Beijing underground outfit Chuiwan performed at livehouse Yugong Yishan Friday night to kick-start the China Psychedelic Tour, a free-wheeling musical jaunt with New York-based co-headliners, The Psychic Ills. The nine-city tour winds its way down the Chinese mainland's coast and interior before ending in Macao on November 25.

Chuiwan is the newest addition to record label Maybe Mars, who has dubbed the group as the "cream of Beijing's experimental crop." The start of the band's tour Friday also coincided with its official release of debut album, White Night.

Years of extended jams in sweaty rehearsal rooms across the capital appear to have paid off for the band, which formed two years ago.

The band's name, literally "blow vastly," comes from Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi's mystical work Qiwulun, which explores the relationship between man and nature. The spirit of Zhuangzi's thought is captured in the modern Chinese idiom: "When the wind blows, every sound may be heard therein."

"Anyone who is successful suffers a backlash," drummer Josh Feola told Metro Beijing backstage before Friday's concert. The "backlash" Feola speaks of refers to disparagement from some corners of the Beijing music scene. "[But] the fact of the matter is we wouldn't be where we are without Maybe Mars."

Feola, 26, is the band's only foreign member, hailing from San Antonio, Texas. The band's three other members consist of multi-instrumentalist frontman Yan Yulong, 23, from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province; guitarist Liu Xinyu, 22, from Beijing; and female bassist Wu Qiong, 27, from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

"I don't care what other people think of me. I just enjoy being myself on stage," said a gum-chewing Yan, exuding all the swagger of a rock star.

"We don't compare ourselves to anyone, and we don't care about being famous. The sound we make just comes naturally."

Chuiwan have broken away from their underground contemporaries by joining a label, although ink is hardly drying on any contract. The band hinted their agreement is verbal, a nostalgic nod to the type of deals favored by Factory Records during the 1980s in Manchester, Britain.

Whether it's a sign of budgetary concerns or an indication of genuine friendship between the label and band, it's an arrangement both parties appear happy about.

Everything about Chuiwan's music is unconventional and hard to categorize. Psych-rock is traditionally influenced by a culture of mind-altering experiences that draw on non-Western musical structures, such as raga or drones. With Chuiwan, a Chinese element to their music is detectable, but it's "not a conscious thing," Yan insists.

They opened their set Friday with "Swimming," the opening track on White Night. The band had a physical detachment from the crowd, almost as if a glass curtain was in front of the stage. Musicians refrained from eye contact, instead indulging in a bout of shoe-gazing.

As far as debut albums go, White Night is a sterling effort. What can be an alienating experience live works much better on record, where song structure is better appreciated.

However, China's absence of mind-altering hallucinogens could hinder the band's attempt to connect with sober audiences.