Oh, yeah, summer's really here in Beijing now. It's been pleasantly HOT for the last month or more, but in the last 10 days it's started getting stupidly humid as well.... and these are the conditions in which it becomes increasingly difficult to motivate oneself to leave the house.
Particularly to go to a venue with no air-conditioning!!!!
And a couple of years ago, this started to become something of a vogue/vice around Beijing's rock clubs.
WHAT? It's somehow more "rock'n'roll" to sweat as much as possible?? Or it's just a money-saving ploy??
I think it was MAO that started the rot; their air-conditioners conked out on them, and they thought they'd try to get by with just fans for a while... and the 'while' became several months.... and, on occasion, even the fans seemed not to be working. Then Mako Live rushed into operation before it had installed any air-conditioning (I think they've got over that now... although I haven't been back for ages). And then 2 Kolegas did away with its air-conditioners (to free up more sockets for the amps???).
I remember first noticing this problem at Kolegas at their anniversary show last year. The few times I went over last autumn and spring, the crowd wasn't big enough to make heat that much of an issue. But now that crowds are picking up and the weather is getting so steamy.... well, guys, you really NEED some f***ing air-conditioning in there. On top of all the other reasons for my having grown fed up of the place over the past year or so, the intolerable heat inside is almost certainly going to keep me away for at least the next three months. There was a great lineup there last night (well, AIS and The Ghost Spardac are excellent; it is kinder not to speak of Candy Monster...); but I just couldn't face the ordeal - knowing that it was likely to be a case of alternating 10-minute spells of roasting inside with longer periods of recovery outside, trying to listen from the doorway.
It is a great shame to have fallen so decisively out of love with a venue that used to be so close to my heart. Ah, well. (Perhaps they can yet redeem themselves. All it takes is the flick of a switch....)
Anyway, to compensate for that brief spate of curmudging, let's have some fun with Billy Idol...
1 comment:
And, oh my god, The Amazing Insurance Salesmen have played there for the last three weeks in succession?
They're good, but nobody needs to see them that often... (Well, nobody but their obsessed No 1 fan....)
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