by Lisa Movius

"Why doesn't Shanghai rock?" everyone asks. In a city with dozens of excellent if directionless bands and hordes of enthusiastic rock fans who turn out in droves on those rare occasions when concerts actually do materialize, one has to wonder why the two groups never seem to come together.

Blame Techno.

"Flower Power," a concert on April 1 by Beijing pop-punk band Flower (Hua'er) and Shanghai bands Crystal Butterfly (Shuijingdie) and Ling Long, promised to be Shanghai's best show of the relatively new year. But, because of the evil that is Techno and its sordid little representatives, the concert barely happened at all, and what came off was only a pale reflection of what it could have been.

The troubles started early in the afternoon, as the members of the local bands helped lug an impressive array of amplifiers, cords, and pedals into Rojam Disco. Once set up, they were joined by Flower and started the sound check and rehearsal. They didn't get very far, as the manager of Rojam stormed in and told them to keep it quiet: "We're holding a Japanese language course upstairs. We don't want them disturbed."

It went from bad to worse. The Rojam manager then informed the representatives from ChinaNow.com, organizers of the show, that they didn't want the concert to go on for too long. "Our customers come to dance, not to listen to?music," she intoned disdainfully. Techno rears its ugly head. The real reason, of course, is that the human brain needs to be numbed by alcohol or more potent substances to tolerate the irritating thunka-thunka-thunka produced by Techno, and thus the establishment rakes in the cash from drink sales.

After heated discussions, the Rojam management apparently backed down from the demand that all three bands play for no more than a combined one hour. The troubles, however, were not over, but the bands figured they could at least have their own way once on stage. What was the worst Rojam could do? Cut power? They wouldn't dare?

Doors were slated to open at 8:30 PM, and at 8 PM Rojam sent in the cleaning crew, who opened up the fire doors and shoved all the local band members and about a dozen members of the Shanghai press corps out. The rather unpleasant bouncer at the main entry wouldn't let them back in, and the missing bands were only "found" half an hour later after frantic calls to a series of pagers.

Between two and three thousand people packed into Rojam to experience "Flower Power." It was perhaps the largest audience turnout the venue has ever seen. Although the usual "in" crowd from Shanghai's expat and artsy communities were all in attendance, the audience was overwhelming local. The fans and the musicians for once convened.

Things finally got underway at 9:30 PM, with a show of anorexic models, of all things incongruous for a rock concert. This is not the space for commentary on body image and the objectification of women in Shanghai, but those poor girls all looked really hungry to me.

At ten, the concert began as Shanghainese band Ling Long took the stage. Headed by twenty-year-old guitarist and singer Wang Yihou, the Brit-Pop impresarios are best known for their penchant for changing their name. For two months last year, Linglong morphed into "Face Powder" (Yanzhi), then changed back; at Flower Power, for one night only, they called themselves "Chic." Why they do this, no one knows.

Linglong's music has improved substantially over the name changes of the past year. Aside from the lack of originality, their competence and general sound have come a long way. If Wang Yihou overcomes the annoying habit of throwing multiple repetitions of "Woohoo" into his songs, he might just have a shot at the big time.

Crystal Butterfly then mounted the stage, and one could almost see the audience perk up. A foreigner behind me commented to his friend, "I've heard so much about these guys, but have never heard their music. I'm looking forward to this." As they got ready, the Rojam DJ over-voiced: "Welcome Shanghai's Crystal Butterfly, to play three songs. Only THREE!!" The members of Crystal Butterfly were already in a foul mood from getting up early to help with the sound set-up, spending the afternoon arguing with Rojam, and waiting outside the fire doors for half an hour. The DJ's proclamation didn't help any. Their performance reflected their state of mind, lacking their usually subtlety but throwing an angry energy into their more "punk" songs like "Leaning (You Suck)".

After the third song, singer Ziyi, impressively clad in a vintage seventies silver-embroidered shirt with matching silver lipstick, inquired of the audience, "Rojam says you guys want to dance, not hear us. Do you still want to hear us?" At the roar of "YES!", they launched into a final song, only to have the sound suddenly cut off as the DJ announced, "Thank you Crystal Butterfly for performing THREE songs. THREE!" A furious Ziyi responded by hurling the mike stand, and the audience yelled, "One More!" and "Boo!" as hundreds of middle fingers waved in the air towards toward the DJ booth. All to no avail, as the Techno started thudding, drowning out their protests.

As the Techno blared, hundreds of rock fans poured out the door, assuming it all was over. For the next 45 minutes, the Techno torture continued. About a hundred people started dancing with abandon, while the remaining two thousand stood or sat around with fingers in their ears in the hope that the music would come back.

For a while, Rojam threatened to forbid Flower from performing at all, or make them wait until 2 AM. Then they relented, and at 11:30 Flower hopped on stage, almost, but not quite, redeeming the evening.

The diminutive teenage trio released its debut album in January 1999 to rave reviews and even better sales. Styled after Green Day, Flower's music is less complicated and more energetic than their idols. Youthful energy is the forte of the group, whose members are all sophomores in high school and whose youngest member, singer/guitarist Da Zhangwei, is a mere sixteen. A group of nice, normal (albeit slacker-ish) kids who were constantly quaffing colas and chocolate drinks, the unaffected boys of Flower seemed uninterested in their own fame and success as only the young can be. Dude, they're just happy to be making music.

It was obvious that Flower really, really has a great time performing. And, unlike older bands trying to be "cool," they're not afraid to let it show. The broad grins on their faces as they launched into their simple, perky songs spread throughout the entire audience. The success of their music and especially their live act derives from the contagious quality of their enthusiasm. Before their performance, Da Zhangwei had spent hours and a jumbo can of hairspray sculpting his hair into a crown of spikes, but he hopped around so much during his guitar solos that they were gone halfway into the first song.

The audience reaction gave lie to the stereotype that Shanghainese don't like rock. Almost everyone was dancing (Look, Rojam, look!), and many sang along. One ardent fan danced and writhed on the stage for most of their set, and even some crowd surfing ensued. One foreign friend declared her resolution to become their groupie. Another commented, "Man, if only I was sixteen, I'd be like so in love with them!" Surely they're the coolest kids in their high school.

After about twenty-five minutes of musical madness, Flower declared their set over, to everyone's disappointment. Xiao Nan, guitarist from Cobra who produced their album and acts as their manager (read babysitter), took the stage to explain: "We're very sorry, we'd like to perform more, but Rojam won't let us, so we have to stop. Good night."

Her comments provided a relatively satisfying conclusion to an otherwise frustrating evening. For a second time, Rojam was filled with a chorus of "Booo!" and "One more song!" as middle fingers waved in the air. The Techo torture began again, and everyone except the sportin' girls and druggies went home.

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