So you may have read The Inspectors and my take on thanking god for my Asian American friends who have turned me onto some dope C…RAP from CHINA. I was looking forward to this show very much. For one thing the $2.50 Rolling Rocks and secondly my first St. Paddy’s day in Chi-Town (by the way no one here calls it that), and thirdly because the kid who turned me onto Hang on the Box and Mad Capsule was mad jealous this show was coming to me first.

Hang on the Box is everything I could imagine except sexier (sorry, can’t help it – its not like they are selling the sex side, I just found them really hot). I also thought after spending so much time with their record (by the way I picked up a new one Howie will be reviewing next issue), I thought they would be savvier with the English, but it only made them more awesome when I found out otherwise. They were unable to do much more than intro song titles and mostly seemed happy with their own uncomfortable lack of anything between songs. The drummer is so awesome and plays drums almost mechanical, but not without soul – somehow I felt like some of her society was evident in her style – and I could just be putting too much shit into it, but I liked it and it came to mind. The guitarist and singer are great as well and I really wanted to talk to them all after and finally cornered the drummer and guitarist and said, “Hey, I loved your set.” They both kind of thanked me like with a nod of the head, ‘Thank you, Thank you,’ and walked right by. Apparently these girls are into Mongolian BBQ and ecstasy. Awesome.

Brain Failure was great Chinese sort of Rancid-type-punk rock shouting out fucking Shanghai crews and references. The singer was real funny a few times with his heavy accent and lacks of smooth English skills, which again I think is awesome, as every band I know who can speak the language I understand uses it to become ASS.