Off the Press Bus blog

On Saturday night I went to MAO Livehouse to hear a local post-punk band, Re-tros, play. During the concert I couldn't help but think of the symbolism as lead singers Hua Dong and Liu Min stood in front of a giant MAO sign, singing "Hang the police, hang the police." I looked around to see if anyone might think this subversive. Perhaps nobody heard the lyrics.

Perhaps nobody in the audience cared. The turn out was great, with both Olympic tourists and Chinese fans in the crammed and airless venue. An ad for the concert caught my attention, because it was in a magazine geared towards Olympic-goers, and had described the band as "one of the darkest bands" in Beijing. I was curious to see what kind of people it might attract.

It seemed like the Chinese audience didn't care what the content of the lyrics was, and the foreign audience couldn't understand much of them. That's probably because the music was great and catchy, and the band was entertaining. Hua Dong had his own choreographed moves, which I was told was characteristic of monkey moves in Tai'chi, and the music had lots of heavy drumming and Hua Dong's characteristic high pitched yelps .

Maybe the Olympics will be a first step to popularizing Chinese underground music. With Chinese contemporary artists now making millions of dollars for one piece, it's time for Beijing's music scene to get some artistic credit too. Unfortunately, the audience on Saturday night wasn't quite large enough to bring this band massive attention. But the audience, foreigners and Chinese alike, joined in the massive mosh pit. All were entertained.