Fri, October 09, 2009
1. The Best:
Glorious Pharmacy lived up to their name. Their show simply overflowed with delights for the mind, body, and spirit. Frontman Xiao He was continuously interesting and inventive throughout the show. He played the crowd like a real maestro, coaxing us into silly group sing-a-longs, foot-stomping, jumping, and more laughs than most stand-up comedians could hope to get. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much at a concert.
The crowd nearly came apart when he started marching around in rigid military style (see photo). Everybody let out an embarrassed gasp at the boldness of his critique and giggled politely, but as he persisted and raised the intensity, they gave in: yes, it’s ok to laugh, they seemed to say, we are big enough to laugh at ourselves.
Miserable Faith was a huge crowd favorite. Most people knew the words to their songs and sang along with passion. Gao Hu’s lyrics clearly mean a lot to this generation of young people.
Said concertgoer Xiao Ming, “I think his words are quite revolutionary. My generation is completely lost. We’ve lost touch with all beliefs and traditions from our past and we don’t know what to believe in. We only know to believe in material. Miserable Faith speaks for us.”
I was impressed with Miserable Faith’s melodic sensibility and song structures. They seem to have an uncanny ability to become more commanding as their melodies become sweeter and more restrained. Miserable Faith is a rare assemblage of talent and sincerity.
2.The Also Good:-DH and the Chinese Hellcats can really play. Singer DH was feisty and fearless, leading her band through solid renditions of classic swing and big-beat tunes. They even threw in a cover of “Beat It” with the words changed to “Swing It,” which was a bit wacky, but sort of worked.
Guitarist Dee Dee played well and looked great in his spatz and crisp white suit. Really they all looked great, and I can say for the record, DH got a lot of attention from the local police. They just stopped what they were doing and started smiling the smile of far-away possibilities—of baby Hellcats riding baby police motorcycles and swinging on…
3. The Couldn't Get Down With It As Much:-Wang Yong brought the highest level of musicianship I had seen at the festival. His band of 8 included brilliant players of Pipa, Guzheng, Erhu, and Morin Khur. Wang Yong conducted/masterminded the blending of prerecorded beats and vocals with lush and thunderous live arrangements that pushed the sound system to its limit.
The overall sound and presentation had a John Tesh/Yanni kind of feel, which, obviously a lot of people really like. To me it sounded like recruiting music for the new Chinese Star Fleet. Later I started thinking that if Wang Yong were to write a Scientology jingle for China, you’d really have something there. Tom Cruise, are you out there? Have your people call his people.
The Reason does a kind of tantrum screamo-metal thing and does it pretty well. Their intensity gave me a warm sympathetic feeling and I would consider checking them out again. But good screamo is like a successful root canal: hard to celebrate.
Hua Lun does a high-frequency guitar strumming 3-chord-change kind of rock. They start strumming fast, then faster, faster still, and then build and churn it all up into a sometimes effective emotional crescendo. They have some solid ideas, just not enough of them. This band could very well get much better in the future.
4. The Not As Bad As Before:-The character of the security protocols did in fact change for the better on the final day. Regular army presence was significantly reduced and the lead was taken largely by blue-shirt police. Also intriguing was the presence of many female police, many more than in the previous days. The effect I think was beneficial, lightening the mood a bit. The bizarre policy of keeping the front section to half-capacity continued, to the detriment especially of the headlining acts.
