A Beijing-based music and gig review blog

It almost goes with­out say­ing, but this Fri­day was a big one. There were some heavy hit­ters play­ing around the city — Chun­qiu were out on Jiugu­lou­jie, Hang­gai hit Mako, and just next door at Stu­dio X in Fangjia 46 Re-TROS was play­ing a Con­verse indus­try event with LA group Health. But I was at the cosy lit­tle Hot Cat Club at a free show with three bands that largely get blank stares when men­tioned in mixed com­pany. But I was there for Res­i­dence A, my love affair with whom has been well doc­u­mented on this site and in per­son if I am in the same room when some­one men­tions their name, and noth­ing was going to pull me away from this show.

Not even the mediocre open­ing acts.

Okay, mediocre is a bit strong. Miss Freak, the first act up, were just really green. They played the style of indie pop-rock that I’m a big fan of, but they have a long way before they can gar­ner as many fans as, say, Super VC, whose style they were very clearly rip­ping off (which is, in turn, a total rip-off of The Bea­t­les, but that’s nei­ther here nor there). I think that if they keep play­ing, and relax a lit­tle about their on-stage image, and play around a lit­tle with their style, they could be great. At the moment, their music is fun and dance­able but as an open­ing act at a tiny venue nobody’s going to bust a move.

I was intrigued to see Christ­mas. Last year, I posted their video and lyrics to a catchy song they wrote called Laji­tong (just say­ing the title gets the song wedged in my head, no joke), and though they play con­stantly around the city, I’ve never found myself at a gig they were play­ing. And really, I can’t call these guys mediocre either. They’re great at what they do, and that is sing catchy indie pop songs in Chi­nese. The local crowd loves them, I think for the nov­elty of hav­ing for­eign­ers singing in Chi­nese, and I must admit… they’re all catchy. The lyrics are sim­ple and easy to fol­low for stu­dents of Chi­nese, and there’s not a bal­lad in the mix to bring down the mood. They’re incred­i­ble per­form­ers and really worked the crowd. For me, though, there was only so much I could take before I had to take a break outside.

And finally, there was Res­i­dence A. I agree with Ruby, the stage at Hot Cat seemed almost too small for them, but I was def­i­nitely more than thrilled to be able to see the per­for­mance up close and per­sonal. Although, I will admit, it did allow his crazy stares to fix on the audi­ence and that was just a lit­tle too creepy. I felt like I was hav­ing a star­ing con­test with a crazy per­son. But the per­for­mance was great, even with a switch up of their bass player (appar­ently from Me Too, who I saw once a year ago at D-22), and I really enjoyed myself. I don’t think I can say it enough: if you haven’t, get out to see them. You will not regret it.