Jun/100
the roots x ice cube
doing nwa songs?
pretty awesome. apparently before the show cube’s people were saying “don’t ask him to do nwa songs – he won’t do nwa songs” then in warm-up, before the on-air portion, they ask him to play along, and ask him what he wants. . . and he says “let’s do straight outta compton”
no warm-up, not even knowing who was going to eazy’s verse.
May/102
expo post #2 herbie hancock rocks shanghai
one of the really cool things about living overseas – well, our cultural opportunities are not as frequent as they would be in san francisco, la, or even houston, but when they are, we get a much more up close and personal touch.
because of the largesse of some friends working at the usa pavilion at the shanghai world expo, we were treated to 4th rows seats to see jazz legends dee dee bridgewater and HERBIE HANCOCK play at the expo performing arts stage last friday, not only that, but it was free. FREE!
suffice to say, sharing a small, intimate concert venue with such esteemed -jazz- musical legends is beyond my ability to translate onto a blog post, but it was truly a special evening.
See the rest of my photos here
Apr/100
unixx/boys climbing ropes/jan and yan
last friday night hong kong band unixx was in town for the opening of their china concert tour. opening band was jan and yan – a three piece with two guitarists, a tall stunning woman keyboardist, and some sort of bowie/suede thing going on. i didn’t really dig them.
the second band, though, well, it was boys climbing ropes. what can i say? i just really really like watching them in concert. they’re really just on point now. i brought a friend of mine from work to see them play last time and he mentioned just how good the drumming was – and its like they have all cylinders clicking now. i cannot recommend going to see them live in concert enough.
UNiXX was billed as an “angrier smashing pumpkins,” “the cure, but louder” or “hong kong’s darkest band” – all of which i am down with. and they seemed like really nice guys (they lent jordan a guitar when he broke a string in the middle of his set), very good musicians, but the end result was just stuff i wasn’t really into. sorry.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Nov/093
shanghai 0093 live show
last night i went to the 0093 sampler release mentioned here and here held at the new mao livehouse .
arriving late, i missed most of bang bang tang’s return.
@ 0093 Record Release party by [Terence], on Flickr”>
@ 0093 Record Release party” />
Nov/094
ma ma say, ma ma sa, ma ma ku sa
three beats on a snare drum . . . then into a funky bass beat.
that’s how the beginning of michael jackson’s “wanna be startin’ something” begins – if you know the song, then you’ll instantly recognize those three drum beats.
appropriately enough, wanna be startin’ something is the first song in the new movie “this is it” which features footage from the practices that were going to lead up to michael jackson’s last concert series to be held at london’s o2 arena, well right now.
Oct/094
seen last night: free bird!
last night in the shanghai dive bar time passage , three chinese guys are playing decent cover tunes – all classic rock. some eagles, clapton, beatles, billy joel – late sixties through the late seventies. because we are obnoxious fools, we starting making the hand of rock and – well we weren’t shouting ‘freebird’ but we did say it loudly a couple of times.
and lo, did they become the first band to ever take that request seriously, and we were rewarded with a rocking version of freebird.
here’s the original. skynyrd!
Aug/090
nike sb – today was a good day
saw this on adrian lai’s blog
it makes me miss home. and skateboarding. great cameos from kobe and some one else.
Jul/090
late to the game
welsh band stereophonics has been around since 1992 and famous since 1997. heck, according to wikpedia, their height of fame was 1997 – 2000 – which coincidentally was when i was living in hong kong.
earlier this year when i was up in beijing, some dear friends introduced me to the ewan mcgregor and charley bornstein documentary “Long Way Round” wherein the title song was sung by kelly jones, lead singer of stereophonics.
well, after long way round, and leading off show 15 of ‘rough sundays‘, i became hooked.
here’s “step on my old size nines”
note: i couldn’t find my favorite stereophonics song “i wouldn’t believe your radio” on tudou or youku (the chinese video sharing sites) but i can see that it’s all over youtube. which i can’t access.