Where: Yugong Yis­han
When: Fri 18 Jun, 19.30PM
How Much: 50RMB; 35RMB stu­dents
Who: Kite, Black Cat Bone, Afrokoko Roots, The Verse (More Info)
Why: Big props to the peo­ple at Funk*Fever and UNHCR for putting this gig together. Not only is it for a good cause, cel­e­brat­ing World Refugee Day, but as their pro­mo­tional mate­r­ial says, each of the acts are head­lin­ers in their own right. Funk group The Verse, African roots group Afrokoko Roots, and good old blues band Black Cat Bone; the only unknown entity here is Kite, who I haven’t heard of before but given the rest should be just as amaz­ing. Before the gig, they’re play­ing the doc­u­men­tary ‘Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars’ (start­ing at 7.30), after which the music will kick off at around 9PM. In addi­tion to the great acts, they also have some big-hitters from the DJ world — Patrick Yu and Eddie Lv amongst them. It should be a great night out!

Run­ners up this week are many! TONIGHT, there’s a great “Through The Ages” gig with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the six­ties onwards @ Mao, 8.30PM, 50RMB; The Medullary Paral­y­sis (Italy) and other glam-rockers will be at D-22, Fri @ 10PM, 40/30RMB; folk rock­ers DF & Sky­scraper have their album launch at Yugong Yis­han, Sat @ 9PM, 50RMB; Lonely China Day have their resched­uled album launch at Mao Live, Sat @ 9.30PM, 79.90RMB.

Where: Jianghu Bar
When: Thu 10 Jun, 21.30PM
How Much: 70RMB; 50RMB pre-sale/students
Who: Cocoon, Zhang Wei­wei (More Info)
Why: I’m feel­ing in an indie pop mood this week, and Cocoon def­i­nitely fills that descrip­tion. I missed their Sun­day gig at Mao Live last week, but a lit­tle gig at Jianghu should be a nice venue for some mean­der­ing lyrics. Check out some of their songs on MySpace; they’re adorable, play­ing the ukulele and singing cute dit­ties. Zhang Wei­wei should be the per­fect opener; while he’s not got a ukulele, he’s got a great relaxed sound to his folk music. It should be a great gig; nice and relax­ing after a few weeks of full-on rock and roll.

Run­ners up this week are: French psy­che­delic rock­ers Echo, who I only knew about after con­flat­ing them with a Tai­wanese band of the same name, Old What? Bar, Fri @ 22.00, 30RMB; Playrock’s Drum Tower Rock gig at Mao Live, Fri @ 20.00, 50/40RMB; and Sat­ur­day has three big hit­ters on the same night: Shan­ren @ Jiangjin­jiu, Hang­gai @ Yugong Yis­han, The Red­bucks @ Jianghu. You should be able to find some­thing this weekend!

Where: D-22
When: Fri 4 Jun, 22.00PM
How Much: 40RMB; 30RMB stu­dents
Who: The Trou­ble, Cold Case, The Flyx, The K (More Info)
Why: The Trou­ble is a Chengdu ska-reggae-punk band I missed last year at Yugong Yishan’s Sichuan Rock night, and I have regret­ted it since hear­ing about the great sounds com­ing out of that city, so mainly I’m head­ing to this because of that. The only band I’ve seen in the lineup are The Flyx, who I saw at my first out­ing to D-22 and for the last four­teen months have been wait­ing for the right time to get back and see. Hope­fully they’re as good as I remem­ber — starry-eyed and enthu­si­as­tic as I was at the time — but I’m sure they won’t dis­ap­point. Cold Case is another of the city’s punk rock bands I’ve yet to get around to see­ing despite their con­stant tour­ing, and The K is offer­ing another fusion sound, blend­ing ska and punk along with their rock sen­si­bil­i­ties. Hope­fully this time, every­one will play as advertised.

Run­ners up this week are: two of the city’s biggest expat bands are play­ing this week so get out to sup­port them! Girls Are Wait­ing To Meet You are play­ing Jianghu Bar, Thu @ 9.30PM, and The Red­bucks CD Launch is at Yugong Yis­han, Sat @ 9PM, 80/60RMB (includ­ing CD). If you need any­thing else, catch Latin Night with Hum­ming­bird at Jianghu Bar, Fri @ 9.30PM.