Coverpeople at 03 Space

Back in October last year, Neocha released a free downloadable album called Tomorrow's Afternoon Tea. The record was comprised of original tracks from bands or solo acts with female singers. It's a great listen and something that I keep coming back to months later. One of the stand out tracks on the album was Coverpeople's 我们 and last night she played down at the 03 Space at 0093.

The 03 Space is pretty small and generally the shows there are soloists with a semi-acoustic guitar. Last time I was there on a Sunday afternoon, there was about a dozen people there - some parents, friends and a couple of little children. There was a trestle table to one side with bottles of Coke and plastic cups. It reminded me of a village hall back in the UK.

Coverpeople, actually just one girl, has more of a following though and there were over 70 people crammed in last night, including a group of six or seven girls from Wuhan who came wearing home made Coverpeople t-shirts. It was ridiculously hot down there, with only a couple of ceiling fans to keep people cool. Still, it was completely worth it.

It was an intimate and personal show with Coverpeople able to engage the audience in conversation in between songs. I often think when you're just one person with a guitar it's hard to maintain the audience's focus, but her simple yet beautiful tunes are hard not to like. She also enlisted the help of a piano player for several songs which kept things varied.

On the door, they were selling CDs which made me think of Trent Reznor's comments on distributing music. I was kind of disappointed when I got home to discover the CD only had two tracks on it, but it's a nicely produced object and still worth owning.

The "label" that produced the CD is Eryu Forest, basically Coverpeople and her friend iiiis, and I recommend you check out their website and join their Douban group if you haven't already.