On The Scene: XP 11-07-2012

So a friend of a friend of my brothers’ is on the tail end of his trip and has a couple nights in Beijing only – I’m required to show him a night on the town. So what do I do? Bring him to some dirty, drunken rock and roll in a near empty XP – that’s what. In retrospect, a part of me feels like the used the poor lad, but hell, it’s friggin’ rock n’ roll. And with scrappy rugged sets from the Bedstars and Chaos, I just couldn’t resist.

I remember seeing Bedstars way back in April last year and better impressed with their manic, drunken, sloppy attitude. Well, it seems like they haven’t done much growing up. They’re still all over the place, have this nonchalant way of engaging the audience, mainly contempt, and red in the face.

But as easy as it would be to take more shots at these kids, I found it all too endearing, as they do have some catchy rhythms up there, and their sluggish recklessness is all too perfectly timed to brush off as lack of effort.

This is gonna be one of those bands that will polish their sound eventually if they ever release anything, and then everyone will remark how they were so much more better and crude before – so enjoy their shenanigans while they last.

Chaos has a lot going for them. It can difficult for guitar and drum to pull off a lot but they manage to do so. Some super cool rhythms that keep your head bobbing through each of their songs. Monkey on drums which really adds a whole other dimension of awesomeness – seriously the man’s an animal on those things, and Quan Xin knows how to get some killer tunes out of his guitar.

Now, as I’m sure with many of you, it’s the voice which will turn many off – a grating, whining, frustrated voice which really can be cringe-worthy from time to time. But as I said last time I saw these chaps go at it, it feels real – that’s some premium angst and stress up there on the mic. Does that translate to accessible or enjoyable – probably not? But it’s raw, a tad manic, and definitely intriguing to say the least.

I guess leave it up to XP to bring in the weird and beautiful, the scrappy and endearing, the raw and unfeigned – for that, kudos.

Stay tuned for my continued Wednesday night musical tour – why not a trip to Temple.