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With Harley's Bar accused of stealing equipment and Hong Doudou no longer interested in hosting live music, the Shanghai underground rock scene has moved from Xujiahui to Yangpu District. Last night's No Beijing concert marked the official opening of Live Bar, a medium-sized venue in a quiet neighborhood near Fudan University. More than a hundred people, mostly students, showed up -- which was surprising considering the lackluster turnout at previous events.
Drawing inspiration from Brian Eno's 1978 compilation, No New York, No Beijing brought together three of Beijing's best new bands for a concert tour and compilation CD. The Shanghai show opened with Snapline, an experimental noise/electronic band that really seemed to get the audience excited, but lost a little momentum when the lead singer crouched on the stage and played samples off a minidisc for an entire song. Next up was Queensea Big Shark (后海大鲨鱼), who turned out to be the highlight of the evening, thanks to singer Fu Han's impressive swagger and rocking covers of the Talking Heads and B52s. By the time the Carsick Cars took the stage the crowd had thinned out, and the combination of a sound system turned to 11 and some playful roughhousing by a few spiky-haired punks in studded leather jackets resulted in one of the neighbors calling the police.
In the end, the concert had everything required for a successful party: the place was packed, the music rocked, copious amounts of alcohol were consumed, and finally the cops showed up. Did any Shanghaiist readers check out the event? Let us know what you thought in a comment.
Shanghai Streets has photos from the No Beijing concert on flickr.
Live Bar is located at Kunming Rd #721, near Tongbei Rd (现场酒吧，杨浦区昆明路721号通北路口)
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Going out to Fudan to see a covers band gets a wildly positive review? What's a music fan to do in Shanghai? Anybody who mentions the Ark gets slapped.
I'm sorry if the review wasn't clear -- Queensea Big Shark is not a cover band, but the few covers they played were good.
What's wrong with Ark? If you want to hear good music, go to every show you can, support the local bands, and maybe in a few years the scene will have developed enough that there's more than one or two concerts a month.
> Anybody who mentions the Ark gets slapped.
Really? That's great! I didn't know there was enough discussion of music in Shanghai (beyond smartshanghai, and even there...) for there to be controversy and face-slapping. But I don't think it's Ark in particular that brings out that kind of passion, just the cookie cutter Filipino cover-band-style of music that the resident band plays that gets tiring and un-original. Otherwise, their sound-system plus stage are probably the best small venue for rock in Shanghai, and they book some pretty cool bands every once in a while.
Off-topic here, but check out the tagline that the latest user to del.icio.us Shanghaiist attached to the site:
(adsotrans, go!) Hopefully this dude doesn't work for a certain Firewall...
I hope I didn't sound caustic about slapping people who like the Ark, my intent was just a silly overstatement rather than a call to blows. Anyway my problem with the Ark is empirical: I hear the hype, but every time I've been there, some corny cover band is playing. I guess the yuppie surroundings, the cheesy lasers, and the expensive alcohol don't help, but I wouldn't be whining if I saw a good band playing there.
Totally agree with Jeff, it takes some discrimination to make sure you hit a good night at the Ark. Monday November 7th should be interesting, as Beijing band Sound Fragment will be playing their second night in Shanghai at the Ark. Keep your eyes open for other players in the Shanghai indie scene, who might just happen to show up in the audience...
BTW, here's the schedule for the ARK:
http://www.ark-lh.com/chinese/info.html
In my opinion, bands that play regularly and are worth seeing are The Herb, and Cold Fairyland (冷酷仙境). One timers are good too, but they usually involve a ticket that's even more expensive than the baseline RMB 40 soda, yikes.
Did anyone else see the show? Carsick Cars were really good.