See some of Boys Climbing Ropes in this long overdue and fabulously low budget anti Cedric M vidcast:

6 days later we emerge from a barrel of work and just a rude hangover from last weekend to share another vidcast review. We made a point to check out Boys Climbing Ropes last Friday at Yuyintang. It was our first time to the Zhongshan bar and we discovered that the rumors swirling around the poor little club that could are true - the cops apparently love warm beer, even at 10pm. Nevertheless, after a few cans of Tsingtao and sweet talk by Yuyintang owner Zhang and his sidekick marketer Lin, the police let the show go on. I suspect they had to, or else face the wrath of the 50 or so odd Canadians demanding their money back - or the equivalent thereof in warm canned beer. Having arrived "late" at 10:05, we were somehow spared the exorbitant price of 30 RMB for the show.

The night

Dan Shapiro was decked out in full Friday night Movember regalia (see his blog entry )and was gracious enough to give us a quick intro (holding a can of warm Tsingtao beer) to the band. He describes them as... well you'll see for yourself. The camera is manned by Aric Queen, City Weekend's Beat columnist and the looking very tired and clueless "co-host" in the storage room is me. It was my first vidcast and occasion to hear a folk-rock-expat band-in-Shanghai.

Who's in the band

Billing oneself as an expat band puts a unique pressure to be better or at least different, in my opinion. And while Boys Climbing Ropes doesn't advertise itself as "an expat band", its 75% Western make up certainly doesn't prevent those accusations. As far as I'm aware of, it is one of the few expat bands in the city. Beijing doesn't even have one to really speak of, they're more just a shifting melange of cool talented people playing w/ other cool and talented people from time to time. Ahem, Adam Pilsbury But back to the band.

The Canadian trio comprises Morgan Short on bass, Jordan on guitar and Devin on drums. They are joined by Xiao Punk on keyboard and vocals. They've been playing in Shanghai for over a year now and last Friday they debuted two of their new songs "Big City" and "Dirty Bots". Fans despaired at the new work but quickly rebounded during the "second set" to show their support of the band's proven track (See below).

What's in this video

In this clip we'll see Xiao Punk show off her cat ears and perhaps use the word "girlfriend" slightly out of context. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Three fans then sum up the evening: Hilary Bauer, Kate Drance and some guy who compared the band's entire performance to Sonic Youth, Pixes and the Breeders. Aric would later go on to comment that the Pixes and the Breeders shared varying taste in drugs. I simply enjoyed the evening and would indeed feel comfortable not having to pay 30 RMB to see the show, as long as I was near Zhongshan Park and had already eaten dinner.

Last Friday Night's set. To hear Boys Climbing Ropes, click here. Their Myspace page claims they will be playing at 4Live on December 8th.

1) Big City 2) Dirty Bots 3) Midnight Cowboy 4) One Trouble 5) Rave Songs 6) We Calculate 7) Polar Bears