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May
4thMIDI 2011 day 1: Tales of Storms, Dust, Suffocated, SUBS and RockAH, Midi day 1. The first day of a festival is always the trickiest one! That’s the one that sets the tone for the rest of the festivities from atmosphere to logistics and it’s fair to say MIDI was off to a rocky start with mother nature doing all she could to get in the way. Still, somehow, the dust, rain and mud just combined to make it gritty and grungy. Getting to the grounds was relatively easy with mix of subway/shuttle. The organizers had it all set up and labelled with a bunch of folks holding signs pointing to the shuttle and prompt service. easy breezy! No queues or whatsoever getting in the grounds. One tent with 4 lines selling tickets and further down an entrance point with security check that was anything but prohibitive. Really relaxed. The location was beautiful but a bit worn down with plenty of grass but also plenty of dry sandy patches that worked hand in hand with the storm to make day1 one hell of a grungy affair. The flea Market side was as hopping as ever with tons of people setup selling various things from nurse outfits to hats and stickers. The audience was amazing!!! Full blown rock fans that braved the elements and were there for every song by almost every band!!! How about the music? Da Hong Bao 大红袍 opened the festivities with decent metal. Nothing to write home about but not bad either. Perdel gathered quite a crowd for [...]
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May
3rdFestive hangover: MIDI, Strawberry and Other Music Notes from the weekendBoy I am worn out!! It’s been a long weekend with tons of music, fun, dust, wind and random happenings, which i’ll hopefully share on the blog shortly. But for now, we’ll make do with a quick recap before I get down to full blown reviews of the festivals. Midi on Saturday was a strange affair. Dust storms and rain really affected the festival and took a dent out of the audience, a few of which did scramble to get back to civilization before the end. Still, hats off to the organizers for keeping the ship steady. No Problem with logistics or alcohol sales over there. Just good fun and really good organization. only hiccup was headliners Voodoo Kungfu got to play 3 songs before being shut down. Strawberry on Sunday got off to a shaky start with the Modern Sky shuttles nowhere to be found. Nightmares from last year were coming back quickly. Still overall, it was good if you were inside! other than the lack of booze of course! What a sorry sight it is to look at those empty Absolut tents.. Music was good and sound better than last year! I’m still not sold though. Midi on Monday was a must see. From all i heard and seen, it’s been the only Festival that didn’t face some sort of regulatory problem. Beautiful day, nice temperature, good music and rocking performances by AK47 and Miserable Faith. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I didn’t go to CMV [...]
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Apr
27thMayday Festivals 2011 in Beijing: Final Roundup before the weekendThe weekend is not even here yet and I’m already all festival-ed out. The coverage is all over the spectrum on the expat magazines (Beijinger’s Michelle Dai | City Weekend ..) one could argue we’re over-saturated with coverage and no one really needs another blog post to help but here comes anyways. The Tongzhou police department weibo account released a map of Strawberry layout for the 2011 edition. Much like in 2010, there is only 1 entrance listed! Now, the emotional hardship from the clusterfuck that was day1 strawberry last year is still vivid in my memories and no matter how freaking amazing their lineup is, I don’t believe they can organize their way out of a paper bag, at least not on day 1. I’m definitely headed to MIDI for that! Day 2 at Strawberry is IMHO the strongest day of any festival this year (discounting the presence of Mr. Big) and might be worth a visit, provided the feedback from those who went on day 1 is good. If not, screw that shit! MIDI is putting on one hell of a fight this year against Modern Sky and losing. In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of their traditional acts are playing in Tongzhou only this year. There is insider talk of malpractice all around music circles. Considering how they treated the bands last year, their utter disregard for public safety and the public problems with Carsick Cars amongst others, it’s nothing short of a musical coup that [...]
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Apr
21stCool Promotional Trailer for Beijing MIDI 2011..I’m a MIDI kinda guy, always been. And Strawberry did all they could last year to keep it this way. this little MIDI promotional clip ( bigs ups to China Music Radar) has all but convinced me of doing MIDI day 1 despite the more attractive lineup of Strawberry. I like the production and how they highlight the bands. So, what’s you guys festival picks so far?
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Apr
12thEarly roundup of Mayday 2011 Music Festivals in BeijingYup folks, it’s only a few short weeks away! We’ve had a lovely edition of Jue Festival last month. We’re in the middle of Ephemeral feast (I won’t call it a festival yet) and with May holidays approaching, it’s time to look at what the big boys have in store. Strawberry in Tongzhou (corrected) Boy did they piss me off last year but they apparently got their act together. They’re the first ones to have a full schedule ready to go ( See Here ) this year and it’s not looking bad at all. I really like the lineups they’ve got worked out, especially on the Strawberry Stage! Day 1 sees reTROS, Miserable Faith as well as XTX headlining. Day 2 has Omnipotent Youth Society, Queen Sea Big Shark and Shanghai’s Fever Machine. Day 3 sees Cui Jian himself close things up with help from Hanggai. I appears I was looking at the Suzhou edition when writing this but most of it is still relevant. He Yong is in instead of Cui Jian, but unfortunately no Fever Machine. We will get Top Floor Circus from Shanghai along with XTX, reTROS, QSBS etc…. still, a solid offering at the price they’re doing it. I like the emphasis on good quality music from China! I’m just really afraid of the organizers fucking things up again…. MIDI at Jinglangdao Park Not sure what’s happening on there folks. As I expected, they had a few issues with Haidian Park and relocated to a new [...]
The Mini Skinny
What once started as my personal ramblings has morphed into the number one collective resource about underground live music in Beijing and China. All bands, all music, all Rock n Roll, all the time with a little side of eclectic topics.. best of all, it's still as BIASED as ever
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- Joann on Quickslants: Jurat, PiL, XTX, Yangjima for a Loaded End of Week
- On The Scene: 2013 Strawberry Festival Day 1 | Live Beijing Music on MIDI 2013: Anywhere, Anytime, Thanks for the Rock n Roll
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- Beijing Daze on MIDI 2013: Anywhere, Anytime, Thanks for the Rock n Roll