[Gig Review] 1984, The Second Coming – A Moshing Time with PK14

long time no yugong yishan
it’s weird that what used to be one of my favorite venues has pretty much vanished from my regular list of pit stops… what better occasion to revisit it than to check out PK 14 along with an armada of Maybe Mars bands, especially after getting 10 questions with Yang Haisong.

I made it there late thinking i would only be able to catch the headliners, but i did forget that whole Beijing time factor: when i walked in at 10:30, Skip Skip Ben Ben had just started playing. Great, I thought… i finally get to hear what the fuss is all about with these kids.
well, after a whole set, I can honestly stay i still don’t get it. Nice voice, nice tunes, nice compositions and overall just nice… in a “cup of tea” kinda nice… I can see how they make a decent opening act but let’s just say the jury is out. To be fair to the band, there were a few moments during their set when i caught myself going..”not bad..” to few though.

Next up was Rustic.. Lucifer et co. came out full swing playing a bunch of new songs, a nice thing to see. I’m always afraid of bands putting out 1 CD then getting lost in their own song. Not these kids.. I can’t say i’m a fan of the new material or the new musical direction. Just too vanilla IMHO… The difference between old and new material is just too big at this point. On the bright side of things, the mayonnaise has taken and they’re sounding tighter, more like a band.

Finally, the night’s headliners took up the stage. PK 14 for their first show of 2012 in Beijing… They wasted no time jumping right into it and proceeded to rip through 45 minutes of old and new songs much to the delight of everyone there. I’m not too familiar with their material but everything i heard that night sounded good. ANd not to take anything away from the music, that was for one night the least of my worries: The crowd on the other hand was pretty darn good! As much as i bitch and moan about Yugong and the people it attracts, that one night, i didn’t need to. People were there for the music. Even the dreaded Yugong sound was good.. can you imagine?
Last but not the least, friday night will be the first night ever during my tenure in China that a moshpit lasted for more than 20 seconds… e-head, you’d have loved this one. I came out of it with broken glasses and two cuts but it was all worth it..

Here is a nicely made video of the song 1984 (II) which might end up being the title track for the new release:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDgzOTc3ODQw.html

Good show by the bands and nice job by Maybe Mars putting on and promoting the whole thing…