Christmas Day and it's off to Yuyintang to catch a Leonard Cohen-esque miserable band. Yes!
On the bill for Cigarette Butt's EP release tour:
Yu Guo 羽果
Yu Guo were also performing as Cigarette Butt's backing band as they are essentially a duo. Both bands hail from Nan Chang City in Jiangxi. It is worth pointing out that Yu Guo currently have their entire Live In Shanghai 2009 Album on that page for free download.
Now. Cigarette Butt are an excellent deadpan, miserable folk-indie duo. They are best sampled when looking dead ahead and miserably singing This is the sunniest song. Go there now and listen to it, it's this one 最阳光的歌 Also note the hit count and and fans. The kids love this act.
Yu Guo opened with excellent sound that showcased Xie Hui's virtuoso vocal performance. They are a super professional band who rehearse full time and are managed by Zhang Haisheng of Yuyintang. They have recently been to Spain too, check out the nice photos. Tonight they played a shorter set of tracks from their first album Lost Paradise. The youngish, local audience were suitably entranced by Chun Xiao. Everyone's fave.
Cigarette Butt lived up to their sound live. Vocalist/guitarist Ah Bu 阿布 is a tall and formidable guy with real presence. He took centre stage and never smiled or betrayed any emotion other than annoyance and subtle misery. Fellow performer Wang Ranran 王冉冉 is petite and quirky, contrasting Ah Bu. Yuguo are a tight band and the music sounded good. I went away lamenting the lack of an industry (as usual). Yu Guo and Cigarette Butt are not exactly my style of music but listen to the songs at their pages - if there was a halfway functioning national music industry, like in Taiwan, both these bands would be massive and well loved.
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