The band came back with a four-song encore, which they began by asking for requests. Kaplan picked out an audience member wearing one of the band’s T-shirts, who asked the band to play You Can Have It All, a tune sung by Hubley. Kaplan drew laughs as he played a mock drum solo, throwing his drumstick into the air and then catching it clumsily.
McNew then led the band through Sun Ra’s zany and funky Nuclear War. The band’s third Taipei appearance ended as Kaplan thanked a fan he met off-stage for coming to both of the band’s shows at The Wall. They obliged the fan’s request: the Velvet Underground’s I Found a Reason.
Elsewhere this week, the 100-seat auditorium of Taipei’s German Cultural Center was filled to overflowing for Friday evening’s concert by the German a cappella group Klangbezirk. The four-person lineup, two men and two women, first demonstrated a sound machine that recorded and then replayed their input, allowing for the illusion of more than four singers. Sometimes they used it, but mostly not. Instead, they gave softly breathed renderings of often well-known numbers, sung with the microphone close to the lips and accompanied only by the snapping of fingers.
Most songs were in English, ranging from Michael Jackson to the Beatles (Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night, sung as an encore, received an ovation). But there was one Chinese item too, and another in German. Altogether the tone was relaxed, with audience participation invited at one point, and eagerly given. You felt that the free entry, plus free wine in the interval, were not all that had brought the mostly young audience along.
The event was part of the Taiwan International Contemporary A Capella Festival. Other participants include Sweden’s Irmelin, Japan’s Takarabune and Kaichiro Kitamura and Germany’s Vocaldente. The festival continues in various locations until Saturday.
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