Notes from the Underground: Weekend in review

“Great day, great bands, great venue…but we wished more people would have turned out”. -- Unnamed Fuxing Park Jazz Fest promoter

Oh, we feel your pain.

Here’s hoping that you attended one, if not more, of the gigs listed below. We’ll start with the one mentioned:

Fuxing Park Jazz Fest: We attended Friday night’s show, and it was well put on. Despite the early rain soaking the asses of the ass-less pants wearing kids there, it was a wonderful way to begin the weekend. Percussion JZ and the JZ All Star Big Band were the best two bands we saw that night … out of, ahem, two bands. But we had to get to:

Georgia Sam Blues Band: Every time we share a drink with lead-man Rindy, we like him more … same goes for his band. Playing for yet another packed house at Live Bar, the blues/reggae/funk crew continues to solidify themselves as the best foreign show to catch. In fact, seeing Gregory Smith (Cotton Club house guitarist and music director) at the aforementioned Jazz Fest made us wonder: with CC’s acts in need of a bit of, shall we say, freshnicity, why not give the GSBB a weekly slot? This is not a band that should be playing sporadically.

Sounds Like SOUMI Finnish ...: We meant to go, but ended up getting our scooter impounded by "the man”, so anyone who wants to comment, feel free. Sucks, actually, as Friday evening, at DJ Scott Hess’ house party, we were hearing that one of the acts (name forgotten due to too many Chimay’s) was famous for wearing an Incan Sun head dress and making his own instruments?! Again, if you went, let us know.

We’ll cover this week’s happenings in Friday’s GigShanghai show, but wanted to give a heads up for our GigLIve show on Wednesday night. For the first time, we go international, welcoming Korean band Jet-Echo, along with 21G and 33 Island -- all Wednesday night at BonBon.

Now, while we've come into a lot of heat for being, erm, shall we say over-promotional about abusing our writing cred to big up our own shows, there is one this week that even tops ours ... and don't act like you don't know what we're talking 'bout:

Air Supply -- the name alone reminds us of such decompression-sickness-inducing lyrical depths as:

I've just read it through and I said to myself
That's not really you, I'll keep myself to myself

-- "Empty Pages"

... I mean, intimidating as it might be (could you even read those poetics through your crimped hair?), they're still willing to shamelessly recycle perform for those of us who have tried to recreate the magic (usually around 4:39 am in KTV). Playing Saturday -- we'll totally see you there (and then never speak of it again).

A show we're not ashamed of will be the Dirty Three show on Thursday. And we just can't wait to use the name for nasty Friday coffee conversations:

"So, what'd you get up to last night?"
"Oh, you know, the Dirty Three."

Photos of Fuxing Park Jazz Fest and Rindy of GSBB by asqueen.

Photo of Air Supply by creativepraveen