Months after the most recent Spring Scream, when the Liufu Ranch had returned to being just another big empty field and Kenting had reverted to the lazy days of a Taiwan-style seaside resort, the concert's co-founder and organizer, Wade Davis, sat at the wheel of his light blue 1980 Ford Grenada and reflected, "You know, every year Spring Scream has one surprise, one band that nobody expects, and they just show up and blow everybody away. This year it was definitely, definitely Guardian Alien."
If you didn't see any of Guardian Alien's several sets at the four-day music fest, you might accuse Davis of blatant nepotism, because Guardian Alien is after all his brother's band. However, many of this year's Spring Screamers felt the same way.
Based in Seattle, Guardian Alien has been together for six years, mostly playing the club circuit of the northwestern US. Tonight at 9:30 pm at Taipei's Witches Pub, they begin a 11-day tour of Taiwan, which will include at least three shows in Taipei, two in Taichung and appearances in Kaohsiung and Hualien.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF GUARDIAN ALIEN
According to the band, the tour's timing was worked out "just because it seemed like a good time to come" and also because they "love Taiwan."
"Taiwan seems to me like Seattle 11 years ago. There's so many up-and-coming bands and people just doing it," said Guy Davis, the banjo picker and bass player who founded the group.
"Now in Seattle, everyone's seen everything. Literally, there's one thousand bands living in the city," he said.
Guy Davis has been playing in bands in Seattle since 1990, the high-grunge era. In the early and mid-90s, he said he did "like 18 national tours" with Sage, a rock trio that put out some CDs and played with more than a few rising stars in the music industry.
They opened for Alanis Morrisette at the Dragonfly in Los Angeles "literally a week before she became huge" in 1995, for Radiohead on its first US tour (just after the 1995 album release of Pablo Honey), for Urge Overkill, Morphine, Krist Novoselic and several other major acts.
While Davis was playing bass for Sage, he picked up the banjo so he could have an instrument on the road he didn't have to plug in. First he learned the claw hammer technique and then the three-finger style. After that, it wasn't long before he was composing songs.
Many of the musical ideas he began developing on banjo came to fruition during a six-month stretch in Taichung in the first half of 1996. Drawing on musicians from both Seattle and Taichung's expat scene, he formed two bands, Guardian Alien and Banjovi. He also put a pickup into the banjo, plugged it in and made it electric.
Banjovi, with banjo, bass and drums, was country punk. Guardian Alien, meanwhile, added other instruments and sounds to become something more eclectic, non-traditional and just plain out-there.
Though vastly different, the bands were two sides of the same coin. At one point, they even merged into something of an all-star ensemble, though they've since distilled back down to what they are now -- a trio.
"The songs had so much melody, but there were so many instruments," said Davis. "The trio just feels more natural."
Guardian Alien only became a trio again recently, after losing a powerful force in lead vocalist Christina Honeycutt, who was still with both bands in April for Spring Scream.
The change prompted Davis and his bandmates to write some new material, which they'll be playing on their current Taiwan tour. Davis described one of the changes as a new banjo sound that is "big and really crunchy and really drives the music forward. Before, the sound was much more ethereal."
At present, Banjovi and Guardian Alien consist of exactly the same lineups: Davis on bass, banjo and vocals, Douglas Sowers on drums and vocals and Eric Kubista playing bass and a squeezebox that's either a bandoneon or a concertina ? they're not quite sure. Both bands mix up the instruments, though Guardian Alien makes more use of the bandoneon. Other than that, the distinguishing factors between the two alter-ego groups are in the music and the energy they create.
"At a lot of shows, we open up for ourselves," said Davis. "You know, the bands have two different styles, personas, they're even visually very different. So I think a lot of people -- maybe because they're at a club and drinking or something -- don't even realize it's the same band."
Banjovi will open for Guardian Alien three times in Taiwan, at Witches, Napoli and Underworld. Several other appearances will take place in the context of larger events, including the opening of The Good Place (
Jason Han says that the e-arrival card spat between South Korea and Taiwan shows that Seoul is signaling adherence to its “one-China” policy, while Taiwan’s response reflects a reciprocal approach. “Attempts to alter the diplomatic status quo often lead to tit-for-tat responses,” the analyst on international affairs tells the Taipei Times, adding that Taiwan may become more cautious in its dealings with South Korea going forward. Taipei has called on Seoul to correct its electronic entry system, which currently lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan),” warning that reciprocal measures may follow if the wording is not changed before March 31. As of yesterday,
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
RSS