Sh Midi Festival Cancelled, Various Fodder

For those about to rock: some shows to look out for in the near future - By Morgan, Apr 08, 08

'Twas a sombre announcement on Yunyintang's Facebook page that heralded the cancellation of the Shanghai Midi Festival -- the 'sad-face' emoticon affixed to the message could hardly do justice to the turmoil of feelings the news no doubt inspired. Although speculation about the bands that would be appearing was rampant, it seemed a little dubious from the get-go because of the po-po. Organizers have stated that they were unable to get the necessary performance permits to continue. Weak.
Must be even worse news for these two bands -- Motorfly (punk from Iceland) and Mediengruppe Telekommander (electro/punk from Germany) -- who have it slotted on their MySpace pages that they're playing the Shanghai Midi Festival.

It's been a bad stretch for rock music festivals lately with the cancellation of the 1,2,3,4 Festival late last year and now this. Faint, almost undetectable, silver lining: Shanghai fans of the RnR can expect a lot of those bands to be making it down for shows in Shanghai in and around the Beijing Midi Festival dates (May 1-4). Click here for a list of bands appearing at the Beijing Midi Festival. It's a little heavy on the metal though -- if you head up to BJ for that thing, beware of your immortal soul.

One of the bands that has been confirmed to be appearing in Shanghai is delightful French indie band Hopper. They're playing at LOgO May 3.

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Speaking of the metal, though, Buffalo, NYC-based grindcore / death metal band From this Day are playing at Yuyintang tomorrow. Metal from Buffalo is a very serious thing. There's only two places where they take their metal more seriously: Oslo, Norway and Minas Morgul, the city of the Witch-king of Agmar, lord of the Nazgul (Ring Wraiths). If you fancy the darker, grittier things in life, head down for that one.

[Editor's note]: The From this Day show has just been canceled! Unfortunately the lead singer broke his nose bringing the death metal last night. Bummer.

If you've been taking taxis, you already know that funk/metal band from the UK Mishkin is back in town for a few shows around Shanghai. They're playing at Yuyintang, Harley's, and Live Bar ... and 90 other places including the SISS, and SCIS. For the Live Bar show, events organizers are hoping to rent some buses to get people out there. ...And their looking for buses with bathrooms. Free REEB, anyone?

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Other shows to watch out for: BJ post-punk superstars PK-14 at Windows Tembo this weekend (April 12), BJ dance rock Queen Sea Big Shark (April 18) at the Living Design Center, and the Shanghai stop of local, big-time rock band The Rogue Transmission's East China tour (April 26 at Windows Tembo). They will be joined by French rock/electronic experimentalists One Step Inside and Orange Zebre. Tres bon.

Also don't miss Canadian dance punk band You Say Party! We Say Die! on April 17 at Zhijiang Factory. That should be a good one.

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Speaking of experimental digital wackiness, head on down this weekend (April 12) to catch RESO (Reconstruct the Experimental Soundscape of Ourselves), the first in a series of concerts featuring experimental, improvisational electronic/rock musicians. Sounds pretty neat-o. Kinda like diet NOIShanghai, which is not a bad thing. The lineup is Asthma Writers Union (members of Muscle Snog), Porn Moon Twins, Ubisoft vid-game composer / local music columnist Ben Houge, and UK NOIShanghai alum Dominik. It's an early show, starting at 7:30pm and finished early at 9:30pm. It's at Mecooon (aka Downstream Garage), next to the old Yuyintang. So arty.

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More experimental electro, gizmo wackiness? Split Works announced on Aric Queen's podcast interview that they are bringing in Baltimore-based futurist Dan Deacon! Dan Deacon, he of "Spiderman of the Rings," is a one-man act, bringing all kinds of craziness with iPods, delay pedals, flangers, loop pedals, doo-dads, and pigs and bats, with brooms and bats, and wigs and rats, and play big dogs like queens and kings, and everyone plays drums and sings (check out "Wham City"). This is a not-to-be missed show for people who liked Dandi Wind and YACHT at last year's Yue Festival. It will be far, far up your alley. He could be qualified as more of a DJ, so maybe they won't have problems with the fuzz this time -- even though his concerts tend to resemble cult meetings with people running around naked and chanting insane gibberish. YouTube it. More events details on that one as they are released.

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Also, ticketing information on how to get your hands on Nas tickets -- sorry -- how to get a "entry / drink tickets" to the bar (Racks) that Nas happens to be performing at (this is NOT a "concert") will be released later this week. Jigga who?

And lastly, emma.cn is advertising the return of another icon of New York hip hop, Kenny G. Kenny G: May 2. Shanghai Grand Stage. Blood in, blood out. Holla.

Click on the band names to be re-directed to their MySpace pages for audio samples. Visit the SmSh events page for more event information as it becomes available. Image of Dan Deacon by Frank Hamilton.

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