Most might assume that a week without a weekend might make for a dull time, void of events worthy of checking out. Well, this week they would be wrong. In the lead up to the October holiday there are 4 solid nights of gigs to choose from. Tonight in order to promote the inclusion of a few Shanghai bands in the Modern Sky Festival, those bands will be performing at Yuyintang. It should be a......

This weekend there is no lack of gigs worth checking out with some in familiar places and some in places that are new to the live music scene. Celebrating their 1st year anniversary, party promoters STD have pulled out all the stops, booking a massive space in the heart of Moganshan Road's art district. On Friday, Beijing heavy weights, New Pants, will be joined by Shanghai masters of chill, Cold Fairyland, and DJ R3. Saturday,......

By Benjamin Cohen In Shanghai, everyday is great. Here are five reasons why: Tuesday April 15th: Clouds of Crowds If you haven't been out to Island6 yet for "Clouds of Crowds," stop in before it drifts away (last day is April 29th). This interactive multimedia installations seeks to draw the viewer into blurry realm of chaos and order. Island6 Arts Center 2F, Bldg 6, 120 Moganshan Rd. Thursday April 17th: City Sound Sessions Take a......

We checked our mail this morning and were happy to see a new Sherpas menu dropped in the box. However, when Shanghaiist flopped down on the couch and ripped open the plastic out fell a ... K.K. Rabbit menu? The Sherpas site is still up and, as far as we know, running fine. This rules out the suspicion they'd been bought out by someone with less money. Unless a reader knows better? So we guess......

After a long and wild New Year's break, things have slowed down on the music front and it seems that everyone is still trying to shake off their extended hangovers. Luckily, this weekend there isn't much happening, but if you are able to push yourself off the couch then head to 4Live (yes, it is still open!) where there are a couple of shows this weekend. On Friday, Beijing stalwarts, Catcher in the Rye, give......

With the holiday season in full swing things usually slow down in the music scene. But this weekend there are a few shows that should get us through to the New Year. On Saturday Live Bar is holding a show that we are pretty excited to see. Voodoo Gongfu from Beijing will be on stage. Shanghaiist happened to pick up a copy of their DVD in Beijing and with all the costumes and addition of......

For a second straight week Shanghaiist has missed our Friday deadline, oops. The good news is that Saturday is when all the really good stuff happens. Today, eight Shanghai bands (1 from Beijing) will take part in the 0093 show at 4live, scheduled to start at 4:30pm. This should be a great showcase of the various genres of music that Shanghai bands have to offer, ranging from noise to metal to garage rock and everything......

... and going with strange girls who want to practise their English to coffee shops is STILL a bad idea, folks. Yet another chump — this time a Swedish guy on a business trip — has fallen for the time-honoured scam by following a pair of temptresses who were "dressed like university students" (so wearing mortar boards, presumably) to the Manabe coffee shop on the 3rd floor of the Brilliance Shimao Plaza, Shanghai Daily reported......

We don't feel right doing many concert reviews, mainly because of our relationships with the bands, and the realization after years of live shows that the quality depends as much on the venue, backline, PA, sound guy, etc...as it does the band. Plus we don't like to judge people who are capable of doing things we can't (clarification: we don't like judging people we think are cool, we have no problem judging all you uncool......

Please excuse us for what will be a day of light posting. We've been puking cosmopolitans and bile ALL morning from this really hot party last night at the Le Meridien that we didn't tell you about (hah! sometimes we prefer to keep the fun to ourselves), but even before we've said goodbye to the thousand diablos hammering on our head right now, we're already planning on where to get ourselves further plastered tonight. Long-time......

We attended the Chicago Improv All-Stars show at Henry's last night ... and we enjoyed ourselves. It kind of had the feel of a theme party at a friend's house (assuming that friend was very popular, brewed their own beer, had a very large living room with poorly placed pillars, was bad at training their staff and charged guests RMB 280 at the door). If you have ever seen an episode of Whose Line......

Okay, okay, we promise we will STOP talking about Facebook right after this post for the next week, but seriously, people, it is such a great way to not just entertain ourselves, but also to find out about what's going on in our city [1] . Through Facebook, we've not only seen how people in our town are organising themselves for good, we find that it also can be a great source of GOSSIP. And......

Chronic pain. Debilitating illness. There's little fun to be had from these subjects. So hats off to Shanghai Daily and its over zealous/under zealous/possibly nonexistent subs' desk for throwing a hyperbole cherry bomb in to the toilet bowl of one individual's suffering. The following, which featured in Friday's paper, is best if you imagine it's being read by Peter Cushing: STABBING. Gnawing. Burning. Severe pain can rip your life apart and make you pray for......

Shanghaiist is looking for a few good men and women to round out its staff of talented contributors. If you think you can help make Shanghaiist just that little bit more fabulous, read on! You may be the one that we're looking for... What We Can Offer You Liberty. Free at last. Contributors on Shanghaiist get to do what they want to do, and do it on their own terms. We edit the content of......

If you are like us at Shanghaiist..... then weeks in advance you strategically map out a strategy to maximize potential fun for the weekend. So here are a few noteworthy events coming up that we think should not be missed and we are always (sometimes..maybe) right when it comes to picking events. The 8th of December will be a big night with PK-14 back in town as is Coldcut w/ DJ Nu-Mark and Pfadfinderei. PK-14......

Shanghai-based Scandinavian photog 2 dogs began yesterday bright and early to bring us the action from the 2007 Toray Cup Shanghai International Marathon which saw 20,000 runners from 46 countries and regions gather here. The run flagged off at 7:30am. Some runners did the full 42 kilometre marathon, others did the 21 kilometre half marathon, and yet others chose to do the 4.5 kilometre fun run. The Toray Cup has been held in Shanghai since......

This place looks kinda fun!......

Lots of news from the House of Blues and Jazz in Shanghai: The latest band featured there wraps up their final few weeks at this revered and relatively long-lived jazz venue; also the club gets ready to move to its new digs over at the bund. Theo Croker and band The current band at the House of Blues and Jazz has been there already for many weeks, and they're doing great. It's a dynamic group......

The weekend is finally here, and despite the buzz surrounding Linkin Park on Sunday, there are plenty of other shows that are also worth checking out. Friday, Yuyintang warms things up for Linkin Park fans with four local nu-metal bands strutting their stuff and letting out their best screams. While over at 4Live, Pixel Toy, from Hong Kong, provide an eccentric mix of Cantonese pop electronica. Opening for them is Banana Monkey. Phreaktion in celebration......

We weren't really keen on seeing any version of Lust, Caution, but after finally giving in and ponying up the cash at the local theater (stupid, we know), we watched the sanitized version. Our impression of the movie, sans steamy sex, was that this movie wasn't really all that it was hyped up to be. However, given that about half an hour was taken out, we suspected that we didn't just get a child-friendly film—we......

The idea of Mask Week (11/17/2007-11/24/2007) got us thinking about the air we breathe in Shanghai. We know it's bad for us, we can see the haze nearly every day, but just how bad is it. So we got on the web and found the historical records for Shanghai air quality provided by the Shanghai Environment Education Centre, you can also go here to find records for 84 Chinese cities. Since the beginning of the......

Shanghaiist keeps you up-to-speed with the latest in Australian politics. Remember Kevin Rudd, the Australian Labor Party leader that impressed us all (and President Hu Jintao) with his kickass Chinese skills? Some 23 year old law student with too much time on his hands decided to poke fun at the ongoing Australian election campaign by uploading a Youtube video of Rudd, depicting him as revolutionary leader Chairman Mao. And it was a hit —......

In this day and age, you can define "torture" however you want to, and for a long time, we considered the practice of inputting Chinese characters on a Mac to fulfill our definition. OS X has a built-in simplified Chinese input that does the job, but doesn't really hold a candle to any of the Windows XP input methods—and when Sogou came out with their input method, and Google copied it, we considered that battle......

Although Triangle premiered at Cannes film festival this year, it wasn't until recently that we got a mainland China acceptable version into theaters around town. For all you non-Hong Kong action film fanbois and grlz out there, this film was a collaborative effort between Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Johnny To, each one making one-third of the film, with the stipulation that there be mutual non-interference—each director does what they want with the story, according......

Who is Yacht ? Yacht, a musician you will love like a rainbow after the rain, or a lollipop after visiting the dentist. Any one remember the Blow? Well, the Blow’s last 2 albums was 90% Yacht and Yacht is made up of one man….the multi – talented Jona Bochtolt. Happy, positive rainbow music on speed, Yacht might currently be best known as that guy who used to be in the Blow or for......

It is back — Shanghai's biggest, baddest, scariest, spookiest Halloween party! If you came to our kickass party last year, you'll know what we're talking about. If you didn't, ask your friends who did, or see what you missed out on here and here. We created such a ruckus the police came to join in the fun! This year, expect more spooky hallways, more scary music and more freaky movies! AND... make sure you come......

Comments below don’t necessarily represent the Shanghaiist’s point of view or opinion regarding the Canadian government (we don't want them to hold a grudge and kick us out of Canada too!)… we just received it recently from the Busdriver promoter and thought it was kind of funny… shows are still on in Beijing and Shanghai…..and we are as giddy as a school boy in the girls locker room to see Busdriver play live! “Nothing......

This cute little video is from an English teacher in Taiwan who came up with a way to teach his kids English... the MC Hammer way. We wish school was this fun for us, and hopefully the clip will inspire all TEFL teachers out there. From Daryl Caesar:The final performance is here! The kids were totally petrified, and performed way worse than the rehersals, but what can I expect from 5 year olds dancing and......

The JZ Festival came to a roaring close today, unfortunately with a much lower afternoon turnout due to the rain but once again a satisfying mix of music, fully dug by those of us who did attend. But we skip ahead -- first back to details of yesterday's festival. Saturday Saturday was a very successful day for the festival, drawing medium-sized crowds again in the afternoon and selling out completely the evening portion. The......

The Pet Paradise Asia 2007 expo opened in pavilion W5 of the New International Expo Center to commercial representatives early on Thursday, and to the public on Saturday for a second two-day run. When Shanghaiist dropped by yesterday afternoon, the place was hopping — booths retailing pet supplies and giving away samples, a dog show, and plenty of pet fans eager to pet anything furry and barking/meowing. Most of the exhibitors were targeting dog......