Second hand rose ready to bloom

Singer Liang Long, together with band Second Hand Rose, will embark on a national tour. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Rock band Second Hand Rose was in the middle of a show when the members were forced to stop playing - they were making too much noise.

Performing on a lawn close to residential apartments in eastern Beijing in mid-May, lead singer Liang Long, produced crisp, explosive sounds with a small pair of cymbals accompanied by suona player Wu Zekun, guitarist Yao Lan and bassist Li Ziqiang.

"Sorry about the noise," Liang told the crowd, who were disappointed that the concert was cut short. "Let's see you at our real concerts later."

The band will perform at Strawberry Music Festival in Xi'an and Wuhan in June before their national tour in 2013, and will release a new album in the latter half of this year.

At the cut short concert the band members wore shirts and black pants, a departure from their usual bold style, especially for cross dresser Liang, who is known to don high heels and red lipstick. Liang joked with the audience: "luckily we didn't wear our stage dresses. If we did, we might scare people."

But despite the displeasure of the audience, Liang was accepting of the disrupted performance.

"We have been called off in the middle of a show before. But it's ok. We started from the lowest point and performed to just a few people," says Liang in the heavy dialect of his hometown, Heilongjiang province, northeast China.

The band is known for its blend of traditional Chinese folk music, especially errenzhuan, a folk art with strong local flavor featuring ballad singing and dancing popular in northeast China and rock music. Founded in 2000, it has been popular in the rock music circle and among regular performers at music festivals in China.

"So-called Chinese rock isn't just adding traditional Chinese music but more importantly paying special attention to how to express our emotions," Liang says. "Perhaps in the future we will incorporate comedy and theater."

He also says that one interesting thing about errenzhuan is its imperfection and improvisation, compared with other Chinese art forms, which focus on aesthetic perfection and melodies without any mistakes.

"The reason the art form is popular is that it is close to ordinary people's lives and the lyrics are humorous. But sometimes it's too humorous, which is considered vulgar and even dirty," he says. "Because I grew up with it, I feel it's a great form to talk about life and express emotions. It comes into our music naturally."

The band has only released two albums, and although it is not prolific, its songs, such as Tricks and Lonely Heart Ad, have developed the band a solid fan base.

"The value of the band lies in how they opened up Chinese rock to possibilities including the direction it could go and how it is created," says music critic Huang Liaoyuan, an influential contributor to China's rock scene for years. "They have no competitors in the scene because their style is distinctive. The only people they need to surpass is themselves."