Live Review: Modern Sky Festival 2015, Part 2 - Black Lips, Song Dongye, New Pants and Gang of Four

all photos by Brady Harvey (view set)

Continuing the fantastic fusion of Chinese rock bands and American garage rock bands at Modern Sky, after Miserable Faith, was Black Lips. Though they had a much different fashion sense than Miserable Faith, the garage feel of the Black Lips with their Grease-inspired attire made for a wonderful connection between the Chinese and American underground communities. It took a while for the sound engineers to tune the vocal volume, which was unfortunate because with the many chants that every member of the band has a part in, much of the power of the Black Lips comes from their vocal creativity. About halfway through the show, the positive and hopelessly tragic lyrics of the Black Lips started to shine through, and they grabbed hold of the show. The climax of this show was of course when they played the most popular song in their library, Bad Kids. With a UK cult, Train Spotting, sort of vibe to it, this song had a different attraction than the rest of their songs. It is one of those songs, that one will always feel like they’ve heard before, whether they have or not. The amount of fun that this song was, most likely made most of the crowd forget the sound issues at the beginning of the show.

Song Dongye slowed the night down with his set. Without speaking Chinese one cannot do this artist justice. However, with the majority being Chinese speakers, some of Song's intentions could be translated. The reactions to Dongye were very interesting, as his lyrics seemed to be very clever as the crowd would all have a resounding laugh after specific one liners. The crowd also ate up his banter. His music was extremely calming. Dongye added to his fantastic finger picking guitar with a deep, loving, and distantly sad voice. Dongye reflected the chilly and bright lit night at the Mural perfectly, though it might have been even more accurate if a cartoonist had drawn the whole situation for the audience.

Ending the sluggish 45 minute transition, New Pants began their set with a very short history video of the band, showcasing their music videos. New Pants’s set was could have been performed by three different bands. The range of this band’s music comes from the versatility of the bandmates. The bassist, guitarist, and pianist all have the ability to sing, and each of them creates a completely different band with their voice. The guitarist has the most generic and versatile voice. It has a tone similar to Morrissey with a dramatic theatre kick to it. The keyboardist, who also has the most distinctive personality, has a voice that is similar to a mix of the screeches in Rae Sremmurd and an American pop-punk band’s designated screamer. This little blend creates a very emotional and energetic show, though it was a bit gimmicky and derailed the very loving vibe of the band’s other songs. The third voice of the band, and the most conducive to the mood of their music, was of the female bassist. Her voice was a nostalgic story in every note. The inserts of English that she placed into the song, created a similar feel to something one would expect from Alvvays. Decribed as a Chinese pop-punk band, New Pants, had a very similar aesthetic to what one would expect from a Pop-Punk band, as one member wore a skinny tie, and the other wore a jumpsuit, however, the bands’ synthesizer and bass-directed music gave it an appeal that no popular American pop-punk band has delivered.

Unfortunately, by this time the cold weather and the long transitions between the bands slimmed the crowd. This left only the dedicated listeners to hear Gang of Four. Gang of Four, came out in a garb again similar to the UK cult movie movement. The singer, wearing a trench coat, and the others wearing button ups about a size too small, left no question of what aesthetic this band wanted to show. The performance was decent. The sound was tuned in very nicely, and the experimental guitar work was highlighted very brightly. The memorable snip-it of this show was when the lights dimmed to an alien-green. The guitarist gained a ton of confidence as he experimentally rang his guitar before throwing it, only to pick it up halfway through a song and bang it against the floor to make a wonderfully chunky garage sound.

Modern Sky was a definite change in direction from what Seattlites expect from a music festival. A small single-staged music festival created by a Chinese music label and directed toward a different demographic than the norm; Modern Sky was a terrific experience, as it gave Seattle a peak into the Chinese Underground Rock scene, and a peek into what those pushing the Chinese Underground Rock movement parallel their interests with. Having popular dark, garage, rock bands such as Ariel Pink and The Black Lips, created a parallel yet other-natured bridge from those familiar with Chinese rock to those familiar with English speaking rock bands. As this festival continues to move forward I hope to see more of the regular Seattle indie concert goers, to venture in to this festival and broaden their musical scope and mingle with those that are interested in the prolific Chinese rock era.