A Rocking Family Tradition: Bad Mamasan, ChunQiu and Nucleus at Yugong Yishan

I might get into a lyrical quoting habit but pieces of Manowar’s Kings of Metal come to mind when thinking about last saturday Rock n Roll extravaganza at Yugong Yishan with Bad Mamasan, ChunQiu and Nucleus, 3 bands I’ve seen a few times over the past few weeks.

We like it hard, we like it fast
We got the biggest amps, man they blast
True metal people wanna rock not pose
Wearin’ jeans and leather, not cracker jack clothes

I think the dual triple stack of Marshal amps on stage that greeted the audience at Yugong Yishan might have had something to do with it 🙂

The crew of fans that dressed the part wasn’t bad either!!!! Rock n Roll Chicks rule
\m/ ^=^ \m/

Nucleus, a last minute replacement for SAW, opened things up with a quick slightly tamed set by their usual standards. I think they might have gotten scared by how freaking good everything sounded! I like how they’ve grown as a band but now, it’s time to take the next step and turn things up. One thing I hadn’t noticed before is that some of their songs have a little Ska progression in them!! Quite easy to hear actually when they turn the distortion down. Gotta give the guys credit as they were double booked that night with another gig immediately after that at Jiangjinjiu…. and please, get that Bass tuned 🙂

Chunqiu, whose electric goodness I learning to enjoy all over again, was next. I couldn’t fault their set in Tianjin but this one was a few notches up. Bigger stage, bigger audience, better sound = winning formula! Yang Meng, usually restrained, was on fire with vocals, guitar shredding and headbanging!

Diao Lei pounded the shit out of those drums and I think i might be developing a man-crush on him. Kaiser Kuo and the rest of the band were just as methodical and precise in their performance… It’s really fun seeing them play so well in such an effortless manner. I do hope they all find the time to lay down a few new tracks sooner or later!

Then Bad Mamasan came on… and boy was it loud! Good kind of loud too where the music was powerful, sound clear and the band rocking. I liked how they structured their set this time around: mostly originals with a few covers thrown in between to keep up the audience’s energy. I was a bit afraid the crowd might thing out after ChunQiu but no such thing happened with the audience staying put.

To say that this was a rock n roll party would be an understatement! The band not only played their usual set but proceeded with a fun follow up that saw guest players from all over the spectrum join them on stage for some good jams: Jackson Garland ( RandomK(e) / Redbucks) on Baghdad, Royce Darbyshire (Black Cat Bone) on The Wizard, previous drummer and original smoking hot Bad Mamasan Alex Ramsey on Children of the Grave, Kaiser Kuo on The Ripper, Kou Zhengyu ( Suffocated/ChunQiu) on Slayer’s Die By The Sword and finally Mademoiselle herself for the classic Helter Skelter before the guys brought things to an end with a blistering rendition of Highway Star…. wow! did I say this was loud and fun? oh it was loud and fun!

I gotta give props to pentaskull ( formelly e-head) for beijing a one-man-moshpit entity and clearing the front of the house….that was a sight!!!
To quote Hank Williams Jr. , rocking with these cats is now a Family Tradition with everything that the statement implies:) I love the bands, take comfort in knowing what I’m gonna get and the kind of crowd that will be there!

For those about to rock, we look forward to seeing you again!