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| The View From Inside (the Mosh Pit) |
The band was “Xin Kuzi” (“New Pants”), arguably China’s most famous pop-indie-rock band. I have to plead ignorance as to how they are perceived by the Chinese youth, but my best guess is that they are right now a bit like what Blink-182 was for America’s teens in the year 2000. I again plead ignorance as to what the titles of their most famous songs are, but most of them have a distinct and familiar sound that combines hipster-friendly electronics (similar to MGMT), radio ready riffs (again similar to Blink), and incomprehensible Chinese language lyrics (similar to Sting), all neatly packaged together in a way that I expect their songs are often used as background music for commercials for Fruit Roll Ups, Bagel Bites,* or whatever the trendy snack food to have in a child’s lunchbox is these days. That being said, these guys know how to give an awesome concert.
I went to The Modern Sky Festival in Chaoyang Park, where Xin Kuzi was playing with two other CET students. We caught the end of another indie-rock group’s, “Hedgehog’s” act, and waited through a very mediocre twosome that played what I will do my best to describe as “trance.” The meat of the concert, however, came from the headliners, Xin Kuzi. The Modern Sky Festival stage was lit as impressively as any in the United States. The color scheme of neon greens, pinks, and yellows seemed to perfectly compliment the artificial sound of Xin Kuzi.
Xin Kuzi created atmosphere intense enough that the crowd started to “mosh.” The difference between the American mosh and the Chinese “mosh” is substantial. Whereas in the States the mosh has become a place for angry, wide-bodied young men to bounce off one another with great force (thereby accomplishing a goal I’ve never discovered), the Chinese mosh pit is fun for everyone, regardless of size. Alex, Rebecca, and I found ourselves at first staring curiously as audience members joined hands, forming a chain of more than 20, and then spinning around in circles (think “Ring Around the Rosie”). Another happening was a conga-style line, again of 20 plus, formed by grabbing the shoulders of the person in front of you and then hastily marching a path through the rest of the concertgoers. In fact, the only potentially dangerous activity was when a group of 10 or so, again in a hand-holding chain, would form in the back of the audience and on the count of “san,” run forward with great force taking those in front of them further forward.** It is probably redundant to write, but I will note that Alex, Rebecca, and I took great pleasure in participating in all of these activities.
If this sounds like too much freedom, then you’ve probably lived in Beijing before. Looming between the audience and the band was a line of police standing perfectly still with their hands at their sides, just as they do in front of Tiananmen Square. Certainly someone could make the western-influenced music, the young people in all their glee, and the ever-present police into a metaphor for something, but this author, at this time, will not.
*I think I just dated myself.
**The glory of the Chinese version of the mosh is that when one young woman participating (perhaps involuntarily) in this last activity lost her cell phone, her friends were able to stop all moshing activity, instead, a cell phone lit search was organized until the phone was found.
*** If I had wanted a beer to help me more fully enjoy the environment, it would have been unfortunate, because beer was nowhere to be found on concert grounds! Perhaps Beijing promoters have not yet realized that concerts are a terrific opportunity to charge $6 US for a small plastic cup full of Tsingtao.
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Posted by smccampbell on 2009-10-17 05:59:30 | Rating: | Views: 55
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