Live Music : Interview with Joecy Wu
By Small Swords Magazine, May 24th, 2007 | In Nightlife
Yuyintang was packed with people to see street punk band Brain Failure on May 11 and with no opening band, the night got underway early. The Beijing four-piece mounted the stage while the Pulp Fiction soundtrack was blasted out on the PA ("Everybody be cool this is a robbery/Any of you fucking pigs move...") and as the first power chord rang out, the crowd was transformed from a silent shuffling group of people to a sweaty, mashed-up, screaming mob.
Playing songs off their new album, "Coming Down to Beijing," the band treaded the line between highly technical song craftsmanship and gong show spazz out Punk rock.
Until half way through the seventh song.
In the middle of the seventh number, a photographer got on stage and said something into the guitarist's ear. The guitarist stopped playing and then the rest of the band stopped as well. After a short conversation, the singer started smiling wryly and put his finger up to his lips.
Standing outside the venue, concert attendees shuffled around and drank beer while shooting glances down the alley at four people standing by a minivan. After fifteen minutes of so, everyone started arriving at the same conclusion: the show was off.
Amid rumors of the fate of Yuyintang, and fears that the city was going to loose another live music venue, it seems that the cagey Yuyintang concert promoters have again found another way to bring Shanghai the best in original live music. Reprinted below is an email from Joecy Wu where she talks about putting shows on in Shanghai and the future of Yuyintang.
Joecy Wu:
What happened on April 11: the Xuhui district Culture Bureau came to our warehouse and asked us to stop the concert. They know we don't have the performance license because they have been watching us for a while. This is their regular check, of course, and this time they really took it very serious because Bonbon was checked later.
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