Great Lake Swimmers Visit Forbidden City: Road Report

Posted on Jan 27th 2010 5:00PM by Tony Dekker
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Toronto's Great Lake Swimmers have been making waves in their homeland for years with their melodic folk-rock sound -- their 2009 album 'Lost Channels' was shortlisted for Canada's prestigious Polaris Prize. But how will their music be received by an audience worlds away? Frontman Tony Dekker and his bandmates are finding out as they embark on their first tour of China. Tony's blogging all about their experiences exclusively for Spinner.

In the final chapter of their tour, Tony and the band venture to Shanghai to play one of China's most revered music venues, stumble on some Russian Futurists and spend time in Beijing's Forbidden City.

Day 6 - 11:15AM

Yesterday we traveled from Wuhan to the city of Shanghai, the latter of which is known as "The Pearl of the Orient." The venue we played at is called Yuyintang and has the reputation of being the most important live music venue in Shanghai. It was an honour to have a concert there and as we stepped inside I was quickly impressed.

Coming in from the airport we were told that we were most likely the first western band to travel the new express highway, which had only opened to traffic the day before. It was built in anticipation of the crowds that will converge on the city for the World Expo, which starts in May. There are a number of remarkable exhibition buildings in the distance.

Before the show we had a photo shoot and interview with one of the major Chinese music magazines, Hit Music. The amount of high-level media attention has been really encouraging. The coverage in the English entertainment magazines Time Out Shanghai as well as Time Out Beijing has brought a lot of English-speaking foreigners out to the shows, but it's the large number of Chinese residents in attendance at that I'm most impressed with, as is our tour promoter. It's also interesting to note that we were introduced to a promoter who recently had fellow Canadian bands F---ed Up and DOA in China for tours.

When the doors finally opened, a steady stream of people filed in. For a Sunday night I wasn't sure what to expect, but from the feeling in the room and the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, it already seemed like the night was a success. And clearly, it was to be the best show of the tour for us, with an extraordinarily enthusiastic but attentive crowd. It's amazing to me that there was such a great audience for us in this part of the world. Afterwards, we were taken out to the Bund, a great neighbourhood in Shanghai. In a bar there, we discovered that they had a CD by our Canadian brothers the Russian Futurists in their playlist, which quickly became the soundtrack to our evening.

Day 7 - 2:00PM

Today was our last day in China and I'm so appreciative that we were able to fit in a visit to the Forbidden City. It is a hugely complex and ornate imperial palace and former home to the Emperor of China. It has to be seen to be believed. Our trip there yesterday after returning to Beijing was also followed by a giant farewell dinner, where we shot some ad hoc footage, using two digital cameras, that could very well turn into a video for our song, "Everything Is Moving So Fast." As the words of the song imply, this trip was over too soon. It's been extremely insightful and rewarding and I feel that we've been able to have a true exchange of cultures and ideas the way I had hoped. With any luck, we'll be able to return again soon to see our new friends in China. We had a wonderful time!