Beijing Boyce

I went to the Beijing Pop Festival in Chaoyang Park two weeks ago and happily found proletarian beer prices: 4 yuan for a can of Blue Diamond. As for the bands, CJ was OK, Supergrass was Supergood, and Sebastian Bach should not wear a bright yellow Mandarin robe as it makes him look like an over-rouged blond-maned tranny with a cultural identity crisis. Other observations: I bought my official ticket not from a booth, not from a table, but from a silver gray Elantra. The security included PLA-looking guards, bao-an in poorly fitting uniforms, and secret service guys in dark suits, and I wondered what they thought about Bach swearing, screaming, prancing about stage and throwing microphone stands into the wings. The fans drank responsibly and behaved, with the most blatant sign of alcohol being the very relaxed guy with a pup tent and a small table holding four glasses of tequila. The music is rock, not pop, and anyway, if the promoters want to get out the locals, why not splash out for some act that was popular in the eighties band and has plenty of KTV standards, such as Whitney Houston or Air Supply?  Pizza by the slice should be a given at these things. Discovery of the day: that my friend’s wife used to play in a Japanese band that did Skid Row covers! 

(From Beijing Boyce XXIV, first emailed on September 21, 2006)