Mao Rebounds: Livehouse Continues to Host Shows and Hold Out Hope for an Agreement With Their Landlord

At this point, it's Gulou's worst kept secret: Mao Livehouse, the long beloved music venue that announced its closure last spring due to rising rent, has in fact remained open and (semi) quietly kept on hosting gigs. Much of the local music scene has, however, been afraid to say much about it, for fear that the added attention will bring an end to the venue once and for all.

Throughout this past summer and fall, owner Li Chi and his team gingerly promoted the shows in Chinese on Mao's WeChat account, and even put the occasional poster up outside. The current concert schedule is relatively scant – about one show per weekend, compared to the four or more they'd put on every week in their heyday. But the shows have nonetheless been successful.

On March 4 we stopped by and saw a speed metal troupe named 霾晦乐队 (roughly translated: Haze Dark Band) lay down thunderous tunes that sounded like a cross between Slayer and Korn, thanks to the frontman's dreadlocks and screeching vocals. The place was packed, and a mosh pit was going strong in front of the stage. The vast majority of attendees were young Chinese metal heads, with nary a laowai in sight.

This may irk some uni-lingual expat music fans, who missed the Chinese promotion and would have liked to know right away that the venue would remain open or, worse still, forked over plenty of cash for the very steeply priced tickets for the supposed "final" show last April. But owner Li Chi, during a recent interview with the Beijinger (after months of coaxing to speak on the record), said such issues were unintentional, and that he only wanted to keep the livehouse running after negotiations with his landlord fell into a drawn out limbo.

"The landlord and I don't have a contract, only a temporary arrangement, and I'm not sure what's going to happen," he said, adding that that landlord has to answer to government officials, who are still deciding what the property's fate will be. But shortly after he shut Mao down last spring, promoters and bands approached him saying they missed having a place like Mao to perform at.

Rather than stick with his initial plan to coordinate "mobile livehouse" shows at surprise locations across town (you can read more about that here), Li Chi instead focused on convincing the landlord to let him put on a smaller number of shows, mostly for metal and punk acts, along with a few unconventional events like massive pillow fights (yep, you read that right). All of these engagements had less promotion than those put on during Mao's prime, with the hope of avoiding the authorities' ire.

Li Chi hopes the government will not opt to drastically change the property, and that he and the landlord can come to an agreement on the rent. He said: "I don't know what the government wants from the landlord, but I do know that the landlord wants to raise the rent. And if we can negotiate a rate that I can afford, then we'll stay here."

For now, Li Chi can only wait for the final word. But the months that have gone by without incident while he continues to put on shows, all without incident, have left him feeling very optimistic. That said, he has been checking out alternative locations, in case things fall through.

"I'm still looking, just in case. But whether it's here on Gulou or somewhere else, I'll keep Mao going regardless," Li Chi said, adding: "For now, it's fun to keep putting on shows."

You can keep up to date on Mao's forthcoming gigs on their WeChat account (MAO_Livehouse on your phone; Chinese only, though dates, times and performers' names are easily discernible even for English only readers).

Will Griffith has also done an excellent job keeping readers abreast about upcoming Mao shows (and all other local gigs, for that matter) with his Noise Pollution column (check out his Live Beijing Music page for even more gig goodies). Also, keep checking the Beijinger's events page for bilingual updates on Mao's upcoming gigs and other future concerts.

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
WeChat: 13263495040

Photos: Mao Livehouse, Kyle Mullin, Li Chi