Don't Go Bananas Over Monkey Mountain Club: New Soho Shangdu Venue Good Sound, Average Marks
Among the pet primping parlors, the neon nail salons and dusty board game cafes of Soho Shangdu is an unexpected live music venue with a relaxed vibe. A local crowd enjoys pizza, pasta, and sandwiches (RMB 38, RMB 30, and RMB 35, respectively) with their bottled beers (RMB 20-30) and regular live performances. On the night we stopped by, three people took the stage. Even the bar manager delighted a small group of young women with an impromptu acoustic set.
Their fervor lends weight to the Arctic Monkeys’ assertion that love is indeed not only blind, but deaf.
Comfy seating clutters the entrance and the small mezzanine. The walls are plastered with tatty posters of the rock greats, and a mishmash of shrouded lamps ensures muted lighting, in keeping with live music venue tradition.
The quality of the sound and equipment is surprisingly good for a low-key venue. That’s because the club is an offshoot of Monkey Mountain Records, an independent Beijing-based label. Manager Ji Wei says the venue was initially conceived as a spot for the label’s artists to hang out over a beer and jam together. But with regular events ranging from rock nights to rap battles, they’ve proven there’s no need to ape some of its more illustrious contemporaries to be a hit with all the primates.
Monkey Mountain Club 猴山俱乐部
Daily 2pm-2am. Unit 3-2308, North Tower, Soho
Shangdu, 8 Dongdaqiao Lu, Chaoyang District
(132 6318 1080)
朝阳区东大桥路8号Soho尚都北塔3层 2308
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Photo: Sui
