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.

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

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.

however i’m glad chinese bands are starting to think about advocacy and doing things beyond just producing music. on the whole, it’s a positive thing and a step in the right direction. on to the actual show

i arrived in the middle of faf’s set – so was standing towards the back. but their funeral for a friend screamo/scream-core (i’m actually really bad at categorizing music beyond “hip hop” “rock” and “pop”) certainly got the crowd moving. they finished with a cover of “until the day i die” by story of the year.

after a quick break, the band i came to see (candy shop) took that stage. click on the link if you want to listen to them – i don’t really have a good description of their music. they play a bit of everything, but i think you could categorize them as nu-metal X saccharine pop. like i said, i don’t know how to categorize music well, but i do know this: they are a great band to see live.

kk with his raps and sammy with her raps and singing – the interplay between the two leads – along laid down with a metal backing along with the entire pixies/nirvana/smashing pumpkins soft/LOUD/soft combo make for a really fun band to jump along to. although with candy shop, the soft/LOUD/soft dynamic is taken to extremes with the contrast between sammy’s singing and kk’s raps.

i captured some video here – although the entire song is 4 minutes long, flickr cut it down to a minute or so. when i get around to it, i’ll upload it somewhere that will show the entire song.

while candy shop put on a great show, i’m not sure if it was the thursday night or the rain or whatever, but the crowd seemed strangely subdued, especially when contrasted with the last time i saw them. (actually i’m pretty sure it was because it was thursday night)

if you’re in shanghai, candy shop will be playing at MAO livehouse (huaihai lu at red town) on march 12th at 8pm as part of a larger show! i encourage you to go down and check them out.

arriving late, i missed most of bang bang tang’s return.

@ 0093 Record Release party by [Terence], on Flickr”>@ 0093 Record Release party” />

but i got up close for the rest of the night. the next band up was rap-rock-metal-pop candy shop (tian pin dian). their line-up now somewhat stable – with newish singer sammy, they proceed to rock out. loud and melodic, with tight hooks and great presence on stage, they really kicked ass.

next up was pinkberry. i’ve talked about pinkberry before on this blog – and they continue to be my favorite local band. great pop-punk, awesome vocals from xiao yoi and even with the lineup changes, a tight tight set.

pinkberry also debuted this music video – i can’t wait to see it on a screen that isn’t split into three parts!

next up was headliners (and 2nd to last! welcome to china, where dorms close early and college students leave en masse right at 11pm) top floor circus. i’d never seen them live, but they put on a great show. i only wish that i understood shanghainese, because, at the very least, they happen to be the funniest band in shanghai with frontman lu chen. of course they played their now infamous “shanghai bu huanying ni” (shanghai does not welcome you – a play on the olympics theme song from last year “beijing welcomes you”) with lots of lyrics about you’re only welcome if you come shopping, shanghai doesn’t have culture, but it has money.

after top floor circus played, the place cleared – seriously, it went from about 500 people to about 30 in the space of 5 minutes. and poor screamo/emo college band firefighter had to play to an empty room. they should really figure out a new way to schedule concerts so that local kids get to play in front of a crowd.

seriously – look how empty it is:

it was a great night. if shanghai and mao livehouse can continue to put together live nights like this, it won’t be long before the reputation of shanghai as a dead-end for live rock will be killed (or so we can hope).

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.

first a little background – i don’t know if i would describe myself as a michael jackson fan. like countless other people, i own many of his albums (thriller on vinyl, bad on cassette, off the wall, history and the essential on both cds and downloaded) and 99% of his pre-black or white catalog will get me off my butt and grooving. but i also grew up right in the time of his strangeness – from neverland ranch to his marriage to debbie rowe to his strange public appearances, ever-worsening plastic surgery; and then of course there was the accusations and the child molestation trial.*

each of those public forays, he appeared confused, weak, strange, fragile and unaware of who he was, what he was doing and his place in the world. he became much more than the most gifted pop musician of all time, he became the defining character of the weird weird celebrity world and somewhere, the music was overlooked.

and it was great amazing music. the entire thriller album is pop music genius. off the wall is funkiness with the groove of disco. bad has a number of excellent tracks.

so if you are a fan of jackson’s music, it’s nigh impossible to see this movie and not start tapping your foot or smiling or grooving in as he hits familiar pleasure spots with mega hits like thriller, human nature, beat it and smooth criminal. additionally, you get to see an unpolished behind-the-scenes michael who, like his dancers and singers and musicians, are really working incredibly hard to pull of an entertainment spectacle. and you can see just from the practices that these shows would have been the standard with which all future concerts would have been judged.

but more than the music, the movie shines a spotlight back on jackson the performer, and forgets (or conveniently edits out if you believe the conspiracies) jackson the strange, jackson the deviant, and all we are left with, through this movie, is memories of the music and the dancing. throughout the rehearsals, jackson is a focused driven perfectionist, always seeking to better create the show for the audience. hold the melody for two more bars here, let the mood simmer for 4 more counts there, slow the tempo down a little here. he’s not only the consummate showman, but he has worked hard on his craft and he wants to show it off to his fans.

the movie is both uplifting in that we get to see jackson at his finest once more, and sad, knowing what would’ve been had he not tragically overdosed.

*i don’t mean to brush over this or just ignore it, but the fact of the matter is i have no idea what happened in those bedrooms.

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!

it makes me miss home. and skateboarding. great cameos from kobe and some one else.

Pinkberry. My Wish. Shanghai Pop Punk for a Friday morning.

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.