Temple of Nomad bring their traveler’s tunes to Beijing

Beijing is blessed with a great variety of musical offerings, you can get your fix of metal, folk, experimental, punk, reggae; anything you fancy. But it’s been awhile since I saw a show I could call ‘World Music’, so when BD mentioned Temple of Nomad in the Quickslants this week I was keen to check them out.

I got to Gulou 121 a little late walking in 2 songs into the set to find a couple of long-haired laowai on stage playing to an entirely local crowd. The venue wasn’t packed, but those that were there, were quietly listening to the intricate guitar plucking and flute melodies without any of the normal annoying chatter I hear at small shows.

Aussie Jack and Brit Ed do have the right to call themselves nomads, they’ve travelled through over 60 countries and you can hear remnants of their travels in their music. They’re currently dividing their year with 6 months each in India and Yunnan, and are touring around China for the second time. Their set included many of the songs from their newly recorded album, some instrumental compositions and others with vocal interpretation and storytelling. Both Jack and Ed have recorded solo albums as well and I would have liked to have seen them play some of those songs as well, especially when Jack mentioned he also plays didgeridoo.

(from Temple of Nomad’s douban)

The crowd was small, but quite a few bought CDs, had them autographed and got photo’s with the musicians after the show. It’s a shame the second, more publicised show at Jianghu on Saturday didn’t go ahead. But Temple of Nomad are planning to tour again next year when they come back from India. Their albums are currently available on taobao here and you can listen to more of their music on their douban.