*** Well... another Monday, another round of crippling live music shutdowns across the land! Closest to home: on Saturday, the 330 Metal Festival at Tango — China's largest annual festival exclusively devoted to the genre — was abruptly canceled by a small squad of police a few bands into the bill. Shanzhai Laowai talked to a few metalheads on the scene and they said the gig was axed due to "safety concerns." Right. I feel much more unsafe crossing the damn street in front of Tango than I ever have at any metal show in Beijing. Heshers here are just swell. Really not sure what the actual reason behind this clearly bogus excuse was, but it's (yet another) pretty devastating blow against people trying to do DIY music in this city. This Facebook post from Nine Treasures, who were slated to play but never got the chance, sums it up succinctly: A bit further afield: Wuhan livehouse VOX celebrated their tenth anniversary over the weekend, though the festivities were somewhat dampened when the venue was hit with an ex post facto fine for booking Boris earlier in the month. (Remember that huge bummer?) Venues in Xi'an and Shenzhen have also been slapped with heavy fines for that other booking. Xi'an's Aperture Club seems to have been hit the hardest, having been informed they're no longer allowed to book live shows. Score one for peace and harmony in the ancient Silk Road capital, I guess? [Update from the road: the booker of Emma Pollock's tour says their show tonight at Aperture in Xi'an is going ahead as scheduled. In talking with Xi'an-based promoters, it seems the full extent of the fallout has yet to be definitively felt, but the club will cautiously maintain the live music part of its program for the time being.] Anyway, digging into this week's live event listings in Beijing, here are a few reasons to put a brave face on and keep smiling: *** First up: Einstürzende Neubauten frontman / original Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld and Italian composer Teho Teardo are playing on Wednesday night at Yugong Yishan. This one's being put on by German soft power lobbyists Goethe-Institut, and it better not be an April Fool's Day prank or I will hurt someone. Before we get to the music, I really need to talk about this flyer. I thought the Germans were supposed to be good at design? This looks like Blixa and Teho were on the USS Enterprise and Scotty partially beamed them down but quit after getting 85% of their torsos there. Also are they like, jumping out of a pile of leaves to surprise someone? What's going on there? Also NO ONE IS SMILING. Ok I'm done. Blixa and Teho will be performing a live rendition of their recent collaborative album, Still Smiling. Here's the title track: I interviewed Blixa the last time he was in Beijing, putting on some kind of multi-media interactive theater piece, and I can say from firsthand experience: dude is not a smiler. Quite serious, in fact. I guess Still Smiling is a euphemism for not smiling at all, but actually plaintively reliving the slings and arrows of troubles past. Here's a rather evocative review from a very serious-minded listener at The Quietus "Musically, Still Smiling is so absorbing and enduring a listen thanks to its range of melodic ideas and well-executed experimentation. Its sequencing and structure is no doubt so eloquent thanks to Teardo's history in film and theatre. The Balanescu Quartet also give a great performance on three of the tracks, especially on 'Come Up And See Me', with its almost histrionic ballet between strings and a pleading vocal of 'come up and see me some time' over roughly clacking rhythms. This in turn is juxtaposed with sentences spoken rather than sung: 'the man who screwed a whole country... are you happy to see me or is that a gun in your pocket?' They're presumably references to Silvio Berlusconi, given that they're accompanied by a listing of Italian media outlets. This rich palette is used to great effect throughout the record, giving it a great emotional heft." I think he's missing the Smeagol influence, as well. Definite Smeagol influence on Blixa's vocal work here. But hey, different people pick up on different things, that's part of the joy of music. Bargeld and Teardo will be performing the album in its entirety, supported by cellists Martina Bertoni and Aiys Song, violinists Ma Xiaofei and Yang Wenhui, and violist Hao Jie. Tickets are 80rmb at the door; 8:30pm start. *** Yugong's actually got another solid weeknight rager coming hot on the heels of that one: on Thursday, they host '90s fuzz-indie revivalists YUCK for their Beijing debut. This one really came out of nowhere, huh? Feel like it hasn't been promoted very well at all. I only know about it because Morgan was trolling their Facebook last month. Here's a taste of that vintage alt-college-radio greatness that YUCK ladles out: Expect lots of feedback and quality tunes at this one, and I'm guessing kind of a Split Works-y vibe to the audience. (This one's actually being done by some promoter called Stella... never heard of them / her but keep up the good work!) Limited 120rmb pre-sale tickets can be bought online via Yoopay. Otherwise it's 150rmb at the door. 9pm start. More info *** On to the clubbing: stalwart underground dance music promoters The Antidote pull out the big guns on Saturday at Dada, hosting legendary producer A Guy Called Gerald. Gerald was a central figure on the late '80s Manchester scene, toting his heavy-duty arsenal of 808s and 909s to that city's spread of nightlife hangs, churning out a protean discography of club burners bridging Chicago house, Detroit techno, acid house, and proto-jungle / drum'n'bass. Here's his big breakout: Gerald is famous for his marathon live sets, which have been rumored to go on for as long as 14 hours. Who can even stay awake that long, nevermind dance / push buttons on machines that make people dance?! Anyway, pretty sure he's only doing a DJ set, and I'm gonna say it'll be more in the ballpark of 2-3 hours. A Guy Called Gerald has managed to stay relevant over his ~30 year career, constantly shifting his style to anticipate the next curve in the road ahead. Should be an eclectic night, mixing some of his historical smash hits with some newer and more progressive tunes he's been working on more recently. 100rmb, 10pm start. More *** Hijokaidan Last up: this weekend, Beijing artist Yan Jun hosts a diverse lineup of Japanese and Chinese noise makers for a two-day experimental music mini-festival at Meridian Space. It's a collaboration between Yan Jun's MIJI concert series and Multiple Tap, a globally floating music fest showcasing the "chaotic extreme Japanese music scene." This one's been kept a bit quiet on account of the current anti-chaotic extreme Japanese music scene campaign that's been raging across the country for the last month (see above). Really hope they pull it out though. The lineup is rather staggering for anyone with even the faintest affinity for Japanoise. Right up at the top of my personal wish list is Jojo Hiroshige, founder and sole constant member of legendary Osaka ear destroyers Hijokaidan. Check it: Jojo is joined by his wife and fellow Hijokaidan member Junko, plus noise compatriots Toshimaru Nakamura, Katsuyoshi Kou, Ko Ishikawa, and Tetuzi Akiyama. Yan Jun brings the local artists to the table, rounding up his usual cast of improv performers: Yan Yulong, Liu Xinyu, Vavabond, Li Qing, and Li Weisi. Doors at 7pm, concert at 8pm both nights. There's no ticket (I think as a precaution against cancelation), but attendees are encouraged to donate some funds to cover the travel and accommodation fees for our out of town guests. Find the full two-day program in the listing. And I'll quote Yan Jun's curatorial brief, because he's a better writer than I: Improvised music, experimental music, noise… are a direct return to everyday life and the contemporary world. These genres are not special. On the contrary, they reflect the normality of everything and transmit energy from the performers and listeners to this normality. They break dreams. This music enables performers/composers to steer clear of emotion and attitude, and therefore helps them to give up their ego. They try to release the potency of all sounds equally by standing free from virtuosity and questions of aesthetic taste. This might be an ideal situation. But it must be a simple one. MIJI + Multiple Tap Festival is just some simple sounds, performed together by international artists and their young local colleagues (and the audiences, who free themselves from identity). *** RECAP: Blixa Bargeld + Teho Teardo: Still Smiling = WED April 1 @ Yugong YUCK = THU April 2 @ Yugong A Guy Called Gerald = SAT April 4 @ Dada MIJI + Multiple Tap Festival = SAT & SUN April 4-5 @ Meridian