老鸭&乐队 and Ourself Beside Me @ Ditan Park -> Beijing Punx Festival @ Mao

By Josh, 2010年 8月 24日

I’m not a big fest guy. The pouring rain last Saturday was the only reason I ended up at Ditan at 2:30pm, well before the tickets for day 6 of the Max Star music festival even went on sale. I wanted to wait with the diehards from the very beginning of the afternoon to get a trench-level view of how these fests operate.

An hour and a half later I was questioning my own resolve as I stood queued behind the festival’s gate, refusing the pocket-sized ponchos that the Max Star people were thoughtfully distributing. I guess this gave me a good excuse to meditate on the unique nature of Max Star. Unlike some of the other major summer fests, Max Star is located squarely in Beijing’s metropolitan center, just north of Yonghegong. A bit after 4pm, when I finally walked in through the gates, I could more fully appreciate what a strange re-appropriation of ancient urban space this fest represents, the big-money music industry finally infiltrating one of the few Beijing monuments that was spared during the Cultural Revolution.

The first performance came from Lao Ya & Band, a folk rock group that was good, but somewhat anticlimactic after the 45 minute rain delay. The crowd started to fill in more during Steely Heart. While they played I circumambulated the stage and found a raised outpost perfect for remote viewing.

Ourself Beside Me – “Sunday Girl”

I mostly came to see the third band, Ourself Beside Me, who played as a two-piece. I thought they were good, but their set was marred by all of the shortcomings typical of a fest environment. The blasted out sound lacked any subtlety, so the drummer’s persistent use of a maraca on the floor tom was almost completely lost. The excessive barriers created an inappropriate sense of removal from a virtually empty stage. As soon as their set finished we were once again bombarded by the same three advertisements that had been playing all afternoon. I was not one of the upwardly mobile concert-goers that comprised the rapidly bubbling demand market being targeted, so I left. I hope to see Ourself Beside Me again soon in a more intimate setting.

I got to Mao just in time for the beginning of the 7th annual Beijing Punx Festival. I mostly wanted to see my friends in Discord, who were playing third. I liked the first band that played but I didn’t catch their name [update: this band was Trash Cat]. They all had mohawks and played street punk which pretty well describes every band on the show.

烧酒军团 @ D22 (via caohun1)

Unfortunately the electricity got fried immediately after the first band ended, which precipitated a 3 hour hiatus during which NO ONE LEFT. I found this very impressive. I hadn’t eaten anything except for a miserable corporate-sponsored pack of cookies that was given to me at Ditan so I caught a bite to eat during the outage and naturally missed Discord’s set. I did get back in time to see Shaojiu Juntuan (烧酒军团), who were great.

Misandao – “Skinhead Never Walks Alone” (via misandao)

Next was Misandao (蜜三刀), Beijing’s premiere skinhead oi band. This band was fun live. The crowd was actively push-moshing and I got covered in beer, which triggered some happy memories that I don’t usually access. Misandao ended with a dubbed out ska jam, which felt like the right note to end on for me as well. 12 hours of festing and I’m set until next year.

SHARE / 分享: