All you reggae fans who missed the legendary Byron Lee on his Shanghai tour last year must be kicking yourselves. (Actually, everyone missed the legendary Byron Lee on his Shanghai tour last year, because his band showed up on stage at the Shanghai Centre but he didn’t). more ›

We emailed indie-music bible Pitchfork Media about the Dirty Three story we told you about last week. They went and interviewed the band's violinist Warren Ellis, who said Shanghai gave him "one of the most exciting moments I have ever had onstage" (OK, so it was more an "afraid for my life" excitement than a "holy shit, Shanghai's music scene is awesome" excitement -- but we'll take what we can get). We were not really surprised to learn that certain officials threatened to cancel the Dirty Three gig before it even happened, because they assumed, from the band's name, that it was a "pornographic act." They wanted the Aussie chamber rock trio to go by the name "Dirt Three" while in Shanghai, but when they found out the band had no lyrics, Dirty Three got the go ahead. Here are some of Ellis' comments on the night: more ›

The previous week's hits and misses more ›

The band, scheduled to perform at 7:30 with an end time around 9:30, was bumped up to accommodate a double booking with a Chinese acrobat show intended to entertain "distinguished guests" both of the governmental, business and tourist variety, said the Yunfeng Theatre manager. more ›

Last night, we separately witnessed two of the best gigs we’ve seen in a long, long time -- and the good news is that they’re both playing again. more ›

“Great day, great bands, great venue…but we wished more people would have turned out”. -- Unnamed Fuxing Park Jazz Fest promoter more ›

It being late Sunday night, Brad was the only person in the bar at the time. But still, with the fire and the fire trucks and all, he described the experience as "fucking scary" and is now thinking about getting some kind of fire insurance for the place. Brad said there were no injuries or deaths that he knew about, even though dozens of people "unofficially" live in the building. Brad spent the night in a nearby hotel and as of a few minutes ago, there was still no electricity at the bar. Live Bar needs electricity by Wednesday, because (you heard it here first) Australian instrumental rock trio Dirty Three are planning on playing a free show at Live Bar at around 10 that night, a warm-up for their scheduled gig at Yunfeng Theater on Thursday. So let's hope they get this figured out -- and be sure to check out Live Bar's bathrooms: "I went back in last night," Brad said, "and only the back part near the toilet smelled of smoke. It used to smell of urine, so this is actually an improvement." more ›