Yugong Yishan: Still The King.. and more award for 2 Kolegas, Temple, The Stable, Hot Club and Residence A

a lot of happenings in town the last few week have kept me beyond busy with half a dozen unfinished reviews.. They’ll come out sooner or later! In the meantime, a few things have been happening:

Yugong Yishan took home the award for Best Live music venue for both The Beijinger and City Weekend Awards. There’s not much that can be said other than Congratulations!!
The past year, it’s been a bit better but I’ve also not gone there as much so I’ve had less chances to bitch about it. Still, they hosted Simple Plan, Grand Master Flash, Jorma and more whereas the other Beijing venues have struggled to get any big names that expats recognize. The win makes sense.

2 Kolegas continues to play second fiddle with both an editor’s award ( City Weekend) and an outstanding award ( Beijinger). I love the place and as they get to celebrate their 7th anniversary, I extend my thanks and best wishes to them. This year, they’ve upped the ante quite a bit with renovations, better planning, better promotion overall. They seem slightly more organized but just as fun and crazy as they ever were! See you over the weekend folks!

Temple has arrived with a bang and is already making huge waves in Gulou… The place took home an outstanding mention at the Beijinger awards. The gang over there is putting all the venues on notice and forcing them to up their standards i hope. They got a good ear for music, they offer decent value on drinks, not to mention pay the musicians and treat them well. I’m happy the readers have put them up there.

Mao Live got a mention at the City weekend awards but honestly, I think they’re pretty much out of the expat radar at this point. They recycle the same bands most of the time, have one of the worst bars in Beijing and definitely don’t encourage patrons to stay after the gigs. Add to that the fact that they rate at the heavy end of the spectrum with only a handful of decent shows a year and this is what you get. Even Mako is doing a better job than them at this point.

Hot Club of Beijing wins Best Band Award
talk about one out of left field.. I honestly did not expect this because they’re not exactly big on advertising themselves but they’re playing everywhere expats go and this is an expat vote. All I gotta say in “congratulations” and well done. I love their music and they are doing something unique in Beijing.

That said, the bands i expected to get the prize didn’t go home empty handed. Residence A and The Randy Abel Stable both took home some awards for their contributions to the music scene.. congrats to both bands as well!

I was hoping SUBS, as the BEST band in Beijing for my money, would get some recognition but alas, that was a long shot.. we’ll keep them as the emperors of the underground!
Stay tuned for some really big and fun news comign up over the next few days folks.. things in ‘daze World are about to heat up