Notes from the Underground: Weekend preview

Growing up, we dreamed of the day we could stroll bleary-eyed into the office after going back to the swanky hotel with an international pop starlet in one arm and a tequila bottle in the other -- except that last night, it was more of a service apartment and our starlet was actually Fan Yi Chen, with some Lawson's best baijiu … lovely guy, nonetheless, and apparently he's "kind of a big deal".

Nice thing about a weekend of good underground rock is that you can start notes like that.

Two words:

Sonnet

For the past few months, we know for a fact that many a venue has tried to book them, and apparently, all it took was some B-films and a shake. Arguably, Shanghai's best indie band will be joined on Saturday with Banana Monkey, Mortal Fools and Xu Xian for what is supposed to be a once a month get together at YYT -- all themed.

A few other good shows tonight, Brit-poppers V-Day play Live Bar and Blue Garden/Orchid, another local fave, take their U2-meets-Coldplay sounds to Yuyintang ... we'd say more, but we're simply nipply over Sonnet -- sorry.

NOTE: The highly-anticipated (well, at least in the hip-hop circuit) DMC show has changed it's local from Club Amanda to Pegasus ... take note or lose out on ubercool man-made beats like this.

Bar-wise, can we highly suggest the hipster-hideout Room with a View at 479 Nanjing Dong Lu (don't be put off by the fact that it's smack-dab in the middle of the touristy part of Shanghai). Laid-back, artsy décor (with room for exhibitions … erm, art that is). Drinks run about what they would anywhere in the area, but worth it -- just don't sit on the second couch from the wall, Sebastian from Tootekool emptied the better part of a beer on it last night.

Calendar:
Friday: Blue Garden @ Yuyintang, V-Day @ Live Bar,
Saturday: Five Dollar Shake (featuring Sonnet) @ Yuyintang, DMC DJ Championships @ Pegasus