Early on in the December 7 perfomance by Brue at Shekou’s newest bar, Blu Bamboo, this reviewer was approached by an expat with lots of opinions. One of his opinions was that covers bands are no good.

There are two things to take out of this remark. Firstly, this person seems unfamiliar with the concept of market demand. Secondly, if he is so fond of original music, then only he knows why he travelled half way across the world to live in Shenzhen.

As La Casa owner Dave Seymour was recently quoted as saying in Shenzhen Daily, there is very little demand for live original music in Shenzhen. For this reason, performers have to be creative within the very narrow parameters that bar owners allow.

Brue did their jobs by filling the dance floor and giving renditions of crowd pleasers such as “Johnnie Be Goode,” “The Joker,” and redneck anthem “Chicken Fried.”

As for creativity, every instrumentalist in the band had his time to shine. Saxophonist Uran Kamper stole every song on which he was given a solo but when he wasn’t doing a solo, his saxophone was largely buried under the cacophony. But this was nobody’s fault as bars cannot be expected to have world class sound systems.

Bass player Peter Hayes excelled on “Signed, Sealed & Delivered,” and a strong performance by lead guitarist John Howland reached its zenith on “Superstition.” The last song “Pride & Joy” gave every player the chance to give it his all. One of the band’s advantages is that it has been through numerous changes of personnel, so each musician takes on styles and genre that he might not otherwise consider, thus stretching himself.

Drummer Adrian Blackstock took over as lead singer on songs “Nice & Slow,” and “Ordinary People,” proving the old cliche that singing some songs is not just about technical ability but about the ability to feel them. Blackstock does both of these things well.

The lead singer and founder of the band Rue Moyer managed to sneak an original song, “Second Shot” into the set. Charlie Utter, who appeared as a guest lead singer in the middle of the set also did an original song, “Passport”.

The success of these two songs proves that if expats are to introduce some originality to the local music scene, it will most likely have to be by stealth. Musicians have to eat too, and in order to meet market demand, bands have to keep giving bar owners what they think customers want.