Exact details are still a little hazy, and attempts to contact club manager Zooma on the phone failed, but the word on the street is that tonight's (Saturday) S.T.D. show at 4 Live will be the last time the venue hosts live bands.

This is a real blow to live music in Shanghai as 4 Live, in my opinion, is -- or I guess was -- the best place in town to catch live punk/metal/rock.



As the only medium-sized venue that offered both a proper stage, a proper place for an audience and really good sound equipment, 4 Live was an ideal location for bigger out-of-town acts to play with emerging local talent. The end of live music at 4 Live compels us to look at the other options for live rock in Shanghai and a serious gap presents itself that this venue previously filled.

Formerly known as Fabrique, 4 Live opened at the end of 2006 and in its too short run hosted really great shows by virtually all of China's bigger bands -- Subs, No Name, Second Hand Rose, The Honeys, Angry Jerks, Top Floor Circus, Banana Monkey, Crystal Butterfly and Brain Failure, among others -- as well as the popular Bananas, Back to the Roots and Ding parties. Despite these successes, 4 Live in the end was apparently not commercially viable, perhaps due to the fact that it sat empty all week long until a big show or party was on, and the drinks (and sometimes cover charge) were priced out of the range of its customers.

So tonight is the last night to catch some good live music at 4 Live, and S.T.D. is hosting MiG 21, a locally-based nu metal band (really NU metal: they have a rapper, a singer and a DJ who goes "wikka wikka" with a record before the guitar player hits a power chord) and French post hardcore band Papier Tiger, who, incidentally are quite Fugazi-ish. Hey that's alright.

Hopefully, true to the two-steps-forward-two-steps-back narrative of Shanghai live music, the venue will re-open with a new name and live bands will come back to a new "4 Live." Good luck and thanks to Zooma and the rest of the 4 Live staff for some really great shows.

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