Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 11 A Sweet Declaration
Although Zhang Yan pretended to be interested in rock music, he had only ever listened to pirated cassette tapes of Cui Jian, and this was his first time attending a live concert.

My first impression was that it was a chaotic mess.

Although there were more men than women in the audience, more than half of them had long, curly hair. Some were wrapped in leather as if they were hibernating, while others wore capri pants that revealed their leg hair.

Before the performance even started on stage, some people below were already carrying tape recorders and getting hyped up. Their long hair was swinging back and forth, and you could smell the grease from a distance.

Zhang Yanzheng was secretly disgusted, but Wang Zhongqi winked at him, signaling him to look towards the southwest corner.

It turned out that a group of young girls had gathered in the southwest corner. They were all wearing long-sleeved T-shirts and tight-fitting leggings. Although their overall appearance was average, their figures were well-defined. Compared to the monsters and ghosts around them, they were quite a sight to behold.

"The world is going to the dogs! It's really going to the dogs! If my wife went out dressed like that, I'd break her legs!" Wang Zhongqi shook his head and criticized, watching with more fervor than anyone else.

Zhang Yan's thoughts were also somewhat conflicted. Holding onto the simple values ​​of the early 90s, he felt that this was indeed a bit excessive, but compared to what he saw and heard in his dream, he felt that it was not a big deal.

Suddenly, the stage lights came on, and a young, beautiful female host, with somewhat awkward catwalk steps, walked to the center of the stage, picked up the microphone, and said, "Our concert was originally scheduled to officially begin at 8 o'clock, but now..."

She glanced down at her digital watch and continued, "It's just past 7:30, but our band can't wait to go on stage, so I'm announcing that the show will start early!"

So casual?

There's still half an hour until the scheduled time. What are those who arrived on time supposed to do?
Zhang Yan and Wang Zhongqi stared at each other, both feeling that the performance was too childish. However, the other audience members reacted enthusiastically, with cheers, applause, and whistles filling the air.

Zhang Yan didn't even hear how the female host introduced the Black Panther band before he saw several long-haired men swarm onto the stage.

Then the tall, thin band lead singer and the female host hugged each other and shared a French kiss in front of everyone.

This only amplified the cheers and whistles that filled the air.

Zhang Yan couldn't understand it, but he was deeply shocked.

However, compared to the shock of the opening performance, the so-called original songs performed by the Black Panther band seemed rather...

Well, Zhang Yan still prefers Cui Jian's style, at least it's more high-pitched and clear. As for the lead singer on stage, I don't know if he used too much force during the French kiss just now, his tone sounded rather low and hoarse, and the music he was accompanied by was very loud, so it felt a bit like he couldn't distinguish the main and secondary parts, or rather, the secondary part overshadowed the main part.

If it's true that Zhang Yan doesn't know how to appreciate things, the reactions of the other audience members didn't seem as enthusiastic as they were at the beginning.

"Cobra, cobra, cobra!"

Just as the first half of the performance ended and the instrumental interlude began, someone in the southwest corner suddenly shouted in unison. It was the "tight-fitting leggings army" that we had just seen.

It seems this wasn't Zhang Yan's misperception. Either the middle-aged authors of later generations had unique tastes, or the Black Panther band's original music wasn't mature enough—at least this song wasn't mature enough.

[PS: Historically, Black Panther only truly released original songs after more than a year of perseverance, when they participated in the 91 Shenzhen Spring Concert.]

Upon hearing the shouts from below, the long-haired lead singer, who was swaying on stage, was clearly taken aback. He stared at the southwest corner and brought his mouth to the microphone, as if he wanted to say something, but was stopped by the guitarist next to him.

When he started singing again, the girls in the southwest corner started making noise again, and this time even the other audience members were swayed, shouting "Cobra" all over the place.

Those who arrived late, in particular, took the opportunity to vent their frustrations.

Unable to contain himself any longer, the long-haired lead singer slammed the microphone and stand to the ground and left the stage without looking back.

Chaos erupted both on and off the stage.

The audience cheered and booed. The drummer and keyboardist stormed off the stage, and the bassist tried to get the host to save the day, only to find that the female host was chasing after the lead singer.

In the end, the guitarist went over, picked up the microphone, bowed to the audience, and apologized: "I'm sorry for making you all laugh. Next, please enjoy... Baby Brothers' original song 'City People'!"

Although he apologized, he still challenged the audience to their level. The crowd chanted "Cobra" in unison, but he insisted on having "Baby Brothers" take over. Perhaps this is the rebellious spirit that rock music aims to express.

Although it wasn't 'Cobra' who took the stage later, 'Baby Brothers' had also performed at music festivals and had quite a few fans in Tianjin, so their subsequent performances went without any problems.

However, what truly ignited the entire audience was the 'Cobra Band' who appeared in denim miniskirts—in stark contrast to the male bands who all had long, afro hairstyles, the girls in the Cobra Band mostly had short hair, with the exception of lead singer Xiao Nan.

The two bands took turns performing several songs, but Black Panther never appeared on stage again.

At this moment, Wang Zhongqi asked somewhat hesitantly, "Teacher Zhang, shall we still go backstage?"

Judging from the way Black Panther and his group looked when they stepped off the stage, Wang Zhongqi suspected they might fight backstage.

"Let's go take a look, consider it a field trip." Zhang Yan still wanted to go backstage to see what it was like, after all, this was his first opportunity to interact with the people on the playlist.

Seeing that Zhang Yan was determined to go, Wang Zhongqi had no choice but to ask an acquaintance at the cinema for permission and lead him into the backstage area through a side door.

As soon as they pushed open the door, they were greeted by Xiao Nan, the lead singer of Cobra, who had taken off his leather jacket, revealing a light blue camisole underneath.

She saw the two of them come in with the staff, but she didn't feel embarrassed at all. She just turned her head away and started wiping the sweat off her body with a towel.

Seeing Zhang Yan's surprised look, Wang Zhongqi explained in a low voice, "Many song and dance troupes do this when they're touring. The stage crew is rushing them, and there's no place to change backstage, so they have no choice but to..."

He suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence, frowned, and said, "But shouldn't the Red Flag Cinema have a dedicated changing room backstage?"

Xiao Nan clearly heard this, turned around and gave Wang Zhongqi a meaningful glance, then continued wiping himself as if nothing had happened.

"You are?"

At this moment, someone came up to them and asked about their identities and backgrounds.

Wang Zhongqi quickly tried to assert his authority, saying, "I am an editor from the Tianjin Literature Magazine. This is Mr. Zhang Yan, a contracted writer for our magazine. Mr. Zhang has always been interested in rock music and wanted to write an article on the subject, so he came here specifically to gather material."

Popular Fiction Newspaper was affiliated with Tianjin Literature Magazine, and Feng Jingyuan was the magazine's vice president, so this statement wasn't exactly a lie.

Upon hearing that a writer was visiting for inspiration, the other party's attitude immediately improved considerably. They proactively extended their hand and introduced themselves, saying, "Welcome, welcome! I'm Guo Chuanlin, the band leader. To be honest, what rock music needs most right now is promotional channels. If we could..."

bang~
Halfway through his sentence, the dressing room in the corner was suddenly slammed open, and the lead singer of Black Panther, wearing only his briefs, stumbled out, raising his hands and loudly announcing: "I've made up my mind, when I get back to Beijing, I'm going to write a song myself, a song that's even more awesome than 'Nothing to My Name,' and I'm going to utterly scare them all!"

This 'sweet' declaration immediately plunged the locker room into a brief silence.

Then Guo Chuanlin roared angrily, "Dou Wei, you fucking put your pants on first!"

Dou Wei?

There's a song on the playlist called "Tomorrow Is Longer," which I think he sang.

Moreover, Zhang Yan vaguely remembered seeing this name in some news headlines in his dream, but he couldn't remember the specific content.

Upon hearing Guo Chuanlin's roar, Dou Wei instinctively looked at him. The two stared at each other for a moment, and Dou Wei quickly gave in, walking back to the locker room dejectedly.

Just as they reached the locker room door, a white arm reached out from inside and pulled Dou Wei inside—it seemed they were still fighting backstage, just in a different way.

Perhaps this is what rock and roll is all about.

(End of this chapter)