Expats Living in Shanghai

Growing up half an hour outside of NYC has meant that my standards for what constitutes a great city have always been extremely high. While Shanghai can compete with "The City" in a myriad of ways, it cannot hold a candle to New York's limitless offering of live music. However - just as springtime buds are beginning to sprout - two new music venues are emerging that contain the potential to transform the face of the Shanghai scene.

A few months back, the iconic Mao Livehouse boarded up its Red Town home in order to relocate to a larger hall in the heart of the city. Occupying the entire third floor of a large office building, the new Mao follows the Chinese tradition of hiding nightlife gems in the most abstruse of locales. On the other side of the spectrum, The Mixing Room can be found in the belly of Shanghai's very own stationary UFO, the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

If nuclear fallout is something you're worried about, you'll feel safe and sound rocking out within the concrete-walled confines of Mao Livehouse, which rides the "spartan warehouse" feel to the hilt with its steel staircases and cinder block bar. Its industrial ambiance looks built to withstand even the most devastating "metalocalypse". The Mixing Room, meanwhile, has adopted a modern yet classical theater layout, with ample floor space, a mezzanine hosting VIP tables and a balcony up above.

One of the most important features of any live music venue is where the acts perform. The Mixing Room's state-of-the-art stage is, honestly, worthy of Broadway. AEG has spared no expense in equipping The Mixing Room with premier acoustics and a cutting-edge light system attached to stainless-steel scaffolding to fill out the aesthetically pleasing space. Mao Livehouse's stage, on the other hand, is perplexingly wide, making the single Marshall Half Stack amplifier to the right of the drums look inadequate and forsaken. However, the expansive video display that runs the entire length of the back wall is, undeniably, impressive. This overwhelming screen will provide all the kids tripping with a girl named Molly more than enough visual stimulation at the next "Technow" show.
Both Mao Livehouse and The Mixing Room - despite the broad differences in layout - do a good job at providing prime lines of sight from the ground and from the upper floors.

While these two similarly sized venues might be best suited for greatly different kinds of acts, one thing is for sure: once Shanghai gets accustomed to this high level of quality in their concert hall, there will be no turning back.