Handsome Furs at 2 Kolegas: Smoking Hot Green, Electric Buzz Bounce and Indie Good Times

There wasn’t much to get excited about this past weekend as far as live music in Beijing. Some solid shows but nothing out of this world! I figured I’d take a chance and head out to 2 Kolegas on Sunday night to take a personal look at Handsome Furs who my indie friends were fairly gaga about. I even went as far as getting and advance ticket.

We got to the drive-in area a bit early so that we could grab a dinner at the neighboring Ethiopian restaurant where the experience didn’t live up to the hype ( but I’ll address that in a rant later).

The show started a little after 9 with Beijing’s own Bigger Bang taking care of the opening duties. First thing I noticed when i walked in was Pupi, the lead singer, sporting a smoking hot green dress that oozed sex-appeal! This was in stark contrast with the rest of the band whom were dressed in standard issue rock outfits.

Last time I’d seen Bigger Bang live, I was less than impressed due to some excessive screaming… last night was definitely not the case. There was more singing and playing as opposed to screeching. The band was tight and pulled a classic set that i did enjoy! There was some really good chemistry between band members as they spent a lot of time smiling towards each other and Pupi did spend a lot of time gazing at the audience, making eye-contact which I take as a good sign.

One thing that bears writing is the difference in style when they’re opening for someone as opposed to headlining. It seems to me that they go to a certain length and make sure they don’t upstage the headlines by toning the performances down. Definitely a good performance by Bigger Bang… ohn, Pupi, please stick with this look! you’ll have rabid groupies after you in no time.

Next up were Handsome Furs themselves. They had a few issues getting setup but then proceeded to kick off the festivities! The duo has a lot of energy and seemed to know and understand where they were which came through in their statements. When they said “Beijing is my favorite City in the world”, it sounded believable! The band played on for a good 45mn to 1 hour and went through what i assume are classics as well as a few new songs that they tried live for the first time.

The show was high octane/energy with Alexei all over the place jumping, bouncing ( extremely high bounce factor if you know what i mean) and generally having a blast on stage. Her infectious energy did have the crowd going most of the night. Dan’s vocals are pretty darn good and carried the show along with heavily distorted guitars.

Overall, I really liked the songs i heard and I loved the band’s energy. I’m 100% convinced I would love them even better with real drums and bass instead of Keyboard but alas… The crowd was really into them with a few people jumping up and down while others looked like they were on a different planet, dreamingly gazing at the non-existent horizon…

After a little while, I stepped outside on the lawn where i could hear the music and enjoy a rare fresh Beijing evening thinking: This was good but not really my cup of tea, I guess I’m not “indie”…… what a relief.