 "Tongue" and "Wooden Horse" in
Shanghai:
Beijing Bands give
Bad Head a Good Name
Reviewed
by Lisa Movius, Shanghai Editor
An upscale Yuppie bar in a Hong Kong-owned shopping mall is
hardly the sort of place one might expect to see an
underground rock concert. Certainly, it wasn't what the staff
seemed to be expecting; after all, the bar normally features a
friendly, harmless pop cover band from friendly, harmless
Canada. The disconcerted foreign manager was overheard
muttering, "I've never seen these sorts of people before...."
But a more seasoned rock aficionado commented, "Lao Sun always
finds the newly-opened places and exploits them before they
know any better."
He was referring to concert organizer Sun Mengjing, radio
personality, writer and poet, who is generally revered as the
"Godfather of Shanghai Rock" for the groundbreaking radio
program that introduced a generation of Shanghainese to their
first strains of rock'n'roll. A great fan of China's most
alternative music experimentalists, he regularly pulls in his
various guanxi strings to bring these groups for gigs
in Shanghai. Last fall was NO, in June it'll be Wang Lei and
Panggu, and last Saturday it was Mu Ma (Wooden Horse) and
Shetou (Tongue).
 Shetou and Mu Ma
are two of the newest bands to release debut albums under the
Bad Head label of Modern Sky Records. Although both have a
certain following, neither has yet managed to really
distinguish itself from the plethora of underground bands
currently circulating in the capital.
These concerts always draw a similar crowd of Sun's
listening audience of die-hard music fans. The smallish venue
was sold out, with about 400 people crammed in and
insufficient air-conditioning on a very humid night. Although
most of the audience was comprised of post-college, pre-real
job guys in ripped jeans and faded Metallica and Kurt Cobain
T-shirts, their numbers were almost rivaled by the clusters of
bright-eyed, nose-ringed groupie chicks. A handful of local
musicians and their artist buddies stood around at the back,
looking bored and complaining about the sound.
 The sound system
was the first of the concert's shortcomings. When the
announcer came on, the loudspeakers crackled and fizzled like
Rice Krispies, and it failed to improve throughout. No matter:
Grungy bands sound better with bad sound systems and lots of
feedback anyway. First up was Mu Ma, a band desperately
seeking a point. With droning vocals and utterly lacking any
distinctive style, they performed as if even they didn't enjoy
their own music, standing sullenly on stage except for a few
half-hearted attempts at head-banging. Mu Ma does have a very
good drummer, and his powerful beats combined with a
marvelously booming bass line did what they could to rescue
the band from sputtering speakers and directionless
songwriting. Occasionally I thought I heard a few strands of a
tune, but maybe it was just wishful thinking.
 Then Shetou took
the stage, and oh, how they took it! Three sturdy men in tight
muscle T-shirts and shaved heads dominated, with two
longer-haired dudes and the goateed singer standing in their
machismo shadow. As the audience applauded to welcome China's
first and only skinhead band, the six men in unison, as if on
cue, peeled off their muscle tees with a swagger and began to
rock.
Shetou's music more than managed to live up to their
dramatic opening. Their songs have the style, the power, and
the energy to earn them comparison to Red Hot Chili Peppers,
and the pounding yet rhythmic throbs at the beginnings their
songs resemble Aerosmith's harder, heavier works. At one point
the band beat faster and ever faster until both band and
audience seemed at the verge of some apocalyptic frenzy.
 The band's
imposing stage presence perfectly complimented their involving
if macho music. Shetou's members, all of whom hail from
Xinjiang, throw an incredible amount of energy into their
performance, moving madly but not messily with the music. Most
mesmerizing was keyboardist Li Dan who, throughout their set,
incessantly pounded his bare torso back and forth. It didn't
seem like he was doing much keyboard playing, but darn could
he move. Only vocalist Wu Tun failed to deliver, hunched over
the mike with his eyes fixed on the controlled thrashing of
the keyboardist, not looking at or playing to the audience
even once. Nevertheless, due to some hot Tongue action, a
night of Bad Head ended on a good note.
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