The curse of the podcast struck again with a disappointing turnout at Mao last night for the 0093/Rock Shanghai CD release. In fact, the curse stretched to the two podcasters as well - Andy was sick and I had to work, meaning I didn't get there until late. Actually the crowd wasn't too bad - it was the sort of audience that would have looked fine in YYT, but that looked poor in the much bigger Mao. Especially after Mono had had the place completely packed the night before. So I got there pretty late. I'm not going to review the show properly, as I only really saw the one band, but there were a few friends of the blog who I know were there for most, if not all, of last night so feel free to add your own round-ups in the comments.
The one band I did catch and that I'd darted across town to make sure I saw, was Top Floor Circus. We talked a bit on the pod about how you're never quite sure what to expect from Top Floor CIrcus, but they were in full band mode last night and were on top form. It's been a while since I last saw them like that, but they played a great (and hilarious) set. Lu Chen performing air fellatio while acting as a prostitute during 进来白相相 is an image that will be burned into my mind for a while. They closed out with a reworked version of 上海欢迎你 that was given a more negative twist with a chorus of "Shanghai doesn't welcome you, we've got no culture and no renminbi".
After that, I saw the opening few moments of Firefighter, but I needed to head over to Swiss James' leaving thing so only saw a little bit. The rest of the crowd was leaving as well at that point. Someone who did stay on though was Pu Pu, lead singer of The Mushrooms and later, following a message from Lisa Movius, it became clear why. Apparently, Firefighter are a Mushrooms cover band. Lisa had mentioned this to me earlier in the night, but I thought she just meant they sounded a bit like them. Nope, according to Lisa they actually played covers of The Mushrooms' songs. Bizarre.
Anyway, there certainly wasn't 500 people there last night, which means they've still got some CDs left. If you didn't make it along to Mao, head over to 0093 and see if you can get your hands on a copy.
I was there from the first set with Bang Bang Tang and left about the same time as Jake. Here's what I saw in terms of crowd reaction:
Bang Bang Tang: They gave a pretty good performance. I've only seen them one other time so I can judge if they were in top form or not. The crowd didn't really seem into it except for a few friends of the band.
Candy Shop: Clearly the other crowd favourite besides Top Floor Circus. They even had to come and play an encore of Ding Ding Dong which drove the crowd pretty nuts. Sammy also jumped into the crowd for the mosh pit that quickly formed for the song and everyone loved it.
Pinkberry: They got a good reaction but frankly their set was way too short. They were scheduled for 30 minutes but I think they only played 20 including playing the video for the Pinkberry Song.
Top Floor Circus (TFC): These guys were clearly the draw of the night. Everybody was on their feet and that mosh pit that formed for 上海欢迎你 was just crazy. That was definitely the end of the night though as everyone seemed to vanish as soon as TFC left the stage.
J.
I arrived at the end of the Bang Bang Tang set - and can confirm JohnG's comments -especially the way that Candy Shop rocked pretty hard. I really look forward to seeing them with Sammy from here on out - she has great stage presence and vocals.
I wish Pinkberry was around to do more songs - I hope with all their personnel issues this summer, they'll get back on a more regular concert schedule.
TFC - what the heck was that guy in the tuxedo doing in the middle of the pit? I didn't even see him until the pit took off.