I never paid much attention to alcohol sponsors at events back home, but in Shanghai, you can't avoid the bombardment of bar beverage-brand promotions. Each liquor label decides its target market and plans parties to suit the chosen demographic. Wyborowa Vodka does hip-hop parties for younger crowds, Chivas aggressively seeks that new money yuppie crowd, Hennessy tries to appear more sophisticated, Grey Goose even more and the beer brands just go for everyone. Solid Vodka entered the scene with an aggressive approach last year with a popular series of parties around town, mostly seeking a more upscale, sexy, house-music crowd.

The latest liquor to hype the scene is Bacardi, who's been testing the rather new frontier of live music with a somewhat alternative bent. In the past couple months, Bacardi sponsored British indie-rock band Maximo Park (4 Live) and last month, Bugz In The Attic (Absolute House).

While I appreciate when these sponsors bring a favorite act to China for the first time, personally, I'd like to see the market mature in two ways: One, focus on training bar staff to make some good cocktails, and two, offer more support to local talent and music festivals that have a cohesive and creative forward-thinking theme.
The recent "Roots and Shoots" benefit at Live Bar was a good example of bringing together young local talents for a good cause (planting trees). We'd like to see more of this and encourage for-profit companies to consider it. Hey, it's good PR and we wouldn't mind the extra shade come summer.

Finally, and on a slight, but sweet tangent, three of the biggest live music events of the year are happening in April. Live hip-hop favorites, The Roots, will play April 16 at Yun Feng Theatre. New York City anti-art rock veterans, Sonic Youth, will play Shanghai Concert Hall on April 24. Last, but certainly not least, American indie-rock darlings, Pretty Girls Make Graves, kick it up at 4 Live on April 28 as part of their farewell world tour. We're expecting more and more of these interesting live acts coming through town in addition to the usual DJ and pop-ballad parade.