It is easy to complain that things are not "authentic" in the Chinese indie rock scene -- D-22 is run by a middle-aged white guy, tapping his fingers on the bar along to the beat, shaking hands with other middle-aged white guys while the crowd (about 70% foreign) nods approvingly at the bands on stage. But these Chinese rock and roll bands, they are here, anyway. They are bands. They are playing music and somebody is listening, which means everything. 23 was not great, by the way, and I don't want to say something like "oh, but they'll get better, just wait, Chinese rock is developing, they're not there yet." Just this: 23 was not great. They played "There is A Light That Never Goes Out" with creativity and grace, but their songs were not great. The band that played after them, The Bigger Bang, was pretty great. We didn't stay for the last two bands, because, everywhere on earth, rock shows always, always start and end too late.
I've got some more on music in China coming in before the end of the year, both in a dead-tree publication and an internet thing that is made up to look like a dead-tree publication, so stay tuned. For now, here's a review of Jenny Lewis' album Acid Tongue.
PS: A book called Remembering the Future, which collects essays from The Other Journal, an online publication I've been contributing to since 2004, has just been published. It includes a revised (and better, I think) version of an essay now titled "There is Only One Thing" which is about the Stars album Set Yourself on Fire. You can buy the book here.
No comments:
Post a Comment