Live Music entertainment in China
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A
Backstage Live Restaurant
For four or more nights a week, this restaurant hosts gigs in new indie, alternative and postpunk from Hong Kong and overseas. Check website for details.
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Melting Pot
The Melting Pot has an eclectic line-up of local musicians every night of the week, and the Taikang Rd locale means it’s often hopping.
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Bandu Cabin
Phone up after 10am on Friday and book a seat for the traditional Chinese music performances every Saturday at 8pm at this cafe in the M50 complex.
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Causeway Lounge
This slick lounge has live folk music from 18:00 to 21:00 on weekdays and a resident quartet plays pop favourites from 21:00 to 01:00 Monday to Saturday.
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Rainbow American Café
The most popular place among the backpacker crew when we passed, Rainbow has live music most nights, a pool table, dance floor and friendly staff. It also serves food.
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Bohemian Lounge
This long, narrow watering hole is a great place for a libation anytime, but try to make it on Thursday after 9pm or Friday or Saturday after 10pm when live jazz kicks in.
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Star Live
It’s a great space and as the only medium-sized venue in Běijīng, it hosts a fair few international bands. The venue hosts occasional dance parties, too.
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Zhijiang Dream Factory
Shanghai has a bad rep when it comes to live music, but the venues have improved dramatically in recent years. For home-grown rock, Zhijiang Dream Factory is one of the best.
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Yuyintang
Shanghai has a bad rep when it comes to live music, but the venues have improved dramatically in recent years. For home-grown rock, Yuyintang is one of the best.
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Jiangjinjiu
Friendly cafe-bar that puts on lots of Chinese folk and ethnic minority, particularly Uighur , bands. There is no cover charge, and it’s situated between the Drum and Bell Towers.
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Door
Craftily presented meeting-ground of Art Deco and Qing-style furniture, this is certainly one of the few local drinking spots which is atmospheric. There is live music from 22:00 (Monday to Saturday).
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La Tasca
La Tasca is more a cantina and bar than a restaurant nowadays and has live music starting from 22:00 on Saturdays. But it still does a set lunch and food at night, including tasty tapas and more substantial main courses.
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Joyce is Not Here
Cosy and friendly, this little cafe has something for everyone, from poetry readings and live music on Thursday to booze and Sunday brunch.
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Malone's
Love it or hate it, this brisk sports bar has been fruitfully ploughing its own furrow for well over a decade. Sitting under the glow of sports TV is a crew of expat society, hunched over beers, fish and chips and serenaded by Filipino bands at weekends.
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Dusk Till Dawn
There’s live music from 10.30pm, with an emphasis on beats and vibes that will get your booty shaking. The dance floor can get packed but the atmosphere is more friendly than sleazy. The food here sticks to easy fillers, such as meat pies and burgers.
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Nameless Highland
All sorts of groups, from folk to death metal via Brit-pop clones and punk acts, take to the stage here. It's a rare night when they don't have a band on. It's one of Běijīng's larger, better-organised venues. You'll need to take a taxi to get here.
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Dada
Upstairs in the quirky hotel, Dada is an intimate cocktail bar decked out with florid wallpaper, bold purple and silver, and a couple of Dalí paintings. The crowd is creative, professional mid-30s. Live jazz Thursday, R&B Friday and Saturday.
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Upper Deck
Loud, brash and popular with the American expat crowd hungry for burgers and draught píjiǔ, this hospitable sports bar runs enthusiastically to table-football, a kiddies' play area, pool, library, good Sunday brunches, jam nights and live blues, jazz and rock.
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2 Kolegas
Awash with bargain beer and tuned in to independent, rawer sounds, 2 Kolegas is an excellent venue for getting your finger on the pulse of Běijīng's musical fringe; within a drive-in cinema park.
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Fringe Gallery
The Fringe, a friendly and eclectic venue on the border of the Lan Kwai Fong quadrant, has original music in its gallery-bar from 10.30pm on Friday and Saturday, with jazz, rock and world music getting the most airplay. There’s a pleasant rooftop bar open in the warmer months.
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National Library Concert Hall
It’s not just classical music that you can hear, at this impressive space. Chinese classical dance, an ancient art form that blends elements of martial arts with traditional storytelling, and folk music, both Chinese and foreign, is performed here too, and brings in the crowds.
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Yúgōng Yíshān
Běijīng's foremost live music venue ensconced within a haunted Qing-dynasty government building and famed for a host of reliably excellent music acts.
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Wanch
This place, which derives its name from what everyone calls the district, has live music (mostly rock and folk with the occasional solo guitarist thrown in) seven nights a week from 9pm. Jam night is Monday from 8pm.
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Ark Live House
Incongruously located in the yuppie heart of Shanghai, this venue for Chinese bands, generally with an alternative edge, is the best place in town for live music. Weird Japanese acts and the occasional Western band end up here, too. Gigs get going on Friday and Saturday from 21:30, but there are also occasional weekend afternoon concerts.
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MAO Livehouse
This fantastically popular venue for live sounds is one of the busiest in town.
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