Banana Monkey Live at the Logo Bar
Photo of Banana Monkey from their show at 4-Live by YangDan
Banana Monkey sneaked in a live gig at the Logo Bar (Xingfu Lu) on Saturday night.
I like Banana Monkey’s sense of fun and raw rock and roll energy. To the unitiated, BM play garage punk rock not a million miles away from MC5 or Guitar Wolf. We even heard a hint of The Strokes. They are not quite as frenetic as Beijing’s Subs, but it is refreshing to have a Chinese rock band who is not trying to sound like U2 or Coldplay.
They played a good live set that worked well in the small club surroundings of the Logo Bar, although I liked the heavier guitar sound that they had a year ago when I last heard them play at the 1234 Festival. I’ll always have a soft spot for BM, because three of them used to be in the wonderful Marrow. Zhang Feng has great charisma as a singer, but he’s a really good guitar player and I’d like to him inject a little experimental noodling into the mix like he did with his old band.
I didn’t get in a good vantage point to take any pictures or video, but I recorded most of the set on my cellphone. It’s rough and in mono, but it gives you the idea and you can listen to it here.
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