Cyndi Lauper at the Great Wall
Check the concert listings for your favorite bands, any bands, and see if they ever come anywhere near Beijing. Yeah, a lot of acts play in Tokyo, but China is mostly totally off-limits...except to Hanson and the Backstreet Boys. I'm not kidding. So, in serious need of a concert, I bought a $70 ticket to see Cyndi Lauper, Nelly McKay and Alicia Keys (among others) play at the Great Wall. The concert stage was set up in the center of a large gate section of the wall, and it was an awesome venue for a concert. The opening song, by a famous Chinese pop singer, was sung from a turret high on the mountain. Cyndi Lauper has still got it. Any of you who can remember dressing up in mismatched clothes covered by a net skirt and running through your backyard singing "Time After Time" know what I'm talking about. Or maybe that was just me. It was totally awesome to see one of my little kid icons now that I'm "all grown up." Funny thing that could only happen in China: the Chinese police on hand at the concert were intent on keeping us in our seats. Apparently, standing up and making noise are not allowed at Chinese concerts. You should have seen them trying to put down the crowd during "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." It was a scene truly worthy of a "rocker against the establishment" 1980's music video. Reality imitates art? I hadn't heard of Nelly McKay before this concert, but after the first few lines of her opening song, I was in love. She's totally crazy, and her style ranges from rapping like Eminem to singing ballads like a lounge singer from the 1940's. Her lyrics are witty, provocative and incredibly intelligent...check her out. None of the pictures that I took of the concert itself turned out, but here's one with me and some of my Korean coworkers and friends.