Remembering YuYinTang (Part 4): A Fairytale Ending For The Fever Machine
On that time I said goodbye …
It’s only fitting to start at the end. We are, afterall, saying goodbye to YuYinTang’s Kaixuan Lu venue, which closes tonight, June 30, 2024, after nearly 17 years.
I won’t be there to thank Zhang HaiSheng and Lu for all of their support over the years, for providing an amazing atmosphere for artists to grow, develop, and perform. Fortunately, I did all of that 11 years ago, on December 1, 2012. That was the night The Fever Machine played our final show, releasing the 7” single La Chupacabra.
It’s very rare that bands have the opportunity to end in such a perfect fashion. Usually, there’s a breakup somewhere, or someone skips town. Sometimes, bands don’t even know they're playing their last show, as was the case for our previous band, The Rogue Transmission.
The Fever Machine, on the other hand, had what basically amounted to a yearlong victory lap. And still, after three years and a well thought out and executed exit strategy, we didn’t want to leave the stage that night, spending an extra minute and seven seconds just hammering out staccato rhythms on E-flat. It was a little tease to our Halloween performance as Queens of the Stone Age a month earlier, but really we just wanted to extend the performance and soak it all in for just a little longer.
When we walked off stage, I knew it would be our last show at YuYinTang, the very room we debuted in, as The Fever Machine. After years of touring, and playing dozens of shows around China, including close to 30 at YYT, The Fever Machine had come to its natural conclusion.
That was until the pandemic brought the band back to life, briefly, back to YuYinTang …
There was never animosity between Miggs, Fabien, and myself following the dissolution of the band. We’ve remained close friends after all these years, albeit separated by continents, oceans, and time differences. We’ve grown up and started families, sharing kids photos in our WhatsApp group. We still trade music online and send updates on new material.
This was how Miggs approached us about doing one last project: a live album and concert film that he’d been mixing and editing in Ecuador for a couple years.
One of the many great things about being in a band with a filmmaker like Miggs is that he was always capturing video of our shows. On the occasion of our final performance at YuYinTang, he did a three camera shoot, and close to eight years after the gig, he recovered a drive of video proxies to make the edit.
And just like the La Chupacabra 7” vinyl release for Genjing Records in 2012, the La Chupacabra Live at YuYinTang album was recorded in Shanghai, mixed in Quito, and mastered in the U.S.
Watching our concert film is like a celebration of the Shanghai scene that we helped build. The performance, which was part of the 2012 Booshkabash festival, certainly wasn’t our biggest or best show. Honestly, there are some seriously sloppy moments that we chose to include, rather than masking our mistakes with overdubs. The atmosphere at YuYinTang was always warm and inviting, so it’s almost a fitting homage to the venue that we embraced the vulnerability any artist must accept when performing live. Miggs captured that true essence and ambience in the film.
There are distinct shots of scene stalwarts like Ryan Shank, Lenz from Androsace, Brice from The HuHu MaMas, and Ox. Olaf Helmig, who traveled with us to Ecuador and California on our “Tour of the Americas” was there, as was Alex from Battle Cattle, Nic Meyers, and the boys from Spill Your Guts and Banana Monkey, who joined us on the bill. Of course, no Shanghai gig was complete without Abe Deyo, photographer and promoter extraordinaire, who, in an amazing twist of fate, met his wife at a Fever Machine show the previous year, in Nanjing, when the Ministry of Culture tried to keep us from performing. For sure we’re taking full credit for that love connection.
It was a true and proper sendoff for our stoner rock trio.
Playing in bands in China has remained one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. I wouldn’t necessarily say it defines me – I’ve been playing music all around the world since the late 80s, singing on a couple platinum albums, performing at the most prestigious concert halls in America – but the Shanghai scene helped shape the person I’ve become. YuYinTang was instrumental in that growth and development.
Zhang HaiSheng and Lu embraced me, my bands, and my projects. Sam Dust was always there to give me a little more kick drum in the monitor. And the bands and concertgoers came together to form a holistic and organic collective, hell bent on living life in the moment every single night.
The day after our final show at YuYinTang, Miggs flew back to Ecuador for a few months, and during that time, I left China for good in February 2013. It would be another 10 years before we saw each other again.
Fabien stuck around for a few years, and kept us up to date with the scene, here and there. It was a thrill to receive a message one day with a photo of our band, hung up on walls of the new YuYinTang Park venue near Zhongshan Park. It’s a most tremendous honor to be remembered by Zhang HaiSheng and Lu, much in the way I remember them.
“We are The Fever Machine, and YOU ARE FUCKING AWESOME!”
More YuYinTang Memories:
*Photos by Dani Grant