*** Summer vacation's almost over (for those who have vacation; we never sleep), but it won't end 'til a whole bunch of punk & hardcore bands stomp their way through the capital for one last chance at outdoor hot weather festival action. Actually, two last chances. Fans of the fast & fierce can double down over the next two weekends, with the 3rd CNHC (China Hardcore) Festival going down this Saturday at Mako, and the 11th Beijing Punk Festival happening next Saturday and Sunday at 2 Kolegas 798 Livehouse*. Some real legacy stuff going on with both. About 1,000 bands apiece. Here's a selection: *UPDATE: Shoutout to Shanzhai Laowai for alerting me that the Beijing Punk Fest has been moved from 2 Kolegas to 798 Livehouse (1 Qixing Xijie, 798 Art District, 4 Jiuxiangqiao Lu). *** So, first in chronological order is the CNHC Fest, this coming Saturday at Mako. This is CNHC's third year running, put together by the small but dedicated China United Action crew. They've booked pretty much the same core bands on every CNHC Fest thus far, though year by year it's growing incrementally, presumably reflecting a (slowly) rising interest in this niche but vital corner of the punk rock universe. Here's a highlight reel from last year's edition at Mao: Headlining again this year is Hong Kong's King Ly Chee, universally recognized as the forefathers of Chinese Hardcore. They're coming up on their fifteenth anniversary, no small feat for any kind of band in China. For a band to be playing hardcore punk in HK's cultural vacuum for that long is pretty much a miracle. Actually, its just a testament to how strongly this kind of music is felt and lived. If you want to dig deeper into the whole back story there, check the interview I did with King Ly Chee's frontman Riz Farooqi ahead of last year's CNHC Fest. There are a lot of repeats from the last few years in addition to King Ly Chee: Loudspeaker and Spill Your Guts from Shanghai (check them both out here) and old-hand BJHC representatives Unregenerate Blood, Return the Truth, xIt Never Happenedx, Resist Control, Saving Molly, The Last Resort, and Own Up. Covered a few of those in an MP3 Monday last year. The surprise entrant on this year's CNHC roster is Demerit, one of my personal favorite hardcore/punk bands in Beijing. Real solid lineup this year. I'm going to embed the preview video that China United Action made for this year's outing, even though its only a quick montage of all the band names, because the soundtrack is "Break Down the Walls" and I'm a big Youth of Today guy: So, CNHC #3 is Saturday, August 23 at Mako Livehouse. Find the full lineup and everything else you'd need to know about it right here. If you read Chinese you can also catch a quick intro to each band playing over on the CNHC Musikid page. *** Then, the following weekend (August 30-31), 798 Livehouse hosts the 11th annual Beijing Punk Festival. BJPF has come under fire from some purists in the scene for a number of reasons: corporate sponsorship (Dr. Martens is an official donor for the second year running), regional bias (the vast majority of the bands playing are from Beijing), croneyism (the majority of said majority are old guard punk bands that play pretty much every year). But it's an institution with a legacy that can't be knocked. BJPF has been running longer than any other festival in Beijing, including MIDI. Though there has been increasing institutional and financial support in recent years, it's still, as ever, pretty much a one-man operation, booked by Misandao vocalist Lei Jun (above). This year, BJPF has expanded to two days, and though the lineup is, as previously mentioned, like 90% Beijing bands, there are a few out-of-towners swinging through who are worth a look. The Pumpkins from Xinxiang are one of the more promising young bands on the lineup; already wrote a bit on them before, catch up here. And here's The Bricks from Hangzhou, some ska action for ya: The two big non-Beijing headliners at this year's Beijing Punk Fest are Bazöoka from Taipei and SMZB from Wuhan. Two damn solid bands, let me tell you. Bazöoka in particular is totally my jam. By far the fastest and heaviest band on the entire BJPF lineup, they're playing pretty much straight up thrash metal. Would make much more sense on CNHC actually, but hey, always good to mix it up. Here's a four-song face-melter they put out earlier this year: SMZB is one of the oldest punk bands in China, real founders of the movement. Their sound is old school street punk, singalong chorus stuff with a bit of Dropkicks-esque bagpipe thrown in because, it sounds cool I guess. SMZB very rarely makes it to Beijing, and when they do its usually pretty nuts. They're headlining Day 2 of the fest, expect that to be a raucous closer to the overall festivities. Here's their 2011 LP, Sin Harmony, to get you in the mood: *** Recap: 3rd CNHC Festival = Sat, August 23 @ Mako 11th Beijing Punk Festival = Sat-Sun, August 30-31 @ 798 Livehouse