Maybe it's because everyone is at home, maybe it's because I'm afraid of missing the spring and I urgently need a ceremony or commemoration, or maybe it's just because he is Cui Jian. Beginning on the afternoon of April 15, the live concert on the Cui Jian video account marked with the number of reservations began to swipe the screen, and the number soared to nearly 15 million after the opening.

Cui Jian

The notice started at 8:00. Cui Jian was stubborn and brought the habit of the scene to the live broadcast, which officially started at 9:00. Friends who still have wine at home, take out the treasured wine from the refrigerator. The girl changed out of her pajamas and put on her makeup, and waited for an hour like she did. There are advertisements in the waiting time, strangers greet each other in the barrage, and Lao Cui is also keeping pace with the times. Friends who have red eyes from eating carrots recently look at the light sticks shaking on the screen, and they all look like carrots flying.
People who sing "It's not that I don't understand, the world is changing fast" are also changing themselves. The last time he held a live concert, he asked everyone to focus on listening to the song as much as possible, and not to post barrage. This time, Cui Jian changed his mind and specially encouraged everyone to "send barrage to communicate with me, I still have to respect the Internet culture and let everyone establish fate with each other".

"It's Not I Don't Understand"

Just when he suspected that human sorrows and joys could not be connected, Cui Jian said what we need to hear. "We face the same reality together." "Dedicated to those who are going through hardships." "It seems that I have only learned patience for more than 20 years."
The last time I saw Cui Jian was at Blue Note Shanghai. There were a lot of beautiful people, and the copper pipes were shining brightly. Middle-aged people come to listen to youth and feel whether they will be stirred up by the same music. Younger people also want to see Cui Jian, unburdened to see what he is doing now, how Jazz is playing, trying to explore the composition of legends.
It was a bit strange to hear Cui Jian that time. He has been obsessed with jazz for a long time, so he chose to sing for two nights (with different repertoire) in the small Blue Note. His music has evolved to be so delicate, but the way of singing has not changed, the temperament in his bones has not changed, and the fragments of Chinese memories are scrolling on the screen. The practice of subtitled lyrics is rare in Live House. Cui Jian wanted to type them out because he regarded the lyrics as verses. He wants to make you see the depression and dreams, confusion and absurdity clearly. He walked up and down the stage singing, under the stage with fragrant clothes on the temples, and people staggered, leaving Cui Jian's 1980s and 1990s behind.

"Flower Girl"

But now, that smell is back. Cui Jian walked and flew around singing, but the song did not change, but the situation of the listeners changed. Cui Jian is a hard worker. There's no rocker who is as patient and persuasive as he is, pointing out to you what's wrong with the world and how insensitive and empty people are. Cui Jian is like Cassandra of Troy, despairing but uncontrollably speaking out prophecies that no one listens to. At the time, it wasn't that I didn't believe it, I just thought, so what.
On the live stage, only loess, brick walls, huts, sky and trees can be seen on the top and back screens. If music can fly to the horizon, we are still in the city at the moment, "painting the ground as a prison". "The south wall eats my head, and fear turns into sorrow." When people are full and their heads are clear, it is not easy to have such delirium. But be vigilant, what never happened, may not happen. The singer is finally understood again, because now we understand why fear can turn into sorrow. Melancholy, if given time, may turn into a song, like the repeated transformation of water in different forms.

Cui Jian (front), Zhao Muyang (back)

Zhao Muyang also came, and there was a shadow of Zhao Yiran on his face. He played and sang a fragment of "Three Drops of Blood" in Qin Opera, and sang duet with Lao Cui. That part was so good, the two of them were one after the other. One spoke like a stone man, and the other briefly returned to youth. People who are not in this dialect area also get goosebumps when they hear it. If sorrow and joy cannot be connected, there is still something that can be done.
There is a senior who posted a circle of friends before the opening, saying that "Flying Dog" (2021) is just a few big meat buns and can eat. Unlike the previous photos of Lao Cui, it was a gluttonous feast that was suddenly eaten at night when there was a shortage of food. Today, Luo Dayou and Cui Jian are not sure about the pulse of the times. Someone who can accurately and sing has not yet appeared.
"My illness is that I don't feel it" is yesterday's illness, and today there is a new situation, and the root of the disease is still the same. Cui Jian said: "Things that don't repel us will only make us stronger." That's true, but there's something wrong. It is a good wish to be stronger, the reality will not always satisfy people's wishes, and the number of people who become stronger and stronger is always a minority. It's probably time to listen more to hardcore.
After the performance, Dou Wentao chatted with Cui Jian, saying that Cui Jian and the audience have lost each other in the past ten years. So today is a reunion.

live performance