Nine Inch Nails, Cui Jian rock Beijing

I will write a longer article on this later, so don't want to give everything away.

It was the first time I'd seen Cui Jian, the Godfather of Chinese rock, in concert, and I was quite impressed. His old tunes had people dancing, and he played a couple of new ones at the end (even one in English!) that shows he's still churning out good, new material.

Nine Inch Nails took the stage at 9pm before several thousand fans. The lightning and special effects weren't bad, and people seemed into the music (especially songs from early in their career). It closed with a beautiful rendition of Hurt from The Downward Spiral, an album well-represented at the show.

Trent Reznor didn't say much to the audience, other than the odd "thank you". I guess he was intimidated by the language barrier, and towards the end hauled up a Chinese assistant to say a few words on his behalf. He thanked the Chinese for their hospitality, and the crowd let out a thunderous roar when he promised the band would be back soon.

Again, I'll write more on this later, and will be sure to post it. Overall it was great seeing big-league rock stars perform in Beijing, and I look forward to more of this at next year's Beijing Pop Festival.

Listening to live music under the stars was an ideal way to wrap up the summer.