BeijingDazeTales of Live Music From Beijing's Mostly Underground Rock Scene..

Apr
26thQuickslants: The Busiest Music Weekend in the World I think

seriously, I’ve lived in 4 continents, countless cities and seen my share of shows but nothing compares to the musical onslaught that is about to be unleashed on Beijing over the next 5 days. It’s actually mind blowing and busy enough to make a music fan go insane trying to decide where/what to do. This set of quickslants is just for the regular shows in the clubs/venues. Here is the my guide and list of picks for the May Mayhem of Festival that i’ve done separately . Shall we get started?

(pic shamelessly ripped from http://www.zazzle.com/

Thursday April 26th

La Souris Deglinguee @ Yugong
Talk about a blast from the past. This band was a crowd favorite in France and I never thought i’d catch them in Beijing of all places. These French punks have been around since 1976 and they’re still rocking their ass off with some cool live shows. If you can’t catch them at MIDI, this is your chance to see them on their own. I expect a heavy French presence tonight.

Friday April 27th

Acoustic Brain Failure @ Jianghu:
Last time these cats got together to do this, i missed it. Thankfully, they recorded the whole gig and put it online as a proof that they got the chops and can play their instruments. I like what they do and I love how they’ve been doing it lately so I would expect Jianghu to be extremely packed for this one.

Nova Heart EP Release @Yugong
Somehow, other than Christmas 2009 where she tore 2K, Helen’s best shows have been at Yugong Yishan. I expect her to be in top form Friday night as she is set to release the first Nova Heart set of songs. I enjoyed the band’s last outing on the lead up to SXSW and i have no reason to think they can’t top that, especially after the months they have put in touring. Residence A, themselves fresh from a China tour, will be on opening duties. This is gonna be a dance screamer folks… Apparently, a director is involved so expect a visual feast as well.

BackYard Surgeons/SUBS @ 2Kolegas
The Backyard Surgeons are back for a second round of touring through China and they’ve brought along a documentary of their last China/SE Asia tour ‘No Anaesthetic’. The film will be followed by a show from the band themselves, along with The Flyx & SUBS in support. I’ve missed them on their last trip and i haven’t seen Flyx in a long time so quite curious there. SUBS played 2 weeks ago at 2K and gave one of their weakest performances ever.. I’m hoping they can make up for it this time.

Saturday April 28

Mamer @ 2Kolegas
part of his Beijing tour supporting 5 new albums, the khazakh master of darkness will descend upon the drive in and deliver dark industrial melodies… As my friend beagle-boss said it best: If a steel mill could sing, it would sound like a mamer/iZ show. I wrote enough about this one earlier this week.

Grand-master Flash @ Yugong Yishan
woa baby.. is this our 3rd rock n roll hall of fame inductee to hit Beijing in under 3 months? yes it is! This is IS hip hop and deserves massive amount of respect! I’m a bit fearful of how many people might show up for this one but in the end, it should be worth it. dancing, hopping, jumping, jiving with one of the best in the business, worldwide.
It’s grand-master Flash y’all… can you dig that? now can you dig that?

Sunday April 29th

Hide memorial @ Mao
Hide was one of the more influential guitar players to hit Japan, playing with some cool cats like X Japan and Saver Tiger, not to mention decent solo career. Caffe-in, Nao, Ever Lasting, and Ophelia will be paying tribute by covering some songs out of his catalog. If day 1 of the festivals didn’t kill you, this would be a cool event to check out some of the young guns.

Monday April 30th

Ningxia Super Night @ 2Kolegas
Buyi, Skarving. Li Dong, Nucleus, Zhao Laoda, Wu & the Side Effects and WHAI will be on hand for a long ass party at the drive in. It’s the perfect way to follow up a nice chilled day over at Ditan Folk Festival. All the Ningxia friends, all the Ningxia songs, some good old noodles and drunken rowdy music. That’s how we like things.

Acoustic fun @ Blue Stream:
If you’re feeling more mellow, band members from The On Fires, Backyard Surgeons and Arcane Saints will be on hand to play some impromptu songs in a chilled setting. Also a cool option if you’ve spent the day at Ditan and don’t want to bother with traffic.

Tuesday May 1

you get an award if you survived this whole 4 days with festivals and gigs… go home, sleep!!

let’s forget folks, there’s also 5 freaking music festivals happening at the same time