Yuyintang Kaixuan, 5th June 2021

An eclectic grouping of bands came together to put on a day-night festival in the first incarnation of Shanghai Calling.

The Shanghai music community put on a show that took a direct snapshot of the gigging bands on the current scene with a tendency towards rock, ska, punk and indie. It’s hard to know where to begin suffice to say the audience turned out in numbers from the outset.

First we heard the soulful sounds of the Matt Barker Project, comprising of a three piece with acoustically crafted folk numbers to ease into the day.

A short break later and Willy and the Wonk Eye performed their spontaneously rousing acoustic blast.

The day continued and we went heavy with Suzhou based Yinmachi taking few prisoners in perhaps the loudest performance all day.

Snuff Disco brought us to a mellow but no less intense point in the festival with performance with some sweet electro hooks.

The Molemen took us on a ska journey in their apparent last ever show with humour interwoven into stories of Shanghai living.

Bad Treatment followed with some old skool punk.

Deku put us on a post-rock vibe.

Fliphouse brought some pop-punk fun and more to the proceedings…