Friday night and it was the next installment of Scottish Mike's four great bands series at Yuyintang. The original line up:
As the gig drew close, it was announced that two more bands would join the line up, both going on late:
M.O.T.O. are over in China touring and added this as an extra show. I should say right now, they didn't get on until around one, I guess, I never made it. I saw the advertised bands and most of Tinderbox.
Heavenly Hazard, for reasons explained between songs, are now a two piece. It led to an interesting turn. Guitarist Leila used an octaver to double up her semi-acoustic and then played all the slap bass parts on it too. The drummer was tight and inventive also. If they embrace this element more and move away from the old material it'll be really original sounding.
Next up were Candy Shop who went through their usual high energy power pop set with signature moves and professionalism. There was a new track in there and also their two big Douban hits from the Chinajoy year, Love Song and Dan Lian Sha. Look at those Douban numbers, look at them.
I was really looking forward to The Other and they didn't disappoint. They think of themselves as a work in progress still and have only recently settled on a set and style but they had everything the budding fan of lofi-postpunk-shitgaze-delaychoked-psychedelia could want. The guitar sound was loud and choppy and they displayed a wide range of material. There were really stripped down short repeaters ... but there were also layered, wonderful sounding hypnotic tracks - especially Space Jam in which Adam used an E-bow to create the swooshing backing loop. At times it was loose with a jammed feel, but it added to the material for me. As you can tell, I was quite taken with it and you may have to not trust me. I'll throw up a video shortly.
Xiao Xin Yi Yi rounded off the main line up with a high energy set of punk/garage rock. The new numbers landed and the track "Titties" was gamely introduced as "(bassist Mike) Bush wrote this ... because he's a misogynist." And then it was on to the extra bands. I saw most of Tinderbox's set before sleep and hunger wore me down. They had a good sound and, like Candy Shop, deliver their guitar pop with enough energy and professionalism to win people over and give a good show, even if sugary pop is not your thing. Singer Renia (小宝) has her act down pat.
