Levels

I looked in at local music bar Jiangjinjiu last night to catch "half" of Buyi, a rather fine folk/rock outfit from the far western province of Ningxia. For this show they were playing as a trio - bass, drums, and the lead vocalist, who also plays a decent acoustic guitar, and a bit of Dylanesque harmonica now and then. I can't recall how big the full outfit is: not as many as 6, I think, but probably 4 or 5. Anyway, this pared-down lineup worked pretty well. I'm easily pleased - so long as their bewitching lady bass-player is present, I'm a happy boy.

Unfortunately, I decided to leave after just a few songs because the sound system had been cranked up to painfully loud volumes. It's a pretty good setup they have in there, pretty powerful - it really doesn't need to go anywhere near the top of the dial unless the place is packed to the rafters, with a lot of background chatter to overcome and a lot of bodies to soak up the soundwaves. I have often seen it that full - but it probably hasn't attracted such a big crowd as that for the whole of this moribund summer. Last night, the numbers were only a few dozen - pretty full for such a small place, but far from the standing-room-only throngs we've sometimes seen there.

And yet, just lately, the boss always seems to want to PLAY IT LOUD. He's in a small rock'n'roll band himself, and often sits in on drums with the performers at his bar..... so, maybe he's getting a bit deaf? That could be it. Or maybe its the traditional Chinese approach to advertising - if people can hear your music from 200 yds away, maybe more of them will come in. Or maybe it's just an idiotic macho Nigel Tufnell kind of deal - "But this amp goes up to 11."

I had a similar problem when I looked in a few weeks ago to catch the Xinjiang-flavoured jazz/folk group Panjir on one of their regular Thursday night sessions there (I was slightly disappointed to discover that David Mitchell and Akbar Abliz, the virtuoso guitarists who are the core of the band, were both still on an extended break in Xinjiang; so, the stripped-down trio version of the band [yes, it seems to be becoming a fashion!] had some new guy on guitar I'd never seen before [decent, but not quite up to Akbar's standard]; but the very cool Uyghur chap who plays the ethereal upright fiddle [called, I think, a rebab] was again onboard, so I was quite happy). On this occasion also I was driven away barely half-way through their performance by the inappropriately high - positively painful - sound levels. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as at the Buyi show last night, but sill way too loud for an almost empty bar. In fact it was pitched just at the point where it was uncomfortable but tolerable most of the time...... and then, once in a while, a sharply-plucked guitar string would set your fillings rattling.

On that earlier occasion, my friend - and Islamic music enthusiast - Tulsa was with me, and concurred with my response. I don't think I'm just becoming an old fuddy-duddy who can't cope with loud music any more. This really was just way out of order.

It's a difficult topic to bring up with the boss, though. He obviously doesn't realise the problem; or he likes it that loud; or he's perversely proud that his amps can kick out that much noise. Maybe he'll twig what he's doing wrong when his audiences start to dwindle, when people start leaving 5 or 10 minutes into a show with blood dripping from their ears, when people are listening to the music from the far side of the square outside. Maybe.....

We can but hope.