Pictured: Xiao He
Saturday night at Yuyintang and promoter Abe Deyo had brought Jeffery Lewis to China with Beijing's Xiao He in tow. That's 'she-ow her' for non pinyin readers.
This show started late at ten, but even then people trickled in and the place really filled up just in time for Jeffery Lewis to start his set. There are, of course, reasons for the later starts, the same reasons that YYT had to take down all flyers from Douban earlier in the week. It's more trouble to be fully licensed and legal than not apparently.
Xiao He used to front the band Mei Hao Yaodian (translated usually as Glorious Pharmacy by the band in those days). They were a virtuoso ensemble playing a mix of styles that leaned into jazz, blues and funk. Now Xiao He plays experimental folk. He took the stage with a guitar and his laptop/effects. The songs were long and often based on vocal loops. He wandered from the audience at times, as he is wont to do, but the reception was good. His combination of throaty folk vocals/chants, folk guitar and noise loops, with a dose of Chinese indigenous sounds, seems to create a unique blend.
Jeffery Lewis suits Yuyintang. He brought the merch, including his own comic books. He played with a bassist and drummer mixing his anti-folk and also straight rock and punk. Some tracks used YYT's screen to show visuals that he'd drawn himself. All in all a kind of underground/independent buffet.
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