China Hardcore Year in Review – TRIPLE STONE BOOKING | REAL DEAL Reveal Top 10 Shows

“Finally, Restraining Order landed and rushed straight to the venue, arriving at MIDNIGHT. After a quick soundcheck, they ripped right into their set proving their professionalism. The moment the music began, I felt that everything was worth it! “

2024 was a big year for the Chinese hardcore community after a rough bunch of years through the COVID crisis. 2 of the biggest movers and shakers of the Chinese hardcore scene, Stone of TRIPLE STONE BOOKING and Li You of REAL DEAL, took the time to reflect on their favorite hardcore events in China of 2024.

Read on and keep TABS on communities like the ones in China where hardcore is well-loved.

TRIPLE STONE BOOKING: https://www.instagram.com/triple_stone_booking/

REAL DEAL: https://www.instagram.com/liyou_cnhc/

Restraining Order (live in Beijing and Hong Kong)

Li You / Restraining Order Beijing stop
It’s been a really long time since foreign hardcore bands have rolled through Beijing. This year, we had the opportunity to cooperate with Triple Stone Booking and invited American band Restraining Order over. The venue was at an intimate bar called  SCHOOL, which is perfect place for a hardcore punk show. What was cool to see was that every member of RO was so modest and friendly. They also hold the record for the fastest soundcheck I’ve ever seen! Within 15 minutes they had set up and checked,  and were ready for the show later that night. In fact, while they were wrapping up their soundcheck, the opening bands hadn’t even arrived yet! To get to Beijing from USA, it’s a VERY long flight but their on stage performance was amazing. Huge thanks to Triple Stone Booking and all the bands and the audience on that day.

Stone / Restraining Order Hong Kong stop
So the craziest thing about their Hong Kong stop was that the band was originally scheduled to land at 5:30 p.m., but the flight was delayed by 5 hours. As a promoter, I was incredibly anxious! First of all, the show was on a Monday night so I was worried that people weren’t going to stick around because they had work the next day. When we informed the audience what was going on, only 2 people asked for a refund, the rest were willing to stay as late as it needed to be to watch RO. My musician friends, Joe, Roman, and xvxto, quickly formed a temporary band to fill the gap.

Finally, Restraining Order landed and rushed straight to the venue, arriving at MIDNIGHT. After a quick soundcheck, they ripped right into their set proving their professionalism. The moment the music began, I felt that everything was worth it! Thanks again to everyone who came!

CNHC 2024 Guangzhou

Li You: To those who don’t know, we’ve organized an annual hardcore event in China called CNHC Fest. In 2023 we brought the fest to a city called Shenzhen and it far surpassed all my expectations. I never thought there would be such a lively scene in Southern China. The enthusiasm of our friends from Guangdong completely infected us. IMMEDIATELY after that experience I thought that the 2024 edition of CNHC needs to be in another Southern Chinese city, Guangzhou. Finally, the day of the 2024 edition arrived in Guangzhou. I can safely say that this edition of the fest was the best one I’ve experienced in the past decade. We had bands from all over China in the lineup along with bands from around Southeast Asia. As always, friends from all over the country also arrived to celebrate this festival and what we’ve accomplished. While I was watching the entire fest and all the performances it was the first time I felt like what we’ve created is no different from what we see around the world – everything we’ve seen in youtube videos, etc., was happening right in front of my eyes. Stage dives, moshing, and singing along all day long for every band. Whispers and Rexrez from Thailand and Bleach from Indonesia were fucking amazing, and the best part is seeing these members all watch and support the Chinese hardcore bands. It was touching to what this display of support. Those dudes also had so much to say about the fest after which made me feel like our scene is now part of the massive Southeast Asian Hardcore scene. We have truly established a connection with foreign scenes. Shout out to Triple Stone Booking for helping CNHC contact and connect with these amazing Asian bands. We worked together and truly felt that teamwork makes the dream work!

Mindwar Live in Guangzhou

Stone: “Still At War” is one of my favorite albums of 2023. I never expected to be able to see them perform live in 2024. Happiness came too suddenly. They are a group of kind and friendly big boys. This show also featured No More Harm, who came all the way from Shanghai. The last time they were in Guangdong was at CNHC Fest Shenzhen in 2023. Since then, they have never stopped moving forward and this time they brought their debut album. Local veterans Shoot the Gun delivered a high-quality performance despite the absence of their lead guitarist. After the show, everyone was still in high spirits and we all went out for a meal and drinks, leaving behind wonderful memories.

Concrete Jungle Fest in Bangkok

This summer, I was fortunate enough to attend the “Southeast Asian Hardcore Festival” in Bangkok with friends from the Chinese hardcore scene. Over three days, 20 hardcore bands from all over the world, created a feast for the ears. I met almost all the Southeast Asian promoters, who stand as one, sharing the same roots working together to build and develop the Hardcore scene in SEA. It was a significant event. From a personal perspective, Merauder was truly breathtaking, and I finally got to see Xiabalba, a band I have loved for many years.

Mensheng Reunion Show in Hong Kong

Hong Kong post hardcore band MENSHENG is one of the bands that have influenced me the most since I first saw them in 2011. The band features members who later joined King Ly Chee. After years of silence, they decided to bring it back right at the start of 2024. The musicians that night were in excellent condition, old but strong, the scene’s atmosphere was very good…I wanted to relive that night again and again.

Existence Live in Shenzhen

Swedish metallic hardcore band Existence, who also released their attention-grabbing debut full-length album ‘Go to Heaven’ in 2023, was a band I was lucky enough to host this past year. Existence’s drummer’s father, who has also been living in Asia for many years, came up from Hong Kong to see his son’s performance. Existence was happy to meet old friend, Arvid, who was studying in Beijing. Many hardcore kids traveled from Guangzhou on a weekday! It was a great night!

Fuming Mouth & Kruelty Tour in China

Kruelty had already rolled through China in 2023 and the reception was really good so this year it was cool to have them back with American death metal hardcore band Fuming Mouth. This show was co-sponsored by Unknown Art, Pest Productions and ourselves in Triple Stone Booking. Because of the current market situation in China, it’s difficult for this unknown style of music to hit too many cities. Therefore, thanks to Unknown Art and Pest Productions we were able to make this tour possible. Shanghai once again resumed their long-lost hardcore scene. The number of people in Shanghai was unexpected, so we are full of confidence in the potential of Shanghai for future shows with a high possibility that the 2025 edition of CNHC could be held in Shanghai!

Destiny Live in Guangzhou

Very young Singapore hardcore band, DESTINY, gave a particularly wonderful feeling with their melancholic sounds and beautiful melodies. Although not many people came, the audience were super into it, with the performance resonating strongly, singing along, and throwing down in the pit. The show was also the debut of a new band called ANEMOIA from Zhuhai/Macau. The band is made up of people from pretty well-established metalcore/hardcore acts My Strive, Such Great Heights, Aftermath, etc. Anemoia are on the h8000, 90s metalcore, tip.

Blank Slate Festival in Hong Kong

This is an unprecedented hardcore punk event, and especially hard to imagine that something like this would take place in Hong Kong, Hong Kong’s homegrown label MOUHOI along with RICE and SCUM BASTARD brought 15 bands from seven different regions for a hardcore punk cultural exchange of sorts. All participants are witness to history!

CNHC 2024 Changchun

As China is a huge country, it was interesting to observe how the southern part of China had pretty much erupted with hardcore shows left, right and center. In the northern part though, it seemed rather quiet. So we came up with the idea of holding a CNHC event in a region outside Beijing called Changchun. Changchun is a city in the northeast region of China and is known mainly for holding annual punk festivals. So we grabbed a bunch of hardcore bands and checked with the venue to see if they were interested in jointly organizing a CNHC show – a CNHC hadn’t been held in the northern region since 2018. We wanted to bring everyone together in the northeast for the first time, and this idea received tremendous support from the venue Goin Live, so we made it happen!

Return The Truth and D.T.L. (Dragon Tiger Leopard) from Beijing, Overcome from Harbin, No Entry from Shenyang, and Shoot The Gun from Shenzhen participated in this performance. What’s more, friends from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong traveled thousands of miles to this northern city in the middle of a severe winter to witness this performance. Although there were only about over 100 people at the show, the entire atmosphere of each band was really good! After the performance, some audience also started discussing hardcore, discussing how to 2 step and mosh…And most importantly, all the bands and the audience together completed the first CNHC event in the northeast. We hope that this performance can plant a seed here and enable more new hardcore bands to emerge in this region and in other northern areas.