On The Scene: Yuyingtang 19-04-2013

\"fof4b\"

Part one of Live Shanghai Music – my first taste of the scene. Four bands, thirty yuan. That’s fine marketing. Sure as hell beats throwing down a grand for Slash. Anywho, Yuyintang is everything I’d hoped it’d be – everything about it is convenient and well-spaced. Did I mention they have their own camera rig center floor. So anyone can just throw their recorder on, press record, and sit back. Yeah, Shanghai is pretty anal? Alright to the music –

Hells yes – this is how you throw a show with four bands (and a lot of white faces) who know how to have a good time – Friend or Foe, Stegosaurus?, Round Eye, and Blue Magpie. More please.

\"steg2b\"

You know you’re in for a good time when you bump into Ultraman upstairs. Little did I know it was the guitarist from Stegosaurus? – the quirky, super serial pranksters who are piss on the word genre.

Yeah, they were down one man tonight, but that didn’t stop them from having a grand ol’ time. Their sound is completely scattered brain – it really does sound like music filtered though the mind of an eleven year sugar-high kid. I mean that as the highest praise.

Sporadic a bit, but there’s such gleeful menace in their performance you have to have to hand it them – they’ve deserved that lollipop.

\"roundeye1b\"

I was pretty jazzed to catch Round Eye for the first time, and boy oh, how they exceeded my expectations. This is a band with a clear agenda of what they’re aiming for. High-octane, mad house dance rock.

If you want to pinpoint all the influences, go ahead, nobody’s holding you back. The beauty though lies in the way they attack each song – it’s relentless. Between Chachy’s elastic voice and the double saxophone threat, it’s a nonstop party up there.

Barely a moment to catch your breathe, Round Eye is a carnival of cheshire cat lunacy.

\"fof4a\"

I guess it’s got to be a requisite to have a few screws loose if you’re forming a band in Shanghai, cause we’re three for three, as Friend or Foe, the enigmatic charismatic ramshack trio took stage with a whole slew of new material.

One thing is for sure, the band is maturing. The dresses are still there, the dirty rambunctiousness, even the tongue-in-cheek lyrics (please don’t go away). But there’s a tightness to their get-up now that’s feels full-fledged.

It’s a blender of influences still, and the country is really starting to shine in these three – but their head is in the right place, and with the amount of material they’re spinning now, I’m sure it’ll be no time before we see another release.

\"bluemagpie1a\"

To cap off the night, before things took a silly turn, I got to relive my middle school years as I listened to the Britpop-evoking lost-love yearning Blue Magpie.

Yes, it’s sappy for sappy’s sake. Yes, it’s a little cheesy. And yes, I listened intently as they spoke to a younger me. Dude, are you crying? Looks like the goof train has taken off folks.

\"yygragon\"

So yeah, four bands, four sounds, and my first night of Live Shanghai Music. Keep an eye out for these Shanghai kids in the next month, word is they’ll be hitting up a few of our venues for some shenanigans.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*