineup of this quality is worth checking out for surprises are bound to happen… and they did! Free the Birds came on first for a quick set so that Helen could get on a plane to Europe for the upcoming Pet conspiracy tour there. This might have been the worst performance of theirs that I’ve seen to date ( and you know how much it pains me to say that). The performance was uninspired at best with 3 out of 4 songs sounding bad, almost as if the band was too rusty and hadn’t played together in years. I’ll leave it to that! 24 Hours, which i had been hearing about for a while turned out to be one hell of a good surprise. The trio was rocking with a mix of 70s flavored punk & rock. The band sounded tight and looked extremely comfortable on stage and the audience bought it! It’s actually really hard to describe what they sounded like other than 70s flavored with a modern take..some flashes of Iggy n the Stooges, if they had gotten started today. The K was up next and they actually dressed up for the party! I never heard their name before it appeared on that night’s bill but seems like they been around for a while and they even have a CD to their name. They were a bit all over [...]
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Jun
29thZippo Hot List Review: High Kicks – Not Entirely Appropriate!Well, BD billed it as one hell of a show, and that it was! I have to admit I was a little concerned before that the Yugong Yishan curse would strike again, but the someone has done something to that sound system, because it was pumping last night! My buddy S joined me for this one, very excited to be seeing Rustic for the first time (I think I’ve talked them up a lot!) and she was not disappointed. Looking back on my notes the thing that pops up is “High Kicks – Not Entirely Appropriate!” It seems the theme of the night was pants – or lack of, but more about that later …. First up Mister Graceless, a tight 3 piece, with bass and lead guitarists alternating the vocals. I hadn’t heard of these guys before, they’re are good, but a little to formulaic for my tastes. S and I found ourselves each song saying, “Oh, this sounds like … (insert band name here)”. The bass player was much more confident in his abilities, but the lead guitarist (who actually had a better voice) spent most of the set looking at his feet, or with his back to the audience. These guys sing in English, which is not something I generally like with Chinese bands, but they managed to pull it off quite well including S’s favorite line of the night “Dirty things gonna drive you better”. They ended the set with an awesome instrumental. I’m going to [...]
The Mini Skinny
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