Monday, September 26, 2011

Black Rabbit - An Autumn Musical Feast


View the Black Rabbit Festival Gallery

Black Rabbit Festival, as the first Chinese Bi-city music festival, was held last weekend in Beijing and Shanghai. Nearly 30 bands and artists joined the festival, including both top international and domestic bands, providing music fans from all over the world with a brilliant music show.


View the Black Rabbit Festival Gallery

One of the most eye-catching performances was Hanggai, a band from Mongolia. They wore Mongolian costumes, and they used many different instruments, ranging from Mongolian, to electronic guitar, bass, etc. They combined Mongolian music and rock music in a perfect way. Starting with a song dedicated to Genghis Khan, they immediately caught all the attention. The vocalist brought us several songs that are related to grassland in an extremely passionate way, and he also said that it reminded him of his hometown when he saw the grassland, blue sky, clouds, and breeze here in suburban shanghai. The exquisite guitar skills, enthusiastic singing style of the vocalist and guitarist, and the deep and exotic voice of the matouqinist were all very impressive. And as usual, they were drinking beer while giving the show.


View the Black Rabbit Festival Gallery

Hebe, the beautiful singer from Taiwan, was on stage afterwards. She totally overthrew her usually calm and sweet image by crazily dancing and shaking her orange hair while singing a Beatles song. Different from other indie music artists playing here, Hebe belongs to the league of mainstream pop singers. She also encouraged her fans to pay more attention to Chinese indie music. She gave her fans a great show and sang eleven songs in a row. As a tribute to Hebe, her song called 'Love' was performed in a remixed version by DJ Otakrew on the adjacent NBA STREET JAM stage.

As the sun was setting, American hip-hop singer Ludacris turned the whole field into one large dance floor. Together with his friends, Ludacris performed his most loved songs, such as 'Money Maker', 'My Chick Bad', 'How Low', etc. The mood peaked when he covered Usher's first signature song 'Yeah!'.


View the Black Rabbit Festival Gallery

The most anticipated band, 30 Seconds to Mars, blasted onto the stage after almost an hour of sounding testing. The vocalist Jared Leto was vigorously welcomed by the audience, and girls even cried seeing him. They started out with several high-intensity rock songs, before treating their fans to some acoustic ones. During their performance, Jared Leto invited a lucky fan onto the stage, creating a memory of a lifetime. As their show came to an end, the Black Rabbit Festival also drew to a close.

Apart from these big stars, numerous other outstanding bands also gave great performances in the festival. The female vocal of Uprooted Sunshine Soundsystems showcased her deep, resonant voice, and their Chinese reggae songs. One of the festival's most iconic events happened when Carsick Cars, a famous Chinese band, was playing their most known song, 'Zhongnanhai'. The song is named after one of the most popular cigarette brands in China, so as they were playing, their fans treated them to a ritual shower of Zhongnanhai cigarettes.

The Norwegian band 120 days celebrated their for now last concert in China, by drinking pure vodka while playing their synthesizers, and bringing the fans old-school funky electronic music. The hip-hop music played at the NBA STREET JAM stage led to a street dancing battle among the audience. It turned out that the hip-hop crowd in China had some unique moves to display. In addition to the great artists, visitors to the Black Rabbit Festival were treated to an amusing showcase basketball match, including street dance, and cheerleaders.

The Black Rabbit Festival successfully gathered music fans from around the globe to enjoy this musical feast on a super cozy autumn day. 'See You Next Time' was displayed on a big banner at the exit, which hopefully presented Split Works' and Taihe Live's confidence in bringing us another fantastic music festival next year.

More info: http://china.musicdish.com/

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