White & wallet

Finally... finally... some decent Chinese music. Andreas and I went to see White at the tiny D22 club near Beijing University. They're a duo: a guy called Shou Wang (who's also a member of Carsick Cars, who've just split up) and a gal called Shenggy (who lives in London), best known for their 2009 abum produced in Berlin by Blixa Bargeld and released on his Open Note label. The album's OK, but live they were fantastic, except tonight Shenngy was nowhere to be seen and it was Shou Wang + unknown drummer. Think Neu! meets Richard H Kirk. Relentless 4/4 rhythm with Wang's seering electronics & occasional treated vocals over the top. Fabulous.

What made the evening particularly memorable, though, was an astonishing act of kindness from a gaggle of young staff at the nearby underground station. They'd aready connected Andreas and me when we arrived at the station at different exits. Then, on arrival at the club, Andreas realised he'd lost his wallet. So we turned back with the feint hope that he'd dropped it in the station. Halfway along the road we met one of the subway staff who'd taken the initiative to try and track us down. They'd found the wallet and between them hatched a plan to find us. Amazing. It's the kind of thing that might have happened in Japan, but we were touched that it could happen here. Restores one's faith in humanity.