Notes from the Underground: Weekend preview

Admittedly, we attended the Black Eyed Peas show with a detached sense of superiority -- but ask anyone, even those of us who don’t “get” hip-hop, it was, to quote the girl behind us, “a show that made my summer”. Parts of the show that made us forget about those annoying glow sticks?

• will.i.am’s “I’m not Wyclef” drum performance
• Fergie (looking directly at our crew) grabbing her, erm …lovely lady lumps
• “Put your phones up, put your phones up!”

… we’re still on the fence about the Guns N Roses cover -- although she did a good impression.

No doubt you’ll hear “naw, fuck that” when you ask who went and who didn’t -- and it’s okay, we understand. But know you missed a show. What this town needs is more people like Robb of China West, who brought them, along with James Brown a few months ago, and Robbie Williams in a few to come.

Others seem to have caught the “get-off-your-set-and-get-retarted” vibe as well, with this weekend being all about the beats ... and the rhyme ... and the other things we remember from Paul's Boutique.

Saturday at Blue Ice is the “Back to the Roots” show with V-Nutz, MC Mojo (one of our faves) and more throwing down -- all for a 25rmb entry and 15 for a beer.

Other news: We got an email about a press conference at Tanghui for the Second Hand Rose/Top Floor Circus show tonight (Friday) … and we’re not sure how to react to that. We like both bands (and trust us when we say we’ve seen *all* of Top Floor Circus), and we’re getting along with Tanghui ... but a press conference? 10 kuai that they have it on the third floor as not to anger Uncle Unpluggy.

Should you be getting that I-leave-Shanghai-in-two-months-and-have-done-fuck-all-this-summer and feel the need to improve yourself, two workshops are willing to help. Sunday at The Lab will be an Ableton demo and performances from some of the top boys in town. Not your thing? Then stop by Melting Pot on Monday to learn from singer/songwriter Brian Seymour, making Shanghai one of his three mainland stops.

We’ll see you at the pool party.*

* We just heard that Riviera the pool party at Purple Mountain Hotel was canceled ... again.