At Chaoyang Park
The sound check is a disaster.
There's no overdrive on Rod's guitar and all you can hear is John's bass and his vocals. So far the other bands testing their sound have been a Cuban all-drum ensemble, a group of moody Russians who spend 45 minutes perfecting their church organ sound, and a 43-piece Swedish brass ensemble that do Abba covers. You have not lived until you've heard a sousaphone pooting out "Mamma Mia."
The sound guy doesn't seem to know how to mix rock bands. John and Rod are unnerved and their harmonies sound like something from the Beijing opera--like off-key yodelers--it's horrible. They run through a quivery version of "Beautiful Again," which Emily has chosen as their four-minute love song. It sounds terrible. I feel really depressed about this but remember that bad sound checks often lead to good sets.
"What do you think?" Emily and Haonan ask me. "It sucks." I say. "It sounds TERRIBLE." One of the festival organizers bustles up. "You are very good. We think you will play first at the opening ceremony tomorrow."
Oh shit. I guess they like the song and the way the band sounds because you can hear John sing the word "beautiful," even though "Beautiful Again" is about the pain of watching the planes hit the World Trade Center and knowing that the whole world has just changed for the worse. Or maybe they want to get them out of the way and put them on first. Or maybe it's a political thing and it just looks really rad and freedom of expressiony to have an American punk band go on in front of--get this--the mayor of Beijing, the governor of Beijing shi, and who knows who else.
Haonan and Emily go and kick butt and the band gets a chance to do another sound check. This time Rod sounds great, the drums are great, and John and Rod are joking while they test the microphones. Yay! As they leave the stage, a hot wind from the Gobi kicks up and blows the banner off the back scaffolding, almost decapitaing one of the five guys who supervise everything on stage. The winds of change have oh can't think of anything Chairman Mao sounding here. Anyway, we're packing up now to go to the opening ceremony!
There's no overdrive on Rod's guitar and all you can hear is John's bass and his vocals. So far the other bands testing their sound have been a Cuban all-drum ensemble, a group of moody Russians who spend 45 minutes perfecting their church organ sound, and a 43-piece Swedish brass ensemble that do Abba covers. You have not lived until you've heard a sousaphone pooting out "Mamma Mia."
The sound guy doesn't seem to know how to mix rock bands. John and Rod are unnerved and their harmonies sound like something from the Beijing opera--like off-key yodelers--it's horrible. They run through a quivery version of "Beautiful Again," which Emily has chosen as their four-minute love song. It sounds terrible. I feel really depressed about this but remember that bad sound checks often lead to good sets.
"What do you think?" Emily and Haonan ask me. "It sucks." I say. "It sounds TERRIBLE." One of the festival organizers bustles up. "You are very good. We think you will play first at the opening ceremony tomorrow."
Oh shit. I guess they like the song and the way the band sounds because you can hear John sing the word "beautiful," even though "Beautiful Again" is about the pain of watching the planes hit the World Trade Center and knowing that the whole world has just changed for the worse. Or maybe they want to get them out of the way and put them on first. Or maybe it's a political thing and it just looks really rad and freedom of expressiony to have an American punk band go on in front of--get this--the mayor of Beijing, the governor of Beijing shi, and who knows who else.
Haonan and Emily go and kick butt and the band gets a chance to do another sound check. This time Rod sounds great, the drums are great, and John and Rod are joking while they test the microphones. Yay! As they leave the stage, a hot wind from the Gobi kicks up and blows the banner off the back scaffolding, almost decapitaing one of the five guys who supervise everything on stage. The winds of change have oh can't think of anything Chairman Mao sounding here. Anyway, we're packing up now to go to the opening ceremony!
posted by Kat at 9:25 PM
1 Comments:
Newspaper report: http://www.popchaoyang.com/no1/en/Focus_15_cn.asp
Post a Comment
<< Home