They’re back: Wu & The Side Effects new lineup puts on a surprise appearance

Last Friday at 2 Kolegas, after most people that showed up for GBoB left, the usual suspects started turning up! Eventually, at some point, Stephano, new bass player for Wu & The Side Effects showed up armed with his bass. A few minutes later, Moritz was also in the house and rumors of a late show started brewing. It was a bit of a long shot since I knew Wu was on the other side of town for a folk gig. Still, both Ruby and I were hopeful. She had made it there just as the GBoB stuff ended and missed out on the music.

Around 1:00 a.m, who else but Wu Kejia himself showed up at 2 Kolegas armed with his guitar.. by then, the crowd had thinned out a bit but we were on!!!

The band took the stage around 1:30 and proceeded to go through their catalog .. Wu and Moritz were on spot as usual with Stephano slowly coming along! I’ve seen him play bass for Purple Smog, the Jimmy Hendrix Cover band and was pleasantly surprised.. I would have never thought of him as Checo’s replacement (if that’s even possible) but something tells me this is gonna work out just fine. He needs sometime to get used to the band and the old songs but the chemistry is there as evidenced by a nice long jam they had at the end of their set.

Here is a little video of the new lineup playing “Besieged on all Sides” :

As a side note, it’s things like this that make 2 kolegas special. Mao Live and Yugong Yishan are just not hangout places where a band can show up unannounced and plug in for an improvised 45mn show… in 2 Kolegas, they can! It’s a musician’s bar first and foremost and one of the least pretentious places in Beijing to hang out in.