LongTravel 浪旅, Black House 黑屋, Flying Games 飞行游戏 – Mao Livehouse 2021.09.30
Kicked off my October holiday with a pit stop to Mao Livehouse to indulge in a bit of the ol’ indie pop, with a trio of bands from around China strutting their stuff and their particular brand of those sweet melodic earworms.
Things kicked off with Shanghai’s Flying Games – no stranger to this site. As always love the energy the quartet brings to their sets. It’s scrappy, animated, yet with a touch of tender melodic tautness – that gives their song that extra bit of oomph. It’s not clean-cut and all the better for it. The band is prepping the release of their new EP this month, as well as their first-ever nationwide tour so if you get a chance – please do check them out.
Been meaning to check out Chengdu indie poppers Long Travel since the release of their debut a couple of years back. And while that release hinted at something in the reverb-heavy dream pop arena, Long Travel have a damn fine knack for rhythm and had the audience up in arms.
With copious amounts of jangly guitar chords and city-pop synth tones, the band dipped a bit too far into saccharine territory from time to time but always managed to come back with a head-bopping single buoyant in its charm.
Only managed to stick around for a couple of songs from Ningbo’s The Black House – who dabble in the kind of contemporary anthemic urban folk that, when hits right, will enrapture audiences, as was clear from the starry-eyed folks soaking in every word singer Qiao Qiaio had to sing. After two hours of warm whiskey cokes (the other options in Mao’s infamous all-you-can-drink deal was Gin&Sprite and warm Budweiser), I headed off to meet some friends. But something tells me I’ll be catching these cats again down the line.
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