Saturday night and I popped over to Yuyintang to catch a night of rock. As Dan of The Fever Machine pointed out, usually I'd be over at the show put on by the younger local crowd. But tonight I had two good reasons to hit this show. One, yes, about time I caught up with the latest projects from the very talented guys behind both The Fever Machine and X is Y. Two, Pairs ... Pairs, my favorite new act.
No disrespect to RDC by the way, they're great.
So. Show didn't get started till just gone ten with four bands to go. Good start with X is Y though. Technically adept atmospheric rock with a laid back feel. I was especially impressed with the guitar sound. It was achieved by something you don't see often at YYT. The band brought in their own amp which looked like an old school valve amp. May have just been the look though. At any rate, the band went to lengths to create the sound they wanted - and it worked.
Pairs. I had caught one of their earlier appearances and loved the lo-fi grunge sound done with just guitar and drums. You could see their creativity and energy and, well, cool. I had a feeling that tonight's show might be a break through performance for them. And it was. The crowd really loved the energy of Xiao Zhong (Rhys) on drums/vocals and local guitarist "F" was the perfect laid-back, almost disinterested, cool indie chick. I think only a very slightly too quiet guitar stopped the place from kicking off.
At that point time was getting on and I became painfully aware of my horrifically early date with work the next morning. I thought I was going to miss out on The Fever Machine again. Then, for reasons I didn't inquire in to, The Fever Machine went on third instead of fourth as billed. So I got to check out a couple of tracks. As you'd expect from those guys, it was tight classic rock. This time (following on from Rogue Transmission) they have added more technical chops and a streak of psychedelia.
I went home early, but very very happy. Great crowd, great atmosphere, all the bands brought it. Nice.
Hi,
It's G from X is Y. About the guitar sound, I used an brand new tube amp built by Brad Ferguson (based in Shanghai). He made it as small as possible so it's very convenient to bring it to the shows.
You can check Brad's website here: http://www.bradslab.com/
Hey fellas, here it is in all its glory.
http://www.luwanrock.com/and-the-real-star-of-the-show-is/
Hey Adam, hey G.
I saw Brad building that but had no idea it was for you. It had a really warm and round sound that immediately stood out.
It's funny. When digital first came in in a big way when I was younger, even CD's vs vinyl ... all the talk was how the new equipment and mediums were colder and couldn't quite reproduce the 'real' sounds. Then technology got better and better and I forgot about this point.
But on Saturday I heard the difference again.