Black Eyed Peas to play Shanghai July 20

If you made it as far as page 75 in the June issue of That's Shanghai, congratulations: You're almost halfway there. And if you've seen page 75, you've noticed that it was an ad for pop/hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas, who are bringing their Monkey Business Tour to Shanghai's Grand Stage on July 20. (Monkey Business the album came out almost exactly a year ago and received an average score of 45 out of 100 on Metacritic.) There is no ticket information on the ad, but there is a reference to the site of China West Entertainment, the Shanghai-based promoter of BEP's two Mainland gigs, Shanghai and July 18 at the Beijing Exhibition Center Theater. The China West site shows that tickets will range from RMB 280-880. They aren't on sale yet, but you can sign up to be notified when they are made available. BEP is also playing Hong Kong on July 16 at the AsiaWorld-Arena. Tickets start at HK$380 and go up to HK$780. (We weren't able to find any of these shows listed on BEP's offical website or other tour sites.)

While the Black Eyed Peas don't exactly get it started for those of us in Shanghaiist headquarters, we have to admit the fact that they are coming here is somewhat of a historic moment in Shanghai live music history. Like them or not, the Black Eyed Peas are a major contemporary Western group at the height or near the height of their popularity -- and they are playing Shanghai. Has that ever happened before? (Other than Deep Purple, of course.) And is it a sign of things to come? Or is it just an incongruous (and danceable) blip on the city's music radar before, oh, we don't know, Phil Collins comes to town. Rolling Stones aside, the concert scene here in Shanghai is pretty lean -- and by pretty lean we mean f*cking awful. How bad is it? On the back of the latest issue of SH there is an ad for a Coldplay concert ... in Singapore.

We wonder if China's censors are familiar with the Black Eyed Peas. Because if the Rolling Stones couldn't play "Let's Spend the Night Together," what are the Peas going to be told to do with "My Humps"? That song goes something like this:

What you gon' do with all that junk? All that junk inside that trunk? I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk, Get you love drunk off my hump. What u gon' do with all that ass? All that ass inside them jeans? I'm a make, make, make, make you scream Make u scream, make you scream. Cos of my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump. My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps. (Check it out)

I met a girl down at the disco.
She said hey, hey, hey yea let's go.
I could be your baby, you can be my honey
Let's spend time not money.
I mix your milk wit my cocoa puff,
Milky, milky cocoa,
Mix your milk with my cocoa puff, milky, milky riiiiiiight.

Then again, that's nothing compared to what Ice-T got away with.