Notes from the Underground: This week in music

This weekend Club One is holding its grand opening, DJ Zohra will be pumping uplifting house at Rojam, DJ Boro brings the electro to Fabrique ... (thanks SmartShanghai!) "But wait!" you cry. "Where are the guitars? Where are the jam sessions at smoky bars that the police come to shut down at 1 am?" Well, Shanghaiist hears you. Read on for this week's concert preview:

Friday: The first time Shanghaiist heard about San Huang Ji ("Three Yellow Chickens") playing at Harley's last year, we were pretty non-plussed: how good could a band founded in 2002 have anything fresh to bring to the stage? But after catching them later at the SUS2 Bar we realized their genius: a genuine Shanghai item with a sense of history that doesn't shy away from a videogame cover song every once in a while. So when San Huang Ji bassist Liu Sijia joins his college scene colleagues for Friday's East District Unplugged set at the currently hot and proven Live Bar, give it some serious consideration.

Saturday: Two very different events take place on Saturday. First, though not exactly indie rock, since Shanghaiist is a friend of irony and an enemy of piracy, we are joining Sony to promote their Anti-Piracy Concert 2005 taking place at Shanghai Stadium on Saturday evening. Join stars of the Asian pop world and Shanghainese hip-hop pioneers as they join forces to sing the world into copyright compliance. Or don't, and instead shuffle up to Xujiahui for power metal from Beijing as Ordnance and their punk rock Japanese foreign exchange student friends take the stage at Harley's to unleash their guitars on your eardrums.

Sunday: If you still have a grudge against Harley's, your chance to catch Ordnance without troubling your conscience comes on Sunday, when they head to the Live Bar for a Shanghai encore performance. But let's say you're like Shanghaiist and have an irrational sense of loyalty to all things Shanghai; then your choice might be to head to the Ark in Xintiandi to catch Cold Fairyland's monthly set of fusion rock. If Lin Di's pipa doesn't move you to dance in the aisle, we don't know what will.

On Upcoming.org:
East District Unplugged @ Live Bar
Ordnance @ Harley's Bar
Sony Anti-Piracy Concert @ Shanghai Stadium
Cold Fairyland @ the Ark
Ordnance @ Live Bar