If you visit Beijing there are four clubs that you have to see that really drive the music scene. By far the most important – considered by musicians and critics to be the epicenter of the new musical explosion – is the university district’s D22, which has already been called the CBGBs of Beijing by Rolling Stone. Home and watering hole to a non-stop collection of Chinese musicians, artists, intellectuals and hipsters, the club is located in the northwestern part of the city between the main entrances of China’s two most famous universities, Peking University and Tsinghua. It is best known for its underground rock, experimental and jazz nights, as well as being the home of the Beijing New Music Ensemble, which performs pieces by contemporary Chinese and foreign composers.
The owners of D22 seem pretty indifferent to the idea of maximizing revenues. They have no hesitation to program difficult music or obscure bands they happen to like, even during prime weekend times. They also take a perverse delight in pushing their musicians and their bands to experiment wildly, especially on Thursday nights, when they like to program some very weird stuff. For their sins they have been called pretentious, and it is certainly true that their programming isn’t always easy. The club has a good sound system and one of the coolest spaces in Beijing, and the managers and staff are certainly friendly enough, but they obviously don’t care whether or not anyone besides themselves and their friends likes the music being performed.
Nearly every one of the most innovative bands in the city is a regular, and there is always a large contingent of musicians in the audience, especially late at night when those who have been performing in other clubs pack up their equipment and come over for drinks and jamming. A number of well-known local musicians, including Hang On the Box legend Wang Yue, Joyside’s iconic Bian Yuan, and guitar wizard Shouwang Zhang, seem to be there almost every night.
The east-side counterpart to D22 is a bar called 2