[DID NOT ATTEND: June 17, 2026] Chinese American Bear / Layton Wu
I hadn’t heard of Chinese American Bear until I was looking at the PhilaMOCA site for another show. The name was cute and I looked into them and immediately wanted to see them live because their live shows are playful and interactive. Tong leads the audience in singing Mandarin and dancing. There is a background dancer in a dumpling hat or a bear hat, and the duo throw dumpling or boba plushies into the crowd.
I mean, how fun would that be? But we had tickets to see Wilco (why do all the good events happen on the same night?). Since they’re from Seattle there’s a chance they’ll come back to the East Coast sooner rather than later. The band consists of married couple Lingbo Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten. They play psychedelic C-pop (or mando pop) with both Mandarin and English lyrics.
Layton Wu is a New York based Taiwanese bedroom pop singer. He might be too soft for my liking. I wonder if he’s more fun live.
I Just Read About That... 