Weekend Quickslants: music, geeks, wine and art. Beijing got it all!

Not the most fascinating of weekends music-wise but there’s a whole lotta old friends playing around the city which is always a comfortable thing to have! It’s also more of a weekend for events like 4square day, wine tasting at Palette Vino in the Hutong and the launch of Sound Kapital.

Thursday April 15:

Black Cat Bone @ D22: my favorite bluesmen mount a rare expedition to the forbidden hinterlands of wudaokou for a gig. Should be a good chance to see them up there for some kick ass good old fashioned boogie woogie. Grab their album while you’re at it, it’s pretty darn good.

Friday April 16:

If you’re into the whole social media craze with twitter and 4square amongst others, then you’ve heard of 4square day. Get started at 8:30pm at the Apple Store in the village then head on over to Fubar. The whole point is to get swarm badges and the Lager man has challenged LA’s Viper Room ( See Beijing Boyce for details). If this sounds foreign to you, then don’t worry, it’s only for the initiated :-p
As far music goes, we got some goodies:

The Redbucks @ Jianghu: Personal favorites of mine playing out in the hutongs. I actually have not seen them play in a little while so I might just have to trek across town tomorrow and get some homegrown bluegrass and catch me a little wind of Daisy Sweetgrass 🙂

Lonely China Day @ 2kolegas: I guess someone called these cats The Chinese Radiohead… I’m not sure that’s a positive or a negative at this point but the show promises to be interesting. please do note that 2 Kolegas now has the loudest freaking sounds system in Beijing.

Saturday April 17

Wine & Tapas @ Palette Vino: for 150 RMB/pp, enjoy a free flow of first class spanish tempranillo and tapas in the hutongs. This is one of the better values in town and a great opportunity to just take it easy and pretend spring is here. (note it’s at Palette Vino in the Hutong. Call them to confirm)

Hanggai @ 2 Kolegas: I’ve never seen the gang play there so this might be my choice for the evening. Intimate venue and they might play more than 30 mn there since all the buddies are hanging out.

Live & Acoustic @obiwan: Arrows Made of Desire & RandomK(e) are scheduled to play an acoustic set by the lake but don’t take my word for it. Could be an interesting gig/alternative but be warned that I have seen 3 gigs so far as Obiwan that were labeled as “acoustic” and turned out to be fully electric.. just saying 🙂

Sunday April 18:

Sound Kapital Launch: Photographer Matthew Niederhauser celebrates the launch of Sound Kapital, a compelling collection of Niederhauser’s photography of the Beijing rock scene. Xiao He, Shou Wang and Offset: Spectacles all perform at the event. more info here

nice little solid weekend full of fun times and even a bit of music. Of course, for more extensive listings, check out the weliveinbeijing.com page and look up that Japanese Space rock band they talk about.. could be an opportunity to check out something different