A Beijing-based music and gig review blog

Where: Yugong Yis­han
When: Sat 2 June, 21:00
How Much: 80RMB, 60RMB pre-sale
Who: Snapline (More Info)
Why: Snapline is one of those bands who has been around for­ever and yet you never see them. They’ve been around for more than a decade, and with the sup­port of D-22 and Maybe Mars, they helped found the new wave of rock music in the early 00’s. His­tory aside, though, they’re amaz­ing. They remind me of Joy Divi­sion (there’s a good rea­son they’ve done trib­utes to them), and they play some of the best synth-infused post-punk around. Which is, I real­ize, not say­ing a whole lot since the only other one that comes to mind is Re-TROS, but that doesn’t detract from my love of them. But they hardly ever play, so it’s really in your best inter­ests to get down to see them as they launch their new album, “Phe­nom­ena”. It’s a good chance to not only see one of Beijing’s great rock bands live, but also hear their new tunes while you’re at it. Get on it.

But it’s a huge week­end this week­end. If you’re not skip­ping out on Snapline for Steve Aoki at Tango 3/F, 10PM, 300-500RMB, there’s also The Noise Revival Orches­tra all the way from Texas at Tem­ple, 9:30PM, 50/30RMB, and Cloud Choir with Thru­outin (who recently released an EP) and more at Old What? Bar, 9PM, 30RMB. But of course, the other days of the week are not with­out their merit. Thurs­day and Fri­day at Tango 3/F sees Italian/Chinese night Hitweek China at Tango 3/F, with a bunch of awe­some bands from both coun­tries, 8PM, 200RMB, and on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, Escape Plan (or Perdel as I will con­tinue to refer to them) are hav­ing plugged/unplugged nights at MAO Live House, 8:30PM, 80RMB Friday,100RMB Sat­ur­day. And if that’s not enough, you should also check out alter­na­tive hip-hop show­man Simon Ting at Yugong Yis­han on Thurs­day, 9PM, 80/60RMB.