After a night of hard rock and punk on Wednesday it was time for a night of cool at Yuyintang. Beijing's Ourself Beside Me are touring to promote their new CD and were supported tonight by Shanghai's Hard Queen. Check them out:
Hard Queen are playing with a bit more poise since their successful CD launch and have developed the songs for the live show, adding longer sections to dancable tracks. Songs Jungle Queen and Loser really stood out and you got the feeling that if there were just a few more people in the crowd it would have broken out into some jumping and action - impressive considering they are a kind of minimalist indie-pop three peice. As it happened YYT was filling up late tonight.
Ourself Beside Me claim their influences as Velvet Underground, Syd Barret and Brian Eno. They are a super cool trio who play experimental rock. I have the CD and saw them at the Maybe Mars showcase back in January but this wasn't the same. Seeing them up close in YYT was a whole new experience. The band were mesmerizing and apparently uninterested in the audience, preferring to use the time between songs to neck bottles of wine and beer chasers without saying a word into the mics. After a hypnotic and catchy show which left us all a bit star-struck, Yang Fan uttered her first words to the crowd "Thank you". I really liked the whole night and decided to get a souvenir, one of the OBM set lists, but was forced by bassist Xiehan to get her a cigarette in exchange first. Ha.
Not being as polite as Andy, I just stole a set list off the stage, therefore avoiding any negotiations with cigarrettes. Here's what it looks like
Two video clips from the gig - here and here. Enjoy!