Power of punk

How does a one-night stand featuring Beijing's hardest rock bands grab you? The Star Live show this Saturday, with venerated street punks Brain Failure topping the bill, is just that.

Brain Failure sing in both English and Chinese, and are China's leading punk band. The line-up is: Xiao Rong on lead vocals and guitar, Wang Jian on guitar, Shi Xudong on bass, and Xu Lin on drums. They might not be the most original of bands, but their live shows always generate interesting moshes.

Soon after being featured on China's first punk compilation, Wuliao Jundui, Brain Failure invoked a punk rock revolution in Beijing by becoming the first Chinese punk band to release an album and go on international tours. The band and hip-hop revolutionary Public Enemy teamed up this year to record a song that shouts their message to the world. Public Enemy bass player Brian Hardgroove produced Chuck D singing A Box on the Broken Ball, that focuses public attention on China's severe pollution as a result of rapid economic growth, as well as on global warming and other abnormal meteorological phenomena.