It was clearly only a matter of time before Beijing's finest decided to sack up and take their show across the pond to test the waters of the American market.

Now, on Saturday, September 5th, Modern Sky's Hedgehog, Queen Sea Big Shark and Casino Demon will all make their American debuts at Tucson, Arizona's Hocofest, as part of the 16-date, Sing For China: Fight Aids with Art U.S. tour.

The tour, which aims to raise money for children left orphaned by AIDS in China, as well as promote three of Beijing's top acts, will hit Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland (OR), Seattle, Salt Lake City, St. Paul, Detroit, Washington D.C. and New York, as well as a number of smaller cities in between, before culminating in the Modern Sky Festival NYC on September 25th.

But will American audiences take to our beloved Beijing yaogun? I've often speculated that the local musical climate causes standards to drop a bit, that some of the acts on the scene are still in that third tier of development. But given that 刺猬, 后海大鲨鱼 and 赌鬼 are three of the more established bands in the capital, will they have the rocket sauce to win over American fans?

This is obviously not the first time Chinese bands have played the US; pop-punk trio Reflector played selected West-coast dates with Anti-Flag in 2001, in 2003 Brain Failure made appearances at Austin's SxSw and New York's CMJ Music Marathon and both Lonely China Day and Rebuilding the Rights of Statues have hit US soil, but Sing for China is clearly running into uncharted territory, so it will be quite interesting to see the results. At the least, this American endeavor should be more fruitful than a squandered March attempt by Wuhan punk rockers SMZB to tour the East coast.

So, if you have friends in the US, make sure to give them the quick tip, provide them with an opportunity to see how Beijing gets down with the rock and/or roll, and let them decide what they think of three of the city's most revered bands.

As for America's effect on the Chinese groups, hopefully all three will learn a new trick or two before their return to the mainland for the 2009 Modern Sky Festival.

thanks to ChinaMusicRadar for the lead.