Dos Kolegas

Or '2 Kolegas', as they seem to like to spell it on the business cards these days. The mangled Spanish (?) has always been a bit of a mystery. The bar's Chinese name is easier to understand: liang ge hao pengyou, "two good friends". The friends in question here are Gao Feng and Liu Miao, two veterans of the local music scene who thought it would be cool to start up their own place.

Most of Beijing's music bars are 'intimate', but 2K really takes that to extremes - a single, long, narrow, windowless room, with bare brick walls. But it's oddly charming. As laowai rock'n'roller Jaime Welton (guitarist with the excellent blues-rock party band Black Cat Bone) once observed: "This is kind of like jamming in your best friend's basement when you were in high school. With a really cool Mom upstairs."

It's a little remote from the centre of the city, and impossible to find unless you're in the know. Taxi drivers never seem to have heard of it (Well, Beijing taxi drivers are notoriously useless at recognising any destination; but they seem to have a particular blind spot for music bars.). It's inside the drive-in cinema complex off Liangmaqiao Lu (yep, Beijing has a drive-in cinema - how retro is that?! I'd love to go sometime, but I don't have a car.....); the driveway winds through a small forest, and then you come upon a clutch of Chinese restaurants and coffee bars just outside the cinema itself; 2K is tucked away around the corner to the left, out of sight and un-signposted.

A remodelling a few months back has added a welcome extra loo, but moved the entrance to the front, by the stage - something I rather regret: it's no longer possible to sit at the railing right next to the stage, a position I favoured (particularly as it was also right next to the bar) - the last time I saw Jaime play there, I could have reached over and tuned his guitar for him. Ah well, it's still a nice, unpretentious space, with friendly service and cheap drinks. It's amongst my favourite bars in the city, vying neck and neck in my affections with the other two great rock music venues, Club 13 and Yugong Yishan. Not even the fact that I suffered a breakup from the Great Love Of My Life there (the split wasn't confirmed until a couple of days later, in a swank Taiwanese restaurant called Bellagio, but 2K was where the rupture actually occurred) could tarnish my enthusiasm for the place.

It can be maddeningly unreliable, unpredictable (ah, creative types - dontcha love 'em!). Its programme is rarely advertised in the listings mags, and when it is, it's almost invariably wrong. And (even more so than with Beijing's other music clubs) the advertised starting times can be completely disregarded. I think much of the problem is that the majority of bands play there for free, as a favour to the owners, and - especially at the weekends - are often coming on after playing another gig elsewhere in the city first. It's not uncommon for the show to fail to get started until around midnight.

However, once you've got used to this, the ramshackle, improvisatory character of the place can become a delight (for example, I've seen beer used to douse a fire in one of the speakers!). And, even if the place is nearly deserted - as it most often is - there'll almost always be a few interesting characters hanging around. My buddies Dan & Nico, an excellent jazz guitar duo, played a regular Thursday night spot there for a long time (although they eventually got fed up with the chaotic management style), and used to attract a small knot of local musicians who would goggle at their technique. Definitely the place to hang out if you want to rub shoulders with Beijing's rock stars. It brings out my inner groupie!

2K becomes even more fun at this time of year, when it annexes the large lawn area outside (the legal basis of this arrangement is best not inquired into): barbecue, plastic garden furniture, the occasional open-air concert - the hippest place to lounge away Beijing's sultry summer evenings.

In fact, this weekend sees the official 2nd Anniversary Party. Black Cat Bone are the advertised headliners, but - if last year's 1st Birthday bash is anything to go by - half the bands in Beijing will be strolling along to contribute a few tunes. I am trying to marshal my stamina for the event. Last year, I quit, utterly exhausted, at around 3 in the morning; but I hear that things carried on pretty much until dawn (Tennessee Tom cooked breakfast for the 'survivors' round at his place). What will this year's party be like, I wonder. I will report next week.