What a night folks! Last saturday (feb. 18th 2012) was not only the one-year anniversary party of popular expat dive Da Rasta, but also the latest live outing of Chongqing band No.2 Story (二号事件- Erhao Shijian) and opening act A South Adventure (南方奇遇- Nanfang Qiyu).

I punched out at 9 and immediately ran to Nuts, where I got to see the tail end of South Adventure’s set. Unfortunately, I paid little attention as I was busy recalling the events of the previous thursday with fellow showgoers. A few minutes later, my eyes were drawn to the stage as the main act stepped in. For fans of the genre (any combination of the words metal, hardcore and emo about describes it), it was a very good show indeed. To start with, the members of the band are all well known in the local music scene and there was visible mutual love in the room. Technical ability and talent were also part of the equation so, to the untrained eye, it was as good as it could get in a Chongqing livehouse. My half-trained eye, however, couldn’t help but notice how much they could benefit from a little direction… N.2 Story have a knack for pleasing (or pleasuring, if the rumors are true) their crowd and they can scream loud enough for you not to mistake this for lowly commercialism. We hope to see this act develop into an underground sensation in the near future…

Da Rasta’s 1-year anniversary bash

I followed a crowd of foreigners through the small alley between Shazhong and Hanyu Lu to attend what promised to be the party of the month. Over its yearlong history, Da Rasta has gathered a loyal clientele and almost all of it was there… which made movement a near impossibility. Local celebrities danced to the music of Dj’s P (aka Ya Boy) and Goodweed and all in attendance received a clever gift: a keychain bottle opener.

Congratulations to Shapingba’s premier foreign devil spot, we wish you another year of breaking windows, chairs, bottles and the barriers between people. Jah bless.


By LeManager

This weekend is full of event and entertainment options all around the city.  Here is a quick rundown of some that might be worth checking out...

Tonight(Friday) in CIqikou "Tangcu Laowai,"  Chongqing's newest ex-pat pop band will be debuting a handful of new material at 16 Bystreet Music Bar. Check out the video of their performance at Nuts Club a few weeks back...

Saturday Night is jam-packed with events all over town.  At the Sheraton Hotel on  Nan Bin Lu, the Chongqing International Women's Organization are hosting their 7th annual Christmas Ball.  The Dinner, Dance and auction is held every year to raise money for Chongqing area school children.  

At CiCi Park it's the DJ/VJ duo B-Side.  Apparently VJ Sonar keeps it old school and uses a VCR to provide the visuals, while DJ PAncake Lee lays down the Soundtrack.  It should be pretty cool.

And at Nuts Club on Saturday Chengdu garage/grunge rock band The Hit will play, followed by Dalian post-rock band Spiral Cow, and the indie-rock stylings of Which Park. 

**disclaimer** The writer of this post will be DJ'ing at the Tangcu Laowai event, creating a conflict of interest.