Last Sunday night I ended the wonderfully hot weekend at LOgO listening live amateur and not so amateur Rock. After the ‘cut-da-wave’ DJ from England at Shelter – The Bug – LOgO’s Jam Session was very refreshing.

I made it on time to listen 6 or 7 songs of the Ska Band “No. 1 Korea”, who were very fun, the crowd was jumping and sweating like if the weather wasn’t enough. They had a very well prepared marketing set at the entrance (cool T-shirts there). The 5 members of the band (including, drums, guitar, bass, sax, trombone and trumpet, who’s also the singer, if I saw right from the back) had really good vibes and certainly lots of energy. I can’t say they were awesome, but they sure deserve other chance to check them, I guess just the mix of Korea and Ska is enough interesting, but it would be much great to listen to better melodies with that energy and those instruments. Anyway cheers to them, I was on the back, almost right by the door to the street, while they played the last tunes and when they finished, every person that was leaving the heated front was with a smile, except for one guy with a red shirt, but well…. anyway, it’s always memorable to collaborate with the global happiness, so cheers to No. 1 Korea.

The long break was similar to the time before the Sunday’s football game: the friends of the players, the girlfriends of the players, the players that come every Sunday, the new guests coming with doubts about playing or not; and many times the question on the air: “are you playing tonight?” accompanied in this occasion by the other one: “is hot, uh?”.

I went because my friend Tommaso a.k.a. Pelado, told me he played the Sunday before. He said it was fun and full, but I was not there, shame on me! I was paying all week my mistake for missing it and I confess, it was difficult to go… it was hot!… I went mostly because there’s still some politeness in me (haven’t been able to loose it all yet) and I didn’t want to disappoint him. So when finally Pelado arrived and said he might not sing I was very closed to leave, but luckily for me, the preparatives before the game finished right there and the first players… mmm, ok, now I should excuse because I don’t know most of the names of the people that played this night, but if someone out there knows them please, help…. Well, the first singer for the Jam Session came to the stage, I don’t know his name but he is the boyfriend of my friend Ana. So Ana’s boyfriend sang and ‘nice girl I should also know her name’, played the guitar. They just played one song. Hopefully they will invest more energy and time on this and next time they’ll play more than one song, because it was a very nice surprise to listen a male soft rock folkish voice with no more pretensions than to enjoy the music, they did bring back the beach and the sunlight to the atmosphere and people was finally happy it was hot. The ovation was big and it took a breath to understand they were not playing other song. I insist, it would be good to listen more from them.

Then one guy alone with his acoustic guitar jumped to the stage. I tried to understand what he was singing, the language, but may be his accent, may be my listening I could not get it. Anyhow, he played something it could perfectly be classic pop from Hungary, he had the look too, he took the chance and played two songs. Nice work there.

After this the unplugged session was over, and two guitars, one bass, drums and singer took the stage. John, the singer is one of the steadies of Sunday’s at LOgO. From here on he was the owner of the stage, except some few times. Among the players turning around this jamming band, was Vladimir playing Bass and Guitar, Jay (a.k.a. Harry Potter) who together drove, almost at the very end of the night, an incredible moment to remember: Heavy Metal took LOgO. Hell, YEAH!!!!

Among the guys coming up and down of the stage there was other guitar player who had a really nice sound and stage attitude, and I do remember his name! Adam from Australia, he told me he’s playing every week at the Melting Pot on Hengshan rd. with two of his bands if I remember well. We’ll be checking them soon, for sure.

I ended up staying almost until the end of the night at LOgO. These guys are doing an exceptional work of production for a grungy underground bar, not any venue gets to have such crappy toilets and be loved in the way LOgO is by their customers. We do appreciate the work done on having a stage for those guys that love rock, jam sessions, and those who want to give it a try. I wish those that get a good feedback from the audience take it a little bit more “pro” every time and dedicate more time to practice and improve their skills. For those who haven’t notice, Shanghai wants to have many more rock bands, so there’s space for all who are willing to try. I insist, though, just if you are going to give it a try to the “pro fields of rock”, then please practice, and not only learn more tunes, and better skills on the instruments but also, the attitude and the listening. Not everybody is Led Zeppelin and some egos need practice to let Rock be.

Finally Pelado made the jump to the stage for the beginning of the last set, he sang one of Alice in Chain and one from Bowie. Pelado has lots of fans/friends that enjoy to share his music experience, including myself. May be in a parallel dimension he is living a life being a famous pop Italian singer playing at the Festival di San Remo, he has that kind of voice style.

Like in football, some Sunday games can be more exciting and fun than many of the games of the World Cup, even though it’s so hot that fried ducks are falling down from the sky. I had big fun. I got to listen to good rock moments and there was a nice crowd enjoying the weather. Certainly to repeat it and to spread the word about it… not too much though… to keep the underground spirit live.