Kunming Lu Live Bar's last stand

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P5160191.jpgThat's that then. You've seen your last gig at the Kunming Lu Live Bar. Or, if you've never been, you've missed your last chance - last night was the last ever gig there. Talk is that they'll move to a new premises, but it's not clear when or where it will be. The turn out last night wasn't huge, but it should be heartening enough for the owners to feel it's worthwhile maintaining a livehouse up in the old university district of town, unless 696 Livehouse is now seen as fulfilling that role.

I got there about half nine and a band was still sound-checking, which they did by playing nearly a full song - causing some confusion amongst people who had just walked in like me. Things finally got underway nearer to ten with a band who's name I missed. Shame, because they were pretty good. They played the post rock stuff that the kids here dig. I usually get a bit bored by post rock bands pretty quickly. Yeah, I'm a neanderthal, but after about three songs I just long for a singer. Luckily this band only played three songs. Perfect. If all their gigs consist of such short sets, mark me down as a fan.

Next up were another post rock act. Sort of. They were instrumental rock really, in the Triple Smash vein. The members were familiar too - bassist Leeko and guitarist Sunny also play in Runaway Snail. Again, I missed their name (I know, I know, but the line-up was quite different to the advertised one and I was outside getting some fresh air when they started). UPDATE: Mr Best has pointed out that it was probably New Vector, who are now singerless. He's almost certainly right. Again though, they were really good. This time round, they played four songs, but luckily for me, the fourth one featured vocals from Leeko. It was a cover as well, one which completely took me by surprise. Once I realised what they were playing, I started filming it, so I'll put the video up in a minute and you can check it out yourself.

After them came La La Ying. I think, or maybe it was Five Pence. I forget the order now. Anyway La La Ying did their shouty metal thing and Five Pence did their Guns 'n' Roses-like classic rawk thing, although the singer had to read the lyrics to AC/DC's Highway to Hell off his phone at one point, which wasn't very rock 'n' roll.

V-Day, a Britrock band from Nanjing were next on. They opened with a Blur cover, wore polo shirts and boater hats and that pretty much set the tone for their music. They were pretty good, but people were beginning to file out by this point as it was getting quite late.

Which left Runaway Snail as the last ever band to play at Live Bar. They opened with a cover of Dingma's 四只女人 and then played three of their own songs, including my favourite, 房东太太. And that, pretty much was that. The end of Live Bar on Kunming Lu. 

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2 Comments

That band may well have been New Vector in their latest, singerless line up.

Oh shit, I think you're right

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