Mao Live | BeijingDaze

May
26thYugong Yishan and Mao Live: They didn’t start the fire!

It’s only rock n roll but it can be a pain in the ass, especially if you’re a music venue in Beijing’s Doncheng district. Last weekend, as I was out in Lanzhou, I got word that authorities had closed Mao Live for Fire Safety issues… I made a few calls to check but it looked like just unsubstantiated rumors. The scheduled “3 Kingdoms” show with The On Fires, Your Favorite Enemy and SUBS went ahead… didn’t think anything else about it until yesterday (wednesday May 25th) News landed in the interwebs about a closure at Yugong Yishan whereby all shows have been cancelled until further notice. Most of them are actually re-routed to Tango 3F for now. Mao Live has not escaped the problems.. according to this Global Times piece, they’re only allowed to host small scale events. if you’re planning on attending any show there over the next few days, call ahead just in case
Aug
18thBeijing Live Quickslants: Max Star for Max Music, Punk made from China and housewives that rock

The rock gods have smiled on you Beijing and delivered a meaty week of treats like we haven’t had in a long long time! We got quantity and quality with almost compatible time slots to boot. of course, there are plenty of options all week all around town starting with Star Max festival in Ditan Park… I’m skipping straight to the meaty side of things here: Thursday 19th: Free Capoeira Classes @ Gongti: 7:30 to 9:30 pm! All class fees are waived for a short time to celebrate moving into a new studio space inside Workers Stadium. Enter through Gate 21 or 3 ( north side), go up to the 3rd floor and walk towards the middle. It’s a large studio space entirely dedicated to Martial arts! If you have any trouble, call up Van (13810022050) or Jun (18600056983) Zhang Si’an @ Jianghu: Check out the folksy side of JSB as he goes back to the hutongs. Last time I saw the Frenchman play was part of his Amazing Insurance Salesmen group and they brought the house down just about a month ago. This one should be mellower. Friday 20th: Shonen Knife @ Mao Live: Japanese all Girl punk band celebrating almost 3 decades together. I’m intrigued enough about these ladies to have gotten advance tickets for this baby. They’ve experienced a few lineup changes through the years but the latest incarnation is getting rave reviews. Hegdehog will be opening! Day 7 @ Ditan Music Fest: One of the strongest [...]
May
4thMIDI day 2: This is how a festival is done!

I think I made no secrets of my feelings for Strawberry Festival this year and I must admit that on Sunday morning, i was extremely hesitant to head up to Haidian for day 2 of MIDI… I strongly considered not going but the draw was too good and i had faith in MIDI’s experience. I also received a lot of good feedback from folks who had gone there for Day 1. The crew got there about 1:30 pm and within 15mn, we were through the gates! Ruby, who was also there with me for the Strawberry fiasco, were instantly relieved! MIDI had 4 tickets booths, completely separated from the entrance gate itself. The queue was orderly and we had our passes in no time! Another 5mn of queueing at the entrance gate which also had 4 separate lines waiting to get in and we were through! We took the first few minutes to walk around Haidian park scouting the premises. There was a multitude of vendors peddling everything from wigs to CD sitting around the main path. There were also plenty of vending points for drinks and food throughout the park. Paul, over at The BarProp, had some interesting comments about the availability of 5 RMB beers along with other musings on days 1 & 2. What i did like this year was that with the exception of the Tang and Yen stages, all the others were scattered around far from each other so that they wouldn’t interfere. The Tang [...]