OK, let’s play a quick game. Take 10 seconds to look at the picture. The name of the game is “Who the fuck are any of these musicians playing Shanghai Live Earth Saturday?” Of the 8 artists included in the photo (those two non-Chinese looking guys are in the same group), let’s see who can identify more than two. I can identify the 12 Girls Band and that’s because there are twelve of them. A female friend of mine from Shanghai could only identify four and for each one, she said, “oh, big star.” From what I hear, the girl on the top right is Sarah Brightman, an English singer. I’m not going to front like I knew who she was. Other than that, I’m at a loss. The Live Earth Concert, spearheaded by former U.S. vice president and environmentalist Al Gore, has recruited the biggest performers in the world to play shows on Saturday in 8 different cities (in order of start time: Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg, London, Johannesburg, New Jersey and Rio de Janeiro). Unfortunately, none of the stars, who include Madonna, Metallica, the Beastie Boys, Kanye, Ludacris and the Smashing Pumpkins decided to come play the Shanghai stage. Instead, at tomorrow’s concert in Pudong, those who shelled out between 220 and 1,100 yuan will get to see Brightman, the 12 Girls Band, Anthony Wong, Eason Chan, Evonne Hsu, Huang Xiao Ming, Joey, Soler and Winnie Hsin (not pictured above). As pretty much every music lover can agree, Chinese or foreign, this lineup sucks. According to Shanghai Oriental Pearl Live Nation, the local event organizer, they wanted to keep the bill Chinese in order to “make more Chinese people realize the importance of environmental protection.” And what do I say to that? Bullshit. First, only the 12 Girls Band and Huang Xiao Ming are from the mainland. And second, if they could have drawn larger international acts, they would have. It’s not like the other cities booked bands only from the surrounding region. Linkin Park is playing Tokyo, Lenny Kravitz is playing Brazil, Snoop’s in Hamburg, the Beastie Boys are playing London and the Police are in Jersey. Why is China the only place that saw Live Earth as an opportunity to showcase local talent? The whole point of Live Earth is that it’s a global effort to save the environment. The Shanghai Daily reported 3,000 people are expected in Shanghai, as opposed to the 65,000 expected in New Jersey or the 700,000 (no typo) expected at the Copacabana Beach in Rio. Saturday’s show in front of the TV Tower is a city-wide joke, a wasted opportunity for Shanghai’s music scene and for environmental awareness in China.

•Shanghai Daily: Local Live Earth Show Features Chinese Flavor
•USA Today: Live Concets Rally Round Earth

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