13

There are several great little rock music dives in this city. Well, OK, there are four. There are around four more - which suck mightily, but have to be endured occasionally because they do sometimes showcase good music. (Then, there's Star Live - which is looking promising, but is a 'special event' venue rather than a regular club. And there's one other that's so new I haven't had a chance to form a judgment on it yet.)

It's tough to choose an outright favourite from this select little group; but if pressed, I suppose I would have to award the prize to Club 13 (or '13 Club' as is says on the sign outside - although that seems to trip off the tongue much less easily, so the former word order is almost universally preferred).

It's in the heart of the university district, a few hundred yards west of the south entrance to Beijing's premier university, Tsinghua. This is, no doubt, an ideal location for attracting a young, hip crowd of students, both Chinese and overseas. It's a little bit of a pain-in-the-arse for me, since it is a 30min subway journey + 15min walk (or 20-30min cab ride) away from where I live; and there are not really any other decent bars or restaurants in the vicinity (rival music bar D-22 - foreign-owned and oh-so-up-itself - is two doors away, but I don't count that). There's quite a thriving 'student scene' that has grown up there in the last few years (in the area known as 'The Wu' - short for Wudaokou, site of the light-rail station in the middle of Chengfu Lu); but it thrives only on the basis that most students are too poor or too lazy to venture often into the city centre; it has just about nothing to appeal to the more 'mature' expat community. Except, that is, for the delightfully grungy Club 13.

13 is an ideal space: big enough to accommodate a few hundred people on a really good night, but compact enough - and dark enough - not to appear too empty when there are only a handful of punters in. There's quite a long bar, at the back, facing the stage. A few small tables can be deployed in front of it, but most, if not all of the area in front of the stage is usually left empty for anyone who may wish to 'mosh' (and on their regular punk and metal nights, there will certainly be a few of those). The two wings adjoining this, segregrated by a low railing, offer, on the left, a comfy seating area, and on the right, a games area with bar football (not 'foosball', please) and the best pool table in town (regularly re-covered, 4 or 5 decent cues, and just recently, a brand new set of balls - AMAZING: it even puts my beloved Pool Bar to shame!). The area just inside the door always has a good selection of CDs and magazines on sale. The sound system is LOUD. The acoustics (unlike its woeful competitor, D-22) are good. The air-conditioning works. Above all, it feels like a rock club ought to: no-frills, utterly basic decor; windowless, subterranean gloom; the walls remain slick with sweat for 2 or 3 days after a big gig.

It is probably pure chance that these elements have come together so well. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to lay out your space such that your bar was readily accessible and large enough to service a decent-sized crowd, and that people would still be able to see the stage from it; or, indeed, that you would be able to see the stage from pretty much anywhere in the room. But this is China. This is Beijing. Club 13 is unique so far in having pulled off this trick!

The music is pretty damn good too. I really wish I could make the effort to get out there a bit more often. One of their regular bands I particularly like are called 'Oxygen Can' (OK, it's a bum translation, but I've got used to it now; it's too late to start thinking of them as 'Oxygen Cylinder' or 'Oxygen Tank'), a pleasingly unrestrained metal act - whose gimmick is that they have a second drummer who beats the shit out of an oil drum with a pair of billets of wood.

For most of last year they had a 'house band' who played on their - mostly pretty dead - Wednesday nights: Freebird, playing 'Southern rock' (they did some pretty fine covers of Hendrix [first time I'd ever heard him in China], ZZ Top, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and of course Skynyrd - although I had to introduce them to Creedence). I became quite a regular at their gigs last summer, and made that the venue for the first of my 'leaving parties' before my summer break (I had been concerned that the Football World Cup would interfere with regular party-going, so I scheduled my main going-away party before that started, and some two or three weeks before I actually flew home - needless to say, a number of other impromptu celebrations occurred during that subsequent period).

Freebird, alas, relocated to Guangdong (Max, the very impressive lead guitarist, was going to marry his gorgeous vocalist, Orlando [she was impressed that I got the Virginia Woolf reference - ah, Chinese students and their name choosing!]). Now the mid-week slot is filled by a trio called Bisq, who also knock out some decent blues rock (but are not, I think, at quite the same level), and are occasionally accompanied by interesting guest acts. On Tuesdays, there's a Chinese band who do Gypsy Kings-style stuff - rather fun. And recently, they've been supported by an acoustic trio who play Turkish folk songs (an intriguing new experience - you can find almost anything in Beijing!), and are fronted by probably the most gorgeous girl in Beijing (I've always had a special fondness for the women of the Eastern Mediterranean, but this girl is something else again - and she has a good voice. Yes, I'm definitely a bit smitten. [Not seriously smitten - she's far too young for me, and has a steady boyfriend back home. But she is extremely nice; I was introduced to her a few weeks back by a mutual friend.]).

This week I was out there again, to celebrate the birthday of a cute young American girl who's been working behind the bar there occasionally for the last 18 months, while studying Chinese. That was a fine night, another 2am session - has left me feeling rather depleted for the rest of the week.

Lately, though, I've been going out there mainly for the pool table, the good draught beer, and the occasional drinks specials (last year on Wednesday nights they were offering absurdly generous 'free pour' measures of Jim Beam for 10 or 15 yuan; I got well away on those a few times) - and because it is a convenient 'half-way' meeting point for my principal pool opponent, The Chairman, who is languishing this year in one of the far northern suburbs. The music has become only a secondary attraction. I really must try to get out there again on the weekend some time.