On The Scene: Dos Kolegas 05-10-2012

King-Size China is what you’d expect – a bonafide king-size day of music from a host of young Chinese bands – metal, emo, hardcore, rockabilly, it’s a concoction of genres which somehow manage to play one after another with ease, simply based on the fact that the people here are true fans of the scene. In fact for the first three hours, myself and the ‘the big guy’, a super tall lanky german/american hybrid who sticks out like tiger in a daycare, were the only laowais at Dos Kolegas, giving us ample time to practice our shit Chinese and force homemade rum down people’s throats. But really, seven new bands for me over the course of seven long hours – let’s just say I did my best to keep my wits sharp. To be honest I spent a day trying to figure out who the hell was who – doing some hardcore detective work online (hint: tattoos were the main giveaway).

The cards are always stacked against the first band but for all it’s worth Ronnie’s Will came out ready to let the audience know that this was gonna be a long evening ahead of them full of screaming dudes.

A little trash, some metalcore, I have no fucking idea, but the blood in my veins it was flowing, and my evil “I’m so metal” glare of mine was in full force. Rawrrrrrrr!

Aww hardcore, I’d only just saw you last weekend – good to see your still kicking and screaming, in the form of Saving Molly.

Lots of hopping around and aerobatic high jumps – it’s hard not to want to join in on the fun, burn off some calories. In an attempt to start my own circle pit I ran head first into buddy’s face – so for the next hour it looked like I had a raging skinhead after me.

Giving these guys a small stage like Dos Kolegas is like trying to contain feral cats in a cage – motherfuckers will run laps in there. Even the drummer, who kicked all sorts of ass, can barely manage to stand still. For sure one of the top bands of the night.

My friend had been waiting for Multi-Ego for sometime – we had no clue this band was Mutli-Ego. And to be honest, we didn’t give these boys a fighting chance as we spent most of the time outside during their set. They’re got the chops for sure…

buttt still something was off that I couldn’t put my finger on – while I enjoyed the emo aspects, it felt wrong with the singer going in and out of growling like a animal to sounding like he’s looking to swoon over a girl. The elements just didn’t add up to an ultimately satisfying set.

Now Shut Up! Shut Down! – he’s that extra dosage of evil that was missing from the last band.

With our singer hunched over as if they brought him over in a crate, the man doesn’t look like he be picking up ladies anytime soon – but rock out he does.

And boy, does he do it in style – in fact the whole band gives it their all, with some really tight guitar work. Hell by the end of their set, I needed a breather.

Yes, our singer looks like he just got picked up from Mexico City – who cares. The Reason were a dose of 90s-influenced melodic metal.

The singer seems to have fun playing with his voice, switching from a scratch of a voice to pure nineties rock, and he makes it look easy. A nice change up from the lineup thus far, I’d have to place The Reason up there with a group I’d be curious to check out again.

TooKoo continued the move into more mainstream territory – brining with them a mix of poppish punk rock with emo peppered on here and there.

I gave in – these boys are fun as all hell. Seeing the level of talents behind these boys it makes the music a lot easier to swallow, which threatens to steer into emo pop time to time but then throws out a hardcore riff to redeem itself. And their song “Take Me Home”

yeah, that’s a keeper. Pretty much had the whole joint singing allow. There’s experience behind those chords and riffs, and TooKoo were on top of their game tonight.

Speaking on being on top of their game – Rolling Bowling, you son of bitches you. I love thee, and if the fine lady next to me giving you the middle finger in complete awe and jealous respect was any indication, this is your year to shine baby.

I managed to pick their album outside and it’s as good as it sounds – can’t get enough of these cats.

The mind, body, and soul were spent at this point, and I was already starting to feel the King-Size hangover that who wreck me the next day. Time to call it quits – though I did pop in one last time to record these young emo-tastic kids.

Who they are, I have no idea – seriously I have no idea – does anyone know? Just looking at the drummer getup, I could feel the rum coming up. But actually watching it now, I can definitely see the appeal – it’s as if I’m fourteen years old again. Minions – find me a name. Whatever the case – Dos Kolegas, lamb, Harbins, rum, and lots of music – that’s King-Size China for ya.