Kurt Groetsch @ OldTasty.com

Poor Cui Jian. He may be the godfather of the Chinese rock scene, but he sure has a hard time lining up performances in his home country. His last national tour was way back in 1990 when he was raising money for the Asian Games. But even with such a noble purpose, the tour was cancelled by a government wary of student gatherings in the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Since then, he’s had to make due with unannounced club gigs, overseas shows, an occasional music festival appearance and performances with second-tier acts passing through Beijing. It finally looked like he was ready to make a grand comeback last year when he was booked to open for the Rolling Stones in Beijing, but the tour was cancelled amidst SARS fears.

So Friday night it was business as usual when he appeared as part of Atlantic Affairs, an overblown rock opera about artists who fled Nazi Germany, written and performed by über-cheesy German rock star Udo Lindenberg. How bad was it? One of the featured songs was called “Father, You Should Have Killed Hitler.” Enough said.

Anyway, Cui Jian got three songs at the beginning of the second act and blew the place away. It was like seeing Bruce Springsteen get up in the middle of a Las Vegas show — his set illustrated just how silly the rest of the evening was, and the crowd knew it too.

Next up, a rumored 15-song set opening for stone-age rockers Deep Purple at Workers Arena. I’ll be there too — if I can make it through Atlantic Affairs, I can certainly put up with an extended dose of ’70s classic rock.