Results tagged “Chaos Mind” from Jake Newby

I finally ended my gig drought last night with my first trip up to the new Live Bar, where I saw Chaos Mind, The Fever Machine, Stegosarus?, Pairs and a surprise appearance from Yan Tiao. Actually, I thought the surprise guest was going to be Hang on the Box - I thought the girls were there and everyone was saying they were going to play, but they didn't, which was fine actually because Yan Tiao were really good. 

I got there a little late, missing Pairs, but arriving for the start of Stegosaurus?'s set. This was the first time I'd seen them in a long time, so I was glad to catch them. They were on good form, with their usual high energy levels and a solid set of songs - including some new ones that I hadn't seen live before - plus some extra special headgear.

The Fever Machine were up next, despite being the headliners on the bill. A lot of the crowd seemed to be there to see them and people were really into their set. Their track 'Dance with Deviance' is still available for free download right here by the way. That left Chaos Mind to play next who now have Levi (ex Mortal Fools) playing with them and were excellent.

Dan then took to the stage to announce that there would be another band who, as I mentioned, we all thought was going to be Hang on the Box. Instead two guys took to the stage, one on drums and one on guitar. And they were really good. Turns out this was Yan Tiao from Beijing.

As for the new Live Bar, it's a great little space. The size and layout are really good and there's a nice mezzanine/balcony overlooking the stage from the back of where the crowd would stand, a bit like D22 but at the other end of the room if you know what I mean. It works. It's actually a much better space than their old location on Kunming Lu, the only real problem being its accessiblity for those of us who live downtown. But then, as I've mentioned before, it's very close to the Wujiaochang area of town, which is a large-sized hub and in particular has a big student population, so while it might be a bit of a trek for fans/bands downtown, it's an excellent space for that part of town. There's going to be a couple of big shows up there in the next month or so (watch this space for more details nearer the time), so I recommend you get up there for them. 

There have been plenty of gripes and moans about MAO Livehouse since it launched at Red Town just over a year ago, but at least when they leave their current premises they'll be going out with a bang. For their last show before they shack up with the Luwan district government and Pangpang takes over the reins from Lezi, they've put together the following line-up:

Nothing substantial enough here for a full post, but a few things that are worth clicking on, haphazardly bundled together into the following few paragraphs. But before we get to that, go read this if you haven't done so already. Go on. 

The end is nigh. This is episode six of series two and that means we're putting our feet up for a bit after this. We'll be back though, or will we...?

This week's pod looks like this: naturally there's a look back at the weekend's big shows including Local King 3 (featuring special guest star Jagermeister) and the Hell United one year anniversary. The chat bit comes in there as well, partly because there's so damn much going on this week we didn't have time for the usual ramblings in the middle. So yeah, after that it's straight into the previews, before we play you out with a bit of Hedgehog. Treasure this pod, it's the last for a while, possibly ever (one of us could die in a freak Jagermeister cocktail accident tomorrow y'know).

Click out the jams:

Reviews
Local King 3
Hell United one year anniversary
All your individual band links are included in those posts and, frankly, I'm too lazy to write them all out here so just click those instead.

Previews
Julie Doiron & Cold Fairyland

A little different from the last video these. Check out these videos of Chaos Mind from the Hell United one year anniversary show - there's a whole bunch to go through. Then there's FAF doing 寄生虫 here and a rather special backstage version of the same song here courtesy of some hardcore fans.

This one on the right though is Six Shot. I'll update this post with videos of From the Red and October Capricorn if/when they emerge. For now though, why not put your feet up, give all these a click and relax to the soothing strains of some of the city's best metal bands...

So a big one up for Hell United. Congratulations guys. This is the regional metal collective formed by Shanghai's Chaos Mind and Six Shot together with Hangzhou's October Capricorn and Nanjing's From the Red. All four were on show on Saturday night and were supported by Forget and Forgive.

The turn out was a little disappointing. These shows are never going to draw massive crowds unfortunately, but the last few have been pretty busy and, especially as this was at MAO, the place seemed a little empty. Still, you know that whoever does show up to these gigs is going to be dedicated to the cause and so it proved with the numbers staying pretty much the same throughout the night (i.e. avoiding the usual 11pm drift away).

They saw FAF kick things off with their tight set of emo-pop. I say emo-pop, because Xiao Ding Ding's vocals at times are like those from a pop song (by which I mean he has a great singing voice) and that the tunes are catchy as fuck. In short, they're great. They're a really tight outfit now and have put together a strong set, which on Saturday featured a new track. The sound was good and the guy who plays keyboards and does all the screamy bits was on good form too. I remember Sam (Dust, the organiser of Hell United) telling me a few weeks ago that he knew FAF weren't really metal, but that he wanted them to play because they were just so damn good. He's right and, though I felt Saturday wasn't quite their strongest showing, they confirmed their status as one of the best new bands around at the moment.

So, technical cock up this week, the pod is intermittently buzzy. Believe me, it will annoy you. Don't let that stop you listening though because here's what we've got: reviews of a couple of last week's gigs, a chat about a certain festival going on in the next few weeks and of course a guide to where to get your rocks off this weekend.

This is episode three of series two and it goes a little something like this...

There's reviews of last weekend's gigs including the Playful Warrior show at YYT and a CD release from someone or other. We have a good old chin wag about Douban (which is like crack to us) and the impressive numbers being racked up by some local indie folk acts there. Then, we take a look ahead to this weekend by previewing some of the gigs that you can catch around town. Go listen.

You know what to do with these:

Reviews
Playful Warrior write up
Chaos Mind
Loudspeaker
Six Shot
FAF
BCR + DFG write up
Boys Climbing Ropes
Duck Fight Goose

Folk Douban
Andy's post
Coverpeople
Mogu Hong
List of the top artists on Douban

Previews
The last New Vector Show
Video: New Vector's Run Just Run
Jehosaphat Blow and the Blah Blah Blahs
Weghur
RESO 11

Last Friday, Andrew Bird played at the Zhijiang Dream Factory to a full house. A full house and then some really. When I turned up, people were being turned away at the door. Although Splitworks did finally allow a few more in having assessed the situation, there were clearly many who were disappointed and didn't make it into the venue.

Meanwhile, over at Yuyintang, the Playful Warrior night of metal bands was packing them in as well. On show were some of the city's finest metal bands who have built up a solid following, particularly since the founding of the Hell United collective nearly a year ago. These people love their metal and from Andy's write-up, it sounds like a great atmosphere.

At the same time, MAO Livehouse hosted Break for Borneo, Lions of Puxi and The Violent Phlegms. Different genres again and, one suspects, different demographics in the audience, but the same result by all accounts: a decent turn out.

Now, in a city with a population about two and a half the times of London, getting big crowds at two mid-sized and one smallish venue doesn't sound like a big deal, but anyone who has been following the Shanghai music scene for anything more than a couple of years, knows that this is something worth celebrating. So yeah, this is me celebrating it. Now let's just hope the Expo doesn't fuck it all up.

That photo is from an old Mushrooms gig incidentally, just thought it illustrated the point nicely

Little Nature (remember them?) have put up a new track on their Douban. It's an English-language version of their track Different World, which always had an English chorus anyway. Click here to listen to it (it's the bottom track) and see what you think, then get on the comments and share your thoughts on the song - it's an interesting look into the mindset of Soma that they've recorded an "international version" of the song. I think I've probably said enough in the past about Soma, so I'd be interested to see what people think. The band, shooting a music video that hardly anyone's seen in the photo here) are also going to be at the Yuyintang New Year's party on February 12, a night that also features Momo, Double Control Where and The Mushrooms.

If you click here, you'll find a few videos from the Playful Warrior show that Andy wrote about here. Apparently, Mr Best has one of Six Shot himself, but it hasn't gone up yet Mr Best's video isn't happening. Keep your eyes out for that one.

Mai Mai has a couple of live recordings up here from a show he did this weekend and that I only found out about after it'd taken place. Damn.

Series two, episode two then, looks like this: there's a look back to the Maybe Mars showcase last weekend, followed by some discussion of what they and Splitworks are doing with some of the up and coming bands in both Beijing and Shanghai. There's the fascinating story of our trip out to the new 0093 location and then there's a look ahead to this weekend's big gigs before playing an exclusive preview of Boys Climbing Ropes' track Whale Song.

Clickedy click:

Maybe Mars at MAO
Dan on Rustic
Andy's review

Crosstalk
D-22
The Mushrooms
Splitworks

Previews
FAF
Chaos Mind
Loudspeaker
Six Shot
Boys Climbing Ropes
About that song

...so here's a round up of what's been put up on Douban recently.

There's a new track up from the Curry Soap, one of the acts that this blog likes to follow closely. It's called Old Hong Kong and you'll find it here.