This Saturday, Aug 24, CoaCHUARlla Fest will be returning to DDC with another amazing line up of seven Beijing based bands with a helping of chuanr on the side. The previous fest, which took place back in January last year was a huge success and we can’t wait to see what’s in store this time around!
To find out more, we reached out to David Bond, one of the co-organizers of the event and band member of The Harridans and Kuduvillands, who will both be playing at the fest alongside Sincerely Yours, Sergei; KyoYoko; Basement Queen; Simplicity Lover; and Spirit Rebellious.
Hi David, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. This is the second CoaCHUARlla Fest, for those who aren’t familiar can you explain a bit about the idea behind it?
It started as these things often do, three mates sitting at the pub over a few pints. Mike Fox, Dan Taylor and I had been organizing some small gigs around town for our own bands and were having a lot of fun inviting other local bands to join us. We decided we’d stretch out and see if we could do a small festival. Mike, I think it was, achieved the silliest name we could come up with: a play on words of the massively famous Coachella Festival and everyone’s favorite Beijing street barbeque, 串儿“chuànr“. The Chinese translation is fun too: 口串啦 Kǒu chuàn la！
How does it feel to be doing it for a second time, are there any big differences to the previous fest?
It feels really exciting! The first event went better than we could have imagined. We reached out to our old friends in the Beijing scene and some really awesome bands came out to play. We managed to talk some heavy hitters like Silent Speech, Macondo, and Ambulance of Love into performing with us. The audience response was incredible, so we knew we had to do it again.
We aren’t changing the formula for CoaCHUARlla Two: seven bands with a variety of styles and musicians with a diversity of backgrounds and nationalities. We lean a bit more toward local Chinese acts, which makes sense since we are all Beijing bands. This event is meant to be a Beijing music scene showcase.
There are seven bands playing at the fest, of which you’re in two, can you briefly tell us about them?
The Harridans is a psychedelic disco rock band that has been kicking around the scene here for nearly a decade. Dan is our lead singer. We have a ton of fun when we play live. Our sets usually devolve into a wild, booze-fueled dance party at some point. Expect silly shirts and stage antics.
Kuduvillands is a band that Mike and I do together, with him playing bass. His amazingly talented wife-to-be, Liane Halton (of Poetry X Music fame) is our lead singer and songwriter. We blast out a heavy blend of metal, dance punk and synth rock.
Our good friend Nina Dillenz aka i-330 does amazing live visuals for both acts. And I play keyboard and synth in both.
How did you decide on which bands would play at the fest?
This time around we wanted to keep our lineup as fresh as we could, so we branched out and asked a set of bands to join us that we haven’t performed with much before but have been digging their live sets and releases lately.
Sincerely Yours, Sergei has been making huge waves recently all over the country and KyoYoko’s noisy dance punk is gonna get everyone off their feet. Basement Queen is a killer hard rock two piece. Then we’ve got one of our personal favorites, Simplicity Lover, a female fronted psychedelic triphop outfit that is just spellbinding. Rounding it out is Spirit Rebellious, a brand new reggae band that Dan and I saw a couple of months back and just had to book them in for the fest. We’re so excited to share a stage with these bands.
Aside from music, is there anything else people can expect from the fest?
Well, true to the name, the kitchen will be serving chuanr to order throughout the show. It really is the perfect snack for enjoying a Beijing rock spectacle.
CoaCHUARlla is taking place at DDC, why did you choose this venue for it?
Most of our earlier events had small lineups in even smaller venues. We often had to borrow gear from friends to even get the stage equipment together. So, when it came to organizing the first CoaCHUARlla we knew we’d need some help. 69, the owner of DDC, is an old friend of ours so we went to him with our idea. Lucky for us, he was enthusiastic enough about it to join us in organizing the event. The DDC team helped us with so much of the tricky behind the scenes details that go into an event like this.
The venue is also just an amazing place to enjoy a show. The best stage lighting in the city and that massive LED screen in the back make for an incredible live music experience. Even though it’s a newer venue, there’s a lot of history in the brand and vibe there from the days in the old hutong DDC. Performing at DDC almost feels like playing at an old friend’s house for us. Except this house has a massive stage, racks of laser beams and a row of craft beers on tap.
Moving away from the fest, one of your bands has a new album coming out soon, can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yes! The Harridans are soon to release our second studio album, Good Grief. It’s a chamber folk record, which is a bit of a departure from the progressive psychedelia of our first release. But I think it’s both fun and vital for bands to switch things up from record to record. During the early Covid years, Dan had written all these achingly beautiful folk ballads. We thought, rather than trying to integrate them into the sound that people might expect from The Harridans, let’s just record the music that the songs themselves are asking for. Our first single, The Wise, The Kind and the Eternal, will be released to coincide with the fest on Aug 24.*
*Streaming on NetEase
CoaCHUARlla Fest II will be taking place at DDC on Saturday, Aug 24 from 8pm until late. Advance tickets are RMB 108 and can be purchased by scanning the QR code below, tickets at the door are RMB 128.
DDC
Ground Floor, 39 Shenlu Jie, Chaoyang District
朝阳区神路街39号地下一层
READ: Even More of Beijing’s Best Rooftops and Terraces
Images: courtesy of the bands, DDC