SmartShanghai | Who Made Yu: YYT's Renovations

Who Made Yu: YYT's Renovations

By Morgan Short, Feb 15th, 2011 | In Nightlife

Shanghai was thrust into a thick blackness and silence when local live music dive Yuyintang closed shop to overhaul their venue last January or December or February. Or November? No.

Last night, they reopened with a Valentine’s Day acoustic show from local pop rock band, Yuguo, and Shanghai got a peak at the new digs. SmartShanghai took some pictures with one of those fancy cameras while the band was soundchecking.

Yuyintang management were looking to increase their audience capacity space, as well as renovate their bar service area, as, by many accounts, their larger shows there -- say, shows with attendance in the 300 persons area -- were pretty wack. Basically, if you just wanted to be a cool, good-looking guy and not really committed to getting all sweaty and crushed and shit, you had to crane your neck around a corner, or stand behind a pillar or something. The bar was a bit of a pain in the ass as well because it was right in the traffic line to the door and pretty small, so getting a drink on busy nights was lame.

With their renovations they’ve gutted the entire ground floor space -- I’m guessing increasing viewing audience space to see the bands by at least a third or so -- increasing sight lines to see the shows so much that if you’re located inside the place, you’re not able to hide from the acts. The sound booth has been pushed right at the back of the front wall, the former bar has been ripped out and relocated to the seating area that used to be on the left side of the venue when looking into the space, and it's been increased in size to handle a larger drinks-ordering crowd. The staircase that used to lead upstairs has been ripped out and turned around and made into a heavy duty metal thing. Stage size and orientation has been unchanged, but they’ve taken off that dusty carpet. I think they smoothed out the floor of the audience area too.

Floor is now a concrete surface, so if you stage dive into it, you're playing for keeps.

So basically, that entire ground floor has been opened up to make seeing the band easier. And the bar is shifted over and increased in size. And they made it nicer looking too. Like, fancy shelves for the liquor bottles or something. Outside is still the same. Upstairs, in what used to be the “backstage” area for bands is the detritus of their massive construction, so you can’t even go in there. But I imagine they’ll get it cleaned out. So upstairs is the same. Bathrooms are the same.

Also, the front door have been shifted leftwards, and the foosball table is gone, to make traffic into the place easier.

All in all, thumbs up. The Yuyintang corp. has always been a live music venue first and a bar second -- I still remember the days when they were even coming to terms with the concept, “selling beer = $$$” -- and their renovations reflect an unchanged attitude towards making the rawk a central thing, rather than window dressing to sell alcohol.

Well yeah, they sell and make money on booze, but the focus is on local music, and with these renovations it’s pretty clear that they’ll continue to be invaluable as a live music destination for years to come.

For those about to rock…

They've got two shows on this weekend. Friday is like a local pop rock showcase, with four Shanghai bands sharing the stage: Monkey Shine, Da Fresh, Little Nature and Candy Shop (details here). On the Saturday, MT Hooligans (they of Trash a Go Go) host a punk rock / hard rock kind of thing with The Instigation, Androsace, and Loudspeaker. Three bands with three takes on hardcore (details here).