Li Nan | BeijingDaze

Feb
17thVoodoo Kungfu: A Weibo Goodbye from Li Nan

Flash back to 2009 when yours truly had a hectic circuit running around Beijing from show to show, the one slotted in the middle featured Voodoo Kungfu and the Folk Orchestra at Mao Livehouse. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sight of Li Nan perched up above the stage, his body covered in writings, preaching to a hypnotized crowd in a packed Mao Live. It was beautiful! Fast forward a few years, things have changed and it’s apparently time to waive Voodoo Kungfu goodbye as their frontman and musical soul, Li Nan is headed out to Berklee College of Music. The announcement was made through his weibo account also announcing a farewell tour sometime this spring. Here’s hoping it’s a grandiose and befitting celebration of a unique monster. All of Voodoo Kungfu’s tunes are now available for download on their douban page for personal use and hopefully not for abuse. Voodoo is one of the most interesting acts still and Li Nan definitely had a lot to do with it. I’m sure something will come out of his time stateside! You can also follow the band on weibo for some interesting tidbits and historical facts that Li Nan has been posting lately about the music, logos, makeup, influences etc… http://weibo.com/voodookungfu I don’t think many people will understand how special of an artist China is losing… I’ll refers you to this slightly outdated, but nevertheless relevant, interview by Gary Temple for City Weekend a few years back: http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/blogs-beijing/the-beat/voodoo-kungfu-and-the-coming-dark-age/ Up from [...]
Dec
26thVoodoo Kungfu at Mao Live — Downhill Descent

Roughly about two years ago, I had one of the most memorable gigging experiences in Beijing when I managed to catch ChunQuiu Unpluged at jianghu, Voodoo Kungfu and the Folk Orchestra at Mao Live and finally the tail end of The Tag Team Christmas Shindig featuring none other that Ziyo… amazing night I’m telling you! Fast forward two years, Voodoo Kungfu is back to the scene of the crime, albeit without the folk orchestra. I did see the band about 4 times this year with the better performance being their short lived headlining set at MIDI.I had high hopes that they would be bringing their A game to Mao Live and show Beijing that they still had it. One would think that the band would have a sense of urgency given that they haven’t really managed to cross over at the level they expected especially with that humiliating participation at the summersonic competition. Mao was comfortably packed when I got there with J-Curls, Ruby and Ms Glee. There wasn’t much in terms of stage decoration but I’m learning that it’s a standard thing with the band. The show from 2 years ago was an exception… The place erupted when the band finally came on stage and we got started.. at least the computer did. For the next 45 minutes, I stood there watching and listening in horror realizing that more than half of the music was just audio samples coming from some console or laptop. No matter how good they [...]