Tonight (Tuesday, 3 June) "Hip-Hop" group the Black Eyed Peas are playing a hastily arranged benefit gig for around 700 people at the Shanghai Concert Hall. Although previously set up as a brown-nosing corporate show for Chivas and Pernod Ricard the invite-only show will now apparently help victims of the Sichuan earthquake in some way. "We will invite our VIP guests, main customers in China, along with media to the concert"says Chivas spokeswoman Vanessa Wright......

The weekend has arrived and with Chinese New Year looming things have gotten much quieter on the live music front. Friday night Club 8 and Pelle Carlberg, both from Sweden, will bring their pop sound to the crowds at the Shanghai Concert Hall. It had been scheduled for the Dream Factory but due to lack of a proper live music license has been moved. Shanghaiist's interest in this show has been piqued by the oddly......

After a loud and exciting Halloween, tonight is a good chance to head out, sit back and chill to the soothing tunes of The Swamp and 21G at 4Live. Alternatively, composer Mark Chan has put together a live score for the classic, silent Chinese film Little Toys and will be performing it during the film’s screening at the Shanghai Concert Hall. If you are craving excitement, then head to Live Bar where a Beijing Brit-pop......

Singapore Season, a series of cultural diplomacy events that started in London in 2005, has been kickstarted in Shanghai with a sell-out concert by pop star JJ Lin at the Hongkou Stadium last Sunday. About the only show throughout the entire series of events that has a Shanghai connection is Little Toys, a remake of the Chinese classic silent film 小玩意 (ie., little toys), starring 1930s screen goddess Ruan Lingyu (阮玲玉). This production won standing......

Tonight 8pm NEXTSTEP @ Vintage Living 3F, 2068 Nanjing Xilu, by Yongyuan Lu, T: 6249-0469 Calling all Shanghai entrepreneurs! Come meet new faces and get to know other like-minded individuals at this week's NextStep event which features Tony Mustafa of Essential Finance. All are welcome, no membership required, and no cover charge. Wednesday 8pm Shanghai Skate Nights @ Shanghai Concert Hall 523 Yan'an Dong Lu (near Xizang Lu) The bi-weekly Shanghai SkateNights continues to gather......

For any one who missed it, Cold Fairyland and the Scoff both had concerts last night at the Shanghai Concert Hall and 4Live, respectively. Yesterday afternoon Shanghaiist had spent a solid 2 hours writing an exquisite piece of prose about these two shows... but alias, the evil internet goblin crashed our computer, causing us to lose forever that beautiful essay... well, at least you won't miss out on what is happening tonight. Friday night is......

We don't want to say we're starved for good live rock music in Shanghai ... but we are starved for good live rock music in Shanghai. Live here long enough and you gradually forget exactly how good it feels to stand up near the stage and get lost in a rock band that knows exactly what they are doing, a band you would pay to see even if you weren't living in China, a......

Enduring eight straight days of work ahead of the Golden week? Take this opportunity to let off some steam and get out and hit what Shanghaiist thinks that Shanghai has to offer before you either vamoose out of town or bunker down to avoid the May 1st Holiday crush. Today, April 24th Indie legends, Sonic Youth play at the Shanghai Concert Hall from 8pm tonight. Contact the promoters to find a spare ticket on 6474......

For those of you headed to the Shanghai Concert Hall tonight to see Sonic Youth, above you'll see a little taste of what you can expect. Maureen Fan reports that Beijing opening act Car Sick Cars were "suddenly cancelled." She suspects foul play. The crowd, she says, was "young and arty, and very moshy." We're not sure how much moshing will go on tonight in Shanghai's comparatively staid venue. Another Beijing blogger offered these......

This just arrived in our inbox: Thanks for waiting — please call us 9am tomorrow when our hotline opens to reserve tickets for Sonic Youth. We only have 1,000 tickets to sell and we expect this show to sell out in double quick time. We don't want you to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Sonic Youth play here in China! Check www.spli-t.com to see the Shanghai Concert Hall seating plan. SHANGHAI HOTLINE:......

What have we, what have we, what have we done to deserve this? While glancing at the headlines on the Shanghaiist Forum yesterday, one headline jumped out at us: Pet Shop Boys. We have to say we were mildly interested: One, Pet Shop Boys are past their prime enough to make a show in Shanghai seem realistic; Two, we are not ashamed to admit that 20 years ago we spent a fair amount of time......

The last time Shanghaiist saw Sonic Youth live was 10 or so years ago on a blistering hot day on Australia’s Gold Coast, as they played the most self-indulgent set of music since Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. Twenty-five minutes into one noisy (noisome, even) free-form jam of whiny guitars, we wandered over to the festival’s other stage only to find a heinously drunk Beck (pre Odelay fame) sitting on a stool, almost slumped over......

About 99 percent French, 1 percent non-French. That's our educated guess on the composition of the audience Monday night at Yann Tiersen's concert in the Shanghai Concert Hall. (Read our previous Yann-related post here. That's right — he's French.) We belonged to the French majority, and we are happy to report that it was a great concert — very intense. Five people on the stage: A girl at the violoncello and violin, and four guys......

Another gig -- one that helps pay the bills -- had us looking up things to do in Shanghai next month. We stumbled upon this. And we have been watching videos of French musician Yann Tiersen ever since. The guy is amazing. We had heard his music before -- he has scored films like Amelie and Good Bye Lenin! -- but never knew his name. He's playing the Shanghai Concert Hall on December 4 .........

Have you heard the one about the guy who suggested we lift up all the old buildings on the Bund several meters and cram a shopping mall underneath them? No? It's a good one. It goes something like -- Oh wait, we forgot. That wasn't a joke. Some guy really thinks that would be a good idea (and apparently some members of the local government are actually considering it): "It's totally technically achievable and that......