Day One - Bar 77 (Nanjing)
Approaching speeds of 160 kay ems per H on one of China's new speedy trains your (our) Boys Climbing Ropes made their way to Nanjing to begin their May 2007 "Kill the Children" East China tour. We'd already played a show in Shanghai, but I guess it doesn't count because we all live there and we didn't play very well anyway.

Looking out the window the scenery had that washed out shrubs, farms, mud puddles thing that intra-metropolis China does so well. Dirty grass falling into murky ponds and grungy shacks bordering square plots of perfectly measured farmland. I didn't bring anything to read or listen to because I was hoping to experience the rawk tour full blast with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company and my fellow travelers to talk to. About 20 minutes in I realized this was a mistake when I discovered that nobody was interested in talking, I wasn't able to think of anything interesting and there was nothing to look at. Speeding through Jinshan and Wuxi and some other ones, I was left wondering if every Chinese city had its own grim and dismal river to lay claim to. Also surprising was the amount of abandoned concrete factories. Skeletal structures that looked bombed out WWII-style. Squatter's paradise. These things are interesting to look at though, I think.

I've never been to Nanjing before but Jordan had and he'd already said it was shite. Although I only saw a portion of it from the train station on the way to sound check, I could see that he was probably right. Nanjing, on a surface impression, was a sort of diet Shanghai offering the same sort of look and atmosphere without the full-on commercial and stylistic absurdity that makes Shanghai an interesting place to live. Like Shanghai, Nanjing seemed primarily composed of large, dusty, white-tiled apartment complexes with gold Chinese lettering running up the side.

We got to Bar 77 (after fighting a bit with the cabby) to do sound check and were relieved to see that it was a great venue. It looked more like an Irish pub than a concert hall and its two floors overlooking the stage were a good size. Wooden floors and paneling and a cabin-like feel. After playing shows for seven months or so, we've discovered that playing mid-size places that accommodate heavy drinking suit our band best. Depending on who we share the bill with we usually play for between five and fifty people. If we play a place that's too big, everyone stands at the back and looks kind of bored. Then we feel like lepers.

Washed out, ripped posters on the walls indicated that this was one of Nanjing's bigger venues and the Angry Jerks, Joyside and others had all played shows therein. When we walked in during the late afternoon, there were still cigarette butts, smashed beer bottles and other assorted shit all over the floor which suggested that this might be a good place to play.

For payment we were receiving 50% of the door (tickets were 20 yuan) but by around 9:20 there were only around ten people in the bar. Apparently more people showed up, but they didn't want to pay to get in. The bar owner asked us if we wanted to lift the entry price and we eagerly responded that this was fine. It's better playing for a room full of people and make no money than it is to play for ten people and make 50 yuan.

People started filing in and I started downing flaming shots of B-52s and pacing around the bar nervously. As the tables filled up, a quick glance around the room indicated that this wasn't our usual audience (whatever that may be): middle-aged Chinese business men and their girlfriends. Personally labeled bottles of Chivas or Johnny Walker in ice on every table. As we mounted the stage and looked out into the crowd, the sound of dice rattling was a little ominous. Chick-a-chick-a of the dice hitting the side of the cup and then a loud clunk and someone slammed it on a table. I remember the Christmas and New Year decorations lavishly hung all over the bar seemed a little bit brighter from the stage too.

Playing in front of Chinese audiences is a sort of mixed bag. On the one side, I wish I was back home where people have a shared background in pop music and can interpret your songs and show against the larger scope of western pop music. Back home though, this shared background can work against you too, as scene and subculture politics, and the overwhelming abundance of bands makes audiences quick to criticize and opportunities to play all the time slim.

Although Chinese audiences tend to be universally open-minded (except for the ones trying to act like western punk rockers or avant-garde performance artists) sometimes they treat you like space aliens. Especially middle-aged men. Standing on stage and looking out into the faces around the tables was a little frightening; my glances met with drunken red-faced puzzlement or sneers.

Although I suppose if we were playing for older white guys we'd garner a similar reaction. So much for generalizations.

In all, our band really seemed to play well and we created our own little world on the stage which was only temporarily shattered by the mad rattling of dice in between songs. We didn't mess anything up and we managed to get good energy into our performance throughout. It was the best we'd played in a while. My favorite image from the night, and perhaps the only thing I'll remember, is towards the end of our set looking at Jordan talking to the audience about the next song. He was speaking in English (no one in the band speaks Chinese fluently) and nobody was listening to him, too busy rattling dice. Even so, he continued talking and catching everyone's eyes if they happened to glance at us. He was also smiling like he didn't give a fuck.

The owners (a pair of brothers) were really nice guys and ended up giving us 500 yuan for the show plus free beer, of which we savaged 56 bottles worth. We also ate two giant bowls of crayfish. At around two in the morning the owners and a couple Americans got us to play a few songs on the acoustic guitar with Devin on bongos. We got two songs in before we cleared the room.

-Morgan Short


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