Hello Beijing Cream readers. My name is Morgan and I work at this other website called Smart Beijing, wherein we specialize in being special. The Tao is outsourcing these Friday Musical Outros to me so he can concentrate on his true journalistic passion, which grabbing the Internet in both hands, flipping it upside-down, and shaking it until a bunch of sordid and depressing shit falls out.
Once more unto the breach, eh, my friends… Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. A bit of a quieter one, actually, for that Beijing rock ‘n’ roll this weekend, compared to the last few weeks of busy stages and crowded schedules. Just a few good ones out there. PiL, of course, is playing over at Yugong Yishan, but you’ve probably already made your mind up about that. If you are going, you’re familiar with the early flash hits of the band in the ’80s — “Rise,” “This is Not a Love Song” and all that — but in case you haven’t had a chance yet, you should check out some of the new stuff from their comeback 2012 album This is PiL. Real good stuff. Here’s a YouTube playlist of material from that which is real great to my ears. A promo studio viddy and some recent live performance stuff. Right on.
“I am John! And I was born in London!”
The main video there, though, is a local band called Acid Live, who are playing at Temple Bar, the night before on Friday night — oh, look at that, hey, today is Friday, so they’re playing TONIGHT at Temple. That’s their promo video they’ve made ahead of this show.
Normally, I tend to not fuck with bands that have “Acid” (or “Fusion” or “Funk” or “-Delic,” for that matter ) in their band name because that’s just code for bald dudes with ponytails, dressed like Gallagher, jamming out on some scales for 20 minutes on a theremin or some shit. Who wants that, eh? You gotta stay like 20 feet from the stage or you’ll get a bunch of pubes in your drink, serious.
But these guys Acid Live are a real great live act — some real perfomative, give-and-take, soulfulness when they play. Quite like them a lot. Their music is like jammy groove, soul, funk, classic rock, kinda. That’s a really terrible description so hopefully the video itself triggers some interest in you. I don’t know too much about the band. I gather they play around town in a couple of different iterations, but this one is a particularly good one, with Buyi’s frontman Lao Wu, who’s got a really great voice. Him playing off the dude on piano — really great piano player — makes for a great show.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s LiveBeijingMusic.com’s take on their last show at Temple if you’re looking for a second opinion.
Funky jams! Mmmm… tasty.
But, hey, just so you know you Friday Music Outro correspondent isn’t going soft, here’s a link to some FEAR. I don’t care about you! Fuck YOU!
Morgan is the editor of Smart Beijing and fake DJs around town. Suggestions for Friday Music Send Outs and feedback to editor@smartbeijing.com.
