The Gar | BeijingDaze

Sep
23rdThe GAR return: new EP, new sound & old friends

I love The GAR. Let me just get that out there before I even start. I love them so much my entire Oct holiday is planned around leaving the day after their EP launch. BD and I were hoping to get a review up before the show, but due to both of us being crazy busy last week, we managed to listen to it, but not find the time to collect our thoughts and put them together in a review. So this is going to be a combined show/EP review, written in the hours between the show ending and me jumping on a plane for 2+ weeks offline in the west of China. Mr Graceless were on opening duties at Yugong Yishan last night. A band I first saw a couple of years ago as 3 young shy indie kids performing what seemed like covers of their favourite brit-rock bands. How far they’ve come in that time, if you haven’t heard their album, The Tree Ever Green, you should definitely give it a listen. The 3 guys I saw on stage last night seemed so much more mature and confident. Yes, I can still hear a little Blur influence in their songs, but they’ve worked hard to make their sound their own. The GAR opened their set with two new tracks 爱，终将把青春遗漏 Love will lost your love and 后撤 Train, which were posted on Maybe Mar’s soundcloud a couple of weeks ago, so I’d heard them before listening to the [...]
Aug
2ndQuickslants: Less Licks, Bookswaps, Icelandic Vibes, Dual Triple Headers, Returns and more

If you missed out yesterday on the Franz Nikolay/Randy Abel Stable gig at Yugong Yishan, don’t despair! Plenty of interesting shows are coming up over the next few days that might be just as intriguing. While some of them are sure to be packed, especially Friday night at Mao and Old What, other little gems can be just as much fun. Thursday August 2nd Cao Yang @ Jianghu I’ve been listening to Cao Yang’s douban trying to figure out if it’s worth seeing or not. 2 hours later, I’m still confused and in-between. The show is billed as “I’m back” blah blah blah blah… 3 bands on the bill and potential good times if you just stay away from the red wine. 3 bands on the bill and a good opportunity to chill in the hutongs with this weather Friday August 3rd 3X3 – Hedgehog, Casino Demon, Gar @ Mao Biggest lineup I’ve seen at Mao in quite some time. This is solid shit in Beijing’s underground musicland. Hedgehog, love or hate them, deliver every show and have put on some memorable concerts lately. Casino Demon is back in form and slowly working their way up the ladder again after a few months off. GAR is one of those bands i don’t freaking get! People are mystified by the fact that they never play so anytime they come out, they cause a frenzy. How about the music though? Either ways, this will be a fun show with gigantic attendance. Misfits [...]
Nov
4thBeijing Live Music Quickslants: Mamer, White Eyes, Wong Faye, and molto vino

The weekend is rolling around with some really cool shows on the horizon folks and some of them are actually worth braving the cold for. Thursday November 4: Mamer, Li Tieqiao & Dawanggang @ Jianghu: If you like folk, this is where you wanna be thursday night. I’ve loved mamer’s performances over the past year but he’s apparently trying some weird experimental stuff recently, following in the footsteps of xiao he. Let’s hope that’s not the case! Dawanggang get good reviews from some trusted music insiders and are worth checking out. New Generation of Rock @ Mao Live: Black Eyed Child, Closer, elec-bunny, Sweet Escape, Two Faced Country. These are all names I’ve never heard of and it would be extremely interesting to see what the upcoming batch of Beijing rockers sound like. It’s always a good opportunity to discover a few diamonds in the rough. Friday November 5: The White Eyes @ Mao Live: I’m looking so forward to this show that I might skip on it because I’m afraid I’ve built up my expectations and the band can’t match them. I loved their last Beijing appearance and have been keeping an eye on their current China tour which is going pretty darn well according to their douban updates. Bigger Bang and the Ghost Spartac support the album launch. It’s gonna be electro punk all around! Amazing Insurance Salesmen + Love’s Tourettes @ 2Kolegas: One of the last AIS performances in beijing before they head over to Hong Kong [...]