The ongoing Jue festival continued to pull out the stops with a varied triple-bill at Mao on Friday, headlined by heavily touted Shanghai emo rockers Mushrooms, with two Beijing-based acts, Arrows of Desire and King Statue in support.

Though I only caught the end of King Statue’s set, there was plenty to like about their dreamy retro-tinged indie pop. Lead singer Lolita, adorned in a fifties-glam blonde wig, alternated between coy, plaintive cooing on “Meng Lou (Revealed dream)” and a feline snarl on the harder rocking “Playgirl.” The band are far from a polished product however, particularly in terms of stage presence, where they were far more polite university student than swaggering rocker, whispering self-consciously toward the audience when a scream would have been far more engaging.

There were no such problems for Arrows Made of Desire, who, led by Dutch-Chinese front man Joewi Verhoeven, put on an entertaining set of full-blooded, nineties alterna-rock. One critic offered that the best thing about Mr. Verhoeven’s music is that you can’t easily tell what records he’s been listening to, something that can’t be said about many local bands. And while his influences may be far less apparent, those who grew up listening to the grungey sounds of bands such as Soundgarden and Ween will feel a sweet rush of nostalgia as Verhoeven leaps about Grohl-like, launching into Sabbath-heavy riffs and fluid solos, throwing his long brown locks back in classic grunge fashion. But even beyond the band’s technical wizardry—the bassist and drummer were similarly solid with their jazzy, bouncy feel—Arrow’s songwriting displays an intelligence and attention to detail that elevates them above many of their peers.

While emo evokes a strong love/hate reaction from many listeners, there is little question of Mushrooms utter mastery of the genre. They set the crowd alight with their opening anthem, and left the audience similarly exhilarated with their final song, a rap-cover hybrid featuring the refrain from the 4 Non Blondes' classic, “What's Up.” In between, their well-structured set moved from heavier rocking numbers to slower, ballad-like territory. Lead singer Pupu is an electric performer: loose lipped and almost mime-like in his facial expressions, he spent the set jerking about violently, looking at times as if he was bawling, at others as if he was clowning around in class. While just as melodramatic and precious as other singers of the genre, Pupu also possesses a definite chun ye men 纯爷们，a certain raw masculine energy, that left a foreign female friend standing next to me gushing: “He’s really cute!”

“How’s the scene in Beijing?” he asked at one point, before describing the difficulties that plague the band’s native scene. Earlier, Pupu had also referenced how large the audience turnout was for their first headline show here, evidently impressed. There will surely be even more for him to scream his heart out to next time that Mushrooms pass through town.

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Photos are courtesy of sophywt - www.douban.com/people/sophywt

King Statue: http://www.douban.com/artist/kingstatue/

Arrows Made of Desire: http://www.myspace.com/arrowsmadeofdesire

Mushrooms: http://www.douban.com/artist/mushroom.band/