As Radar readers may know, Pairs performed their final show ever on Saturday, bringing the career of one of the staples of the Shanghai live scene to an end (or new beginning in some other form elsewhere). Xiao Zhong recently published on Douban a little portrait of life as a musician in this vibrant capital, which for good reason has generated a lot of talk. There are some classic truisms and insights that we wish to reproduce here, for edutainment purposes:
“…regardless of planning or preparation or how late the drum kit arrives, the show will nearly always come together.”
“I have met so many great musicians with great ideas and when I ask ‘why aren’t you making music?’ they say ‘ahhh I can’t find anyone to play with’. F**k them then. Get a drum machine and make the songs yourself.”
“Crowds in China generally don’t give a fuck about their hearing. It’s almost like they like that ringing in their ears. Wear earplugs!”
“The sound person for the night will play whatever they want between the bands, regardless of what kind of night it is. I’ve been to metal shows and between each band, they played Wang Faye.”
“A lot more girls go to shows than guys. If it’s a free show at Mao, you can expect to see that females are the vast majority. If you’re a single guy complaining that you can’t meet a girl, then go to these shows. At least you know the girl is interesting and likes doing more with her free time than just staring at pictures of food on WeChat.”
“A lot of bands need to develop skills. Not playing skills, but skills how to deal with money, how to promote a tour, how to talk to the audience, how to communicate with the organiser. Being shy or having someone else do it stops you from gaining these experiences and when that person leaves for bigger things, you’re left with nothing.”
“Shanghai bands don’t like to leave Shanghai. Not all of them, but most of them. Not sure if it’s because of a lack of money, lack of time, lack of organization, lack of motivation or the fact that people outside of their circle of friends won’t give a shit about them, but so many Shanghai bands just refuse to play a show outside of Shanghai.”
“From touring around China, I’ve noticed that people want to try new things but either don’t know how to start, are afraid to try or try once and give up. If you want something, keep pushing for it. Keep trying. Keep moving forward. Do good things, treat other people how you want to be treated and do more than just sleep, eat and work. Because I really think, if you ask anyone who is on their death bed, they will never say that they wished they did more work – it will be they wished that they did things that made them happy and spent more time with their friends and family.”