Earlier this year, Michael Burkett, singer for San Francisco punk band NOFX, called Kevin Lee of Consider the Meek and asked if he thought their bands, who were preparing to tour together in Japan, should play a show in Taiwan. As the founder of one of the country's more active expat bands, Lee had seen lots of overseas groups visit Taiwan and knew it could be hit or miss. "If you're happy to play in front of 300 people, I think we could do that," he remembers telling Burkett.
Burkett said that wouldn't be enough. But he called back a day later and asked if Lee thought 400 people might show up. Lee said it was worth a shot and NOFX booked a gig at Taipei live house The Wall (這牆) with Consider the Meek and Hong Kong's King Lychee (荔枝王). The show was so successful - it sold out - that NOFX put on another show the following night. "After NOFX we were like, 'We can do this again - and there's no reason we can't do this all the time,'" Lee said.
Consider the Meek - a political punk band whose album Dream Up a Threat has sold 4,000 copies, mostly in Japan - were thinking of leaving Taiwan to find a more developed market for their music in Europe or Australia. Instead, they decided to give it one more try and have organized this weekend's Antipop!, which they hope will be the first of a series of concerts that expose Taiwanese audiences and bands to musicians from other parts of Asia and in the process jump-start a more vibrant local underground music scene.
"We're hoping that we can bring overseas bands to create interest for supporting independent music, learn from bands who have done this before and try to build some solidarity with bands," Lee said.
Lack of solidarity is one of the main reasons Taiwan's independent music scene, despite rapid improvement in areas like songwriting, hasn't grown as quickly as the country's dance music industry. (Another major reason is that most bands don't stay together long enough to build a following: Many Taiwanese bands don't survive when members have to perform military service. Bands with foreigners break up when someone leaves the country.)
Instead of working together to organize concerts and promote themselves at each other's shows, young rock groups sign up for gigs at bars and clubs, tell their friends and hand out a few fliers. One rarely sees music venues aggressively plugging performances, much less bands aggressively advertising themselves.
When Consider the Meek visited Japan, they were exposed to a completely different world. "In Japan we were surrounded by promoters and surrounded by the live houses who wanted to sell our shows," Lee said. "So many bands are able to pull off really great shows and sell records because they have the backing. They have promoters and record labels that are in the scene and want to promote the scene. People feel like there's a buzz gong on. People want to go to your show."
Antipop! - which kicks off tonight, with the first of two shows at APA Lounge 808 in Ximending (西門町) - is an attempt to foster a similar buzz in Taiwan. Participating bands include Japanese all-girl punk band Akiakane, Consider the Meek, The Hindsight (光景消逝), Faded Moment, and Rabbit is Rich (兔子很有錢). Consider the Meek and Akiakane travel to Taichung on Sunday for a third show at Groovecity.
Groovecity and Lounge 808 were chosen because they don't take a large cut of revenues. Cover prices were kept low to attract a larger audience. Profits will be used to pay for Akiakane's airfare and other expenses. As of Wednesday, more than 80 tickets had already been sold for the Taipei shows. A surprisingly large number, Lee said, were purchased by foreigners.
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