Talking Pints: What's On This Weekend
This weekend is the biggest of the year so far, with a lot of good stuff on.
Friday, January 14
Down at The House on Friday night, Acupuncture Records launch a new album to celebrate their three years in business so far. The album features tracks and remixes from ELVIS.T, Terry Tu and the rest of the boys, and they'll be giving copies away on Friday night. Free entry as well.
At School on Friday, Harikiri, Mikey D and Verktyget present bassy electronic sounds at the latest BassKake party. That's free and things will get going around midnight.
Suzie Wong's beats the Chinese New Year rush with an early "Bunny New Year Party" on Friday. That's more than two weeks before actual new year, but with Easter eggs probably already on sale back where I come from, I can't blame them. Guaranteed, a few weeks from now you'll be sick of hearing about bunny parties. RMB 100 cover to get in.
Saturday January 15
If you saw German electro star Boys Noize a few months ago, you'll likely want to get over to The Star Live on Saturday night for Housemeister and DJ Edotronic, both from the Boysnoize Records stable. Tickets are RMB 150 on the door, RMB 100 if you pick one up in advance. Things start at 10pm.
DJ Slide is back with the third No Go Die party at Siif, featuring afrostep and funky beats from all around the globe. Lazka (aka Harikiri) plays some of his own tunes. That's free and the party starts at 10pm.
Once there was a genius pop act called the Vengaboys. They made a career out of basically doing the same song over and over again, just changing the key and adding different lyrics. The producers behind the Vengaboys have more recently thrown their weight behind trance sensation Dash Berlin, who's at Yugong Yishan on Saturday night. He's among the best DJs in the world, depending which trance magazines you read. El-Mar, Suki and Ouyang, three of Beijing's best, are supporting. Tickets are RMB 200 at the door, but after that you've got an open bar to take advantage of.
Other clubbing highlights on Saturday include Zombie Disco Squad playing Punk (free before 11pm, RMB 50 thereafter) and Terry Tu dropping house and more at, fittingly enough, The House (free entry). Riviera Events have got a party over at Scarlett, Bling icon DJ Keza returns to his Solana spiritual home (free), and Alfa's legendary '80s night puts the needle on "I Think We're Alone Now" yet again (RMB 30).
Also going on ....
Flamme has the best deal around right now, with Paul Mathew's great cocktails discounted by half during the 3-8pm happy hour. If you've got a copy of the Beijinger's January issue handy, or the latest issue of Agenda, you'll find a voucher inside for a free drink from Flamme, just to help you get started.
The Loop has another of the best deals around right now - all drinks are buy-one-get-one-free from 9pm till midnight every day.
The Green Cap now has a North American TV sports package installed, so you can watch all that American football, basketball and the rest of it in fantastically clear HD. Owner Pat says that if you want to watch something, call to check they can show it and if they've got it, it goes on.
Finally, Drum & bass historians will be getting excited by the news that iconic DJ/producer LTJ Bukem will be heading this way in March. He's headlining the seventh anniversary party for Beijing's own venerable drum & bass old-timers The Syndicate.
