Beijing Live Music Scene

Last weekend was really fun. I got a chance to discover some new live music places. The first place I went to was on VD. It was One East on Third. They had an excellent VD menu by the way, they parred the wine very well with the meal. But the live music was not so great. It was just music that is nice to listen to during dinner. One I am even mentioning it I don't know. But if you like to eat and listen to music it is an okay place and a good place to take someone on VD.

The places that I did discover last weekend were the Nashville, CJW and Oriental Taipan Bar.

The Nashville, is a live music bar that plays live country and blues. I normally don't like country music, but when you hear it live, it sounds so much better. I can understand a lot better why people like it now. I am not going to say that this band that played that night was playing great country music, because I don't really know. But it played well enough.

CJW is a great place, because it seems so pretentious but in a different way than Centro. When you walk in to CJW you know it is going to be expensive and then you look at the menu and you are like yup I was right. But the band that they have playing there this month is really good. They play old school songs. And the dream is the best I heard since I been to China. But if you are going to go all the way to the Place, I suggest that you don't go just to see CJW. If I were you I would have dinner at the Ganges first. It is by far the best Indian food I have had since I have been to Beijing.

The other place I found last weekend, and probably my new second favorite place to listen to live music is Oriental Taipan Bar. The jazz trio they have playing their is as my friend said we studies music, so tight. They compose their own music and play so much in sync. It is much different than the jazz you hear at the East Shore Live Jazz Cafe. Which is often not as polished and the drummer tends to go off on his own tangents and hit the drum to hard. But the ESLJ Cafe is still my favorite place to listen to jazz. Just something about it. Maybe its the atmosphere. I learned recently the owner of the ESLJ Cafe used to play in for Cui Jian, the godfather of Chinese rock. Why that is important to not, I don't know. But the pianist is a teacher a conservatory and really good. But back to the Oriental Taipan Bar, it is great and the band plays in a little space in the back, so it has a one on one feel with you and the band. And the great part about it is they have two for one beer specials and 25 kuai wine. Probably the best deal in Beijing, in terms of real alcohol. You can always go to Pure Girl and Nanjie and drink fake alcohol and that beer that test like piss. But piss beer has its place too.

I have decided that my life has become so ordinary here in Beijing. Nothing really exciting happens to me anymore. I might as well be living in the States. I long for the days when monkeys used to attack me and people would kill birds in the classrooms I was studying in. Thus, I have decided to change the direction of the blog to inform, my main readership, mostly my friends and family who plan to visit me, mostly. About things to do in Beijing, that way when they come I can be like you read my blog, you already know what I know. So what do you want to do and I don't know is not an exceptable answer.

Highlight of the Day: Knowing that today is the last day of Spring Festival and that they can no longer set off fireworks. I am so tired of hearing them, they are incessant. The picture above is to mark the end of the Spring Festival. Because after tomorrow the tree is probably going to be taken down. Don't ask me what a X-mas tree and a reindeer have to with Spring Festival only the guardians of the tree can tell you that.