2008 Nov 17 Review: New Pants at Yugong Yishan
Nov 14
New Pants Album Release Party
RMB 80.
9pm. Yugong Yishan (6404 2711)
New Pants, Old Hat
The New Pants CD release party started off unassuming enough - Yugong Yishan was packed, but for some reason the very front of the club had ample room for seating right in front of the projection screen. A new film by New Pants’ singer Peng Lei was being shown. The opening shots featured the keyboardist Pang Kuan prancing around the streets of Beijing with various gorgeous models. Funny. Through a series of seemingly random sequences, a very amusing and poignant story coalesced, poking fun at fashion trends, culture clash, male insecurity, young love, Japanese infomercials, Chinese idiosyncrasies and even the movie Titanic. The basic plot was about a poor pottery artist and his work, his down-and-out girlfriend and their romantic troubles. The funniest part was probably when “the American businessman” came to appraise the pottery (which, by the way, was a chamber pot intended for a wedding present). Any foreigner would appreciate and relate to the hilarious obsequiousness of the potter and his friends towards the American. I think the Chinese people in the audience appreciated the joke even more when the American bought the pot for seven million dollars.
After the film, the band and the cast members were introduced and came onto the stage one by one. The chamber pot from the film was presented as a gift to one of the actors, followed by a cheesy elongated handshake you’d expect at a photo-op. The floor was opened for questions. A silly Westerner (who could that be?) asked what style of music influenced their new album and was lampooned for asking too serious a question, setting the precedent for the rest of the evening: unabashed and brazen fun. The band and cast dashed off stage, leaving us in quiet anticipation.
A few minutes later, the drummer and Pang Kuan came onto the stage. A lone bowl of rice sat curiously on a table. Pang Kuan sat down awkwardly and held the chopsticks in a readied position. He stared at the audience, expressionless, for at least a minute. Then he jumped on the keyboards and started jamming with the drummer. Throughout the show, I found the drummer to be exceptional. His tom work especially added an extra dimension to the music.
Peng Lai, the back-up guitarist and the bass player all entered the stage sporting Ramone-esque style hairpieces (see video above for an idea of what i mean). It’s even funnier if you know that they actually had hair like this around the time when they released their first album in the early ‘90s. They plowed through their first song and ripped off their wigs with an energetic zeal.
Their next few songs I assume came from the new album because I did not recognize them. I found them to be a bit slow and too similar to the New Wave-influenced songs from their previous album. They kind of sounded like songs you would hear from a shitty prom-night band, but I mean that in a good way. I loved their sound from the last album but I was just hoping for something new.
The band quickly picked up the pace with “You Are My Superstar,” then Pang Kuan took the mic and pummeled us with back-to-back renditions of “Magic Shampoo” and “Everybody.” The crowd was getting really into it, as evidenced by their “pogo” dancing. Then they played a new song, which I also assume is from the new album, only I really enjoyed this one. The beat and arrangement had the same gay intensity (in the “gay old time” sense) as “Everybody”. Again, not very original compared to their previous works, but at least no other band to my knowledge sounds like that. During this song, an attractive young girl dressed like a belly dancer came on stage and danced seductively with Pang Kuan while he sang the song directly to her. The song’s breaks were punctuated with delightfully catchy hand claps that the entire band sans drummer joined in with. It was ridiculous and fun. I would buy the new album solely for this song.
The rest of the evening was marked by old, yet exciting, New Pants classic punk anthems, Peng Lei’s guitar god posing, solid and driving bass, absurdly extravagant synths, impressive drumming skills and a special guest English singer, Hua Dong from ReTROS. They had two or three fake endings followed by encores. And they also played an acoustic sing-a-long version of “Bye Bye Disco”. How cool is that?
Links and Sources
Rock in China: New Pants
Modern Sky: Announcement about new album release
Time Out: New Pants
Youku: MV of New Pants new track "Equal Love"
Sina: 新裤子乐队《野人也有爱》电影预告片
Sohu: 新裤子专辑首发 《野人也有爱》上演疯狂(图)
Sina: New Pants performing in Tianjin earlier this month
Sina: New Pants performing at the Goethe Institute's 20th Anniversary Party
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Re: Review: New Pants at Yugong Yishan
yeh, looks fun.
Come to see, then you know more about....Beijing!