*** This weekend we begin the descent into evil, with bacchanalian Halloween ragers and nails-tough German thrash metal. Plus: a live electronic music extravaganza and plenty of 2nd-tier-city rock'n'roll... Get on it Beijing: ***

FRIDAY

Another quick shoutout to Stolen, who were featured on this week's MP3 Monday. These kids from Chengdu played at School the other night and killed it. They ended up going on at like midnight because there were three openers (partially my fault), but they took the stage undeterred and kept everyone's blood pumping for another hour. Really recommend you check them out tonight if you're a fan of swoopy bowl-cut hair and syncopated synth rock. They have their homemade CD EP in tow and it's a banger. 40rmb, 9:30pm start. *** Beijing Electronic Music Encounter @ The Post Mountain Full disclosure: I'm one of the organizers of this event. So if you buy a ticket you'll be keeping me in Qingdaos and jianbings for another week. Nah, just kidding, we're definitely gonna lose money on this. Anyway, BEME is a two-day deal happening at The Post Mountain in Dangdai MOMA. Tonight is the first night, and kind of the biggie. Berghain staple Efdemin headlines the late, late slot. He's joined by enigmatic US-based producer Rrose, who's somewhat of a legend among avant techno heads. Read our interview with him here. Day 2 is more local flavor, including a visit from Shanghai duo Square Root of Two. I wrote about them when they visited Beijing back in July — stream some jams here. We tried to interview them but they just got back to us with necessarily short answers sent from an iPhone on a high-speed train, so here are the basics: they're into synths, they're into Duck Fight Goose, they're into jazz and pop and funk. And they make electronic music. Find the full BEME lineup here. Both nights have (mostly) live music from 7pm-around 4ish and cost 100rmb a pop. *** YEN Fetish Halloween @ 798 Space For something a bit more garish ghoulish, try the YEN Halloween party on for size. It's undoubtedly the city's biggest annual All Hallow's Eve rager, ground zero for women dressed like "slutty _______'s" and laowai dudes who think they're goddamn genius to have come up with the idea of dressing up like a PLA soldier. It's Halloween: cultural sensitivity and not being a douchebag get put on hold for a minute. Buckets of oontz will be poured all over the dance floor by seasoned Beijing DJs Mickey Zhang, Dio, Usami & Patrick Yu, ZhiQi, Jeff Hinson, Shenyue, and Eric Lee. Venue is 798 Space, that narrow semi-domed building around the corner from UCCA. This is Beijing at its most gloriously sloppy, if that's your thing. 10ish start til super late, 150rmb at the door. ***

SATURDAY

Things are looking a bit slower on Saturday, but here's one worth checking out for a dose of young, up-and-coming, out-of-towner rock'n'roll. Wuhan's premiere livehouse, Vox, has thrown down for a short China tour showcasing new sounds from central China's industrial boiler room. Swing by for live punk, indie, and post-rock from Mean Street, Flower Bugs, Sharp Pills, and Chinese Football. 50rmb, 9pm start. ***

SUNDAY

If you're a fan of the metal, this one's a no-brainer. Kreator pretty much invented German thrash metal, which is thrash metal with more umlauts and brutality. This is also a celebration of stalwart Chinese heavy metal mag Painkiller's 13th anniversary (aka "the heaviest anniversary"). Read BeijingDaze's interview with Painkiller's main man and China's hardest-working metalhead, Yang Yu, right here. Sunday's gig also features support sets from two of Beijing's biggest, baddest metal bands, Bad Mamasan and Suffocated. Truly wicked. 280rmb at the door, 7pm start. Hey, even heshers got work Monday. *** Evil. Speaking of which, our October Evil Movie Mondays series at Dada culminates with a screening of Sam Raimi's genre-defining zombie-pocalypse flick, Army of Darkness. "A man is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., where he must battle an army of the dead and retrieve the Necronomicon so he can return home." See you there.