Mid-week Music: Top Floor Circus, Army of Freshmen, and TOOKOO
The forthcoming holiday means that the weekend is coming early for a lot of us. For music fans, it's coming even earlier with a solid five days of gigs starting tonight for anyone who's not heading out of town for Midi or the other festivals taking place around China. There's more mid-week action next week as well, which we're very excited about but will keep under our hat for now. A full weekend run-down, including the Straigh Oota Canada shows will be here on Friday as usual, but here's what's going on tonight and tomorrow:
Tonight
Stripped down folk set? Straight-forward punk rock? Or Haibao vs The Fuwas-style variety show? It's hard to know exactly what to expect from Lu Chen and Top Floor Circus. The enigmatic Shanghainese band have done all of these and more in the last few months, making it impossible to predict what their show at YYT holds in store tonight. All we know is, it'll be worth watching.
¥30, 9pm, 1731 Yan'an Xi Lu (entrance on Kaixuan Lu), 延安西路1731号 (入口在凯旋路)
Thursday
This was originally supposed to be a Mike TV headliner but, with Midi taking place just down the road, YYT have managed to divert a few other acts en route to the Zhenjiang festival to make this a five-band spectacular. So now "England's answer to Greenday" (really?) will be joined by California rockers Army of Freshmen, Turdus Musicus (trust us, it's a band, not a symptom of swine flu), Beijing dance-rockers TOOKOO, and the delightfully named Attention to Piss. Worth the 60 kuai we reckon.
¥60, 9pm, 1731 Yan'an Xi Lu (entrance on Kaixuan Lu), 延安西路1731号 (入口在凯旋路)
Video: A mildly amusing introduction to Mike TV in Chinese