Mao Live House, quietly sitting among dress shops, roast duck restaurants, music instrument stores on Gulou East Street, is probably the busiest rock venue in Beijing. Shows are being put on almost every night. Indie, Punk, Fusion, Reggae, Metal, Folk, you can find nearly all music styles here. Carsick Cars, Ourselves Beside Me, Snapline, PK14… creators of the most exciting new Beijing sound are frequent performers.
Space of the live house is not big, can only accomodate around 200 people, but that’s what makes the audience feel close to the band and to each other. No matter how crowded, there’s always enough room to pogo!
There is a mini bar outside of the live house, offering various drinks and a foosball. You may not have enough place to sit, but who cares? Band members always have drinks here and chat with their fans after the show, which make the place very much like a big rock family.
Apart from great musics, Mao Live House’s interior design is also well-received by artists and music lovers. The rusty iron facade gives it a revolutionary and underground feel, which makes it a natural gathering for avant-garde artists, fearless rock musicians, wanna-be rockers, and future thinkers. Mao Live House is a must go spot for rock lovers in Beijing. You’ll regret it if you don’t pay a visit while you are in the city. And if you have just started a band, don’t be shy, jump on the stage and make a stir! Call them at 010-64025080, or visit their homepage at www.maolive.com.
Oops, almost forgot to mention the logo of Mao Live House. See the connection between “Mao” and the graphic design? I first thought “Mao” refers to a cat, for in Chinese, pronunciation for cat is “mao”. Apart from that, I really had a hard time figuring out what the graphic means at the beginning. Until one day I heard someone pronounced it with the correct tone, I then realized that the logo indicates Chairman Mao! How my brain was on the slow side! I totally fell in love with the design and hated myself for not being able to come up with a similar idea earlier (for I was also drafting a “conspiracy” of building a rock live house at the time)! It’s like the old leader of the nation is now leading us in a new revolution, a revolution of Rock n’ Roll! “Forward, and rock hard!”
(Copyright of the pictures belongs to the original photographer).
