Time to have a good cry as Beijing’s only venue dedicated to Beijing’s most extreme music, XP, closes its doors in July 5. While we knew it has been hard times for this venue of musical exploration we didn’t fathom that it would come this soon. The folks behind XP were the same that founded D-22 about a decade ago, then Maybe Mars, and were committed put Beijing on the map as a breeding ground for alternative and interesting Chinese bands.
The problems seemingly began with the cancellation of Kawabata Makoto and KK Null which was elaborated on here by local noise artist Yan Jun in his appropriately titled piece for Wire magazine titled Drugs, Violence, Porno, Mafia, Anti-government, Anti-religion and Acid Mothers Temple.
He wrote: “12 officers from five different bureaus (culture, industrial and commercial, police, fire control and who knows else) went to XP Club, one of the stops on the Kawabata-KK Null tour and the home of Beijing experimental music. After these officers pointed out many problems, the club luckily only got a notice to shut down for two weeks and a warning to host ‘no more foreigner musicians’.”
The venue has never quite recovered from the two week mandatory closure, and people have been speculating that the end was nigh.
The Maybe Mars crew intends to move their office, located on the second floor of the venue, a little further into the hutongs and to make their new venture more exhibition-focused by creating a multifunctional courtyard space/gallery to show off visual talents. While there may be the occasional acoustic show or other intimate performance, this space won’t be the new home of the gnarled noise of XP.
You can still look forward to a great month of programming at XP. Check our events page for a run down of everything they have going down until the first weekend of July (3-5), when they will have their closing party and we lose another fine venue to the Beijing brutes.
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