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Antipop! tour creates a buzz

Akiakane encountered a different kind of Taiwanese audience during this weekend's Antipop! tour. PHOTO: STEVE LEGGAT

Consider the Meek frontman Kevin Lee said he would announce a second Antipop! tour sometime this week if the first one, three punk rock shows held in Taipei and Taichung over the weekend, was a success. He didn't have to wait that long. Before seeing what kind of crowd last night's concert at Groovecity in Taichung would draw, he had already committed to organizing a second round. "We got great feedback [from Friday and Saturday's shows]. Everybody was really happy and wondering when our next show would be," Lee said yesterday evening in a phone interview before the doors opened at Groovecity. "Because of the buzz it created, we don't want to wait too long. We're hoping to get something organized in six or seven weeks."

Lee and bandmates Greg Russell and Sharm Rowland organized the Antipop! tour, which visited Taipei for two shows Friday and Saturday at the APA Lounge 808 in Ximending before heading to Taichung for a final show last night, to foster more interaction between Taiwanese and other Asian bands and help jump-start a more vibrant underground music scene here. In addition to their band, the lineup included The Hindsight (光景消逝), Rabbit Is Rich (兔子很有錢) and Faded Moment from Taiwan, and all-girl Japanese punk band Akiakane.

Judging from Saturday night's show - it packed more than 60 people into a space designed to hold 50 and somehow still had room left over for a decent-sized mosh pit - the market is ready. Tickets sold out, and overall attendance for both of the Taipei shows was "just over 100," Lee said, which meant that the most important goal - paying for Akiakane's airplane tickets and hotel rooms - was reached when the tour was only two–thirds of the way through.

On Saturday, Lounge 808 was nearly full by the time Rabbit Is Rich - a relative newcomer to the Taipei pub scene with a sound that's reminiscent of the White Stripes, if the White Stripes sung in Mandarin and had a female vocalist - took the stage for a surprisingly tight set. The moshing then began in earnest when hardcore activists Consider the Meek followed with a politically charged performance featuring songs that had the crowd chanting "Fuck Bush!" and "[China] don't threaten Taiwan!" Akiakane finished things off with the night's most impressively loud display, a long set that had the crowd jumping up and down and slipping across the beer-soaked floor. "Akiakane said they were surprised," Lee said. "They didn't expect to have such a big response from the crowd. They always thought of Taiwanese crowds as being shy."

Jarrod McClay, who arrived in time to see the last two bands, was also impressed. "It was a good amount of people for the space," he said. "The crowd was super-friendly; everyone was talking outside." "Ridiculously cheap booze - that was fantastic," he added.

Antipop! felt like a real punk concert. It was loud, hot, the lighting was superb, and the audience was as enthusiastic as the artists. Consider the Meek set out to create the kind of buzz they experienced when they toured Japan earlier this year. And they succeeded.

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