Two venues lurking not so quietly in the shadows of Taipei’s dance scene are Rank and DV8 (not to be confused with the bar of the same name near the terminus of Fuxing South Road).
Last Saturday, Rank, formerly Red Carpet, hosted one-off club night Frantic; its name derived from the week of rushed promotion between the party’s conception and its advent.
The name may have changed in late November last year, but it seems little else, including the two-room basement setup, has.
However, for Frantic the main room’s previous hip-hop focus went four-to-the-floor, while the second room was closed off completely.
“We had six DJs spread over six hours, we all did one-hour sets ... so the DJs were really energetic, really trying to show off their better tracks ... We did some techno, some electro and some tech house and the crowd seemed to get quite into it,” said Saucey.
As for DV8, formerly Taiwan’s “Bethlehem” of hip-hop TU, “The floor space is the same [as TU] but it looks fairly different,” said Saucey, who’ll be playing there next month. “They’ve got a really nice sound system, a pretty crazy LED visual at the back and they’ve got a really nice setup for the DJs. We’re looking at doing a show there in March. A show called Interhouse that’s going to be tech house and a little bit of progressive house.”
But not everyone is as taken with DV8.
It’s “exactly like every other club that existed in Taoyuan and a long time ago in Taipei, like in Ximending ... There used to be clubs like it all over Taipei,” said Luxy resident Hooker. “It’s just kinda like a throwback … The music that they play there ... is kinda like a hard-house, Cantonese trance, really, really sped up and being played over 150 bpm (beats per minute).”
What about Rank?
“I don’t think they have principles or vision for the music,” said Hooker. “They’ll do anything to bring people in. It’s not a bad place. It’s not a bad sound. But it doesn’t seem to appeal to too many people.”
As clubs come under increasing pressure with the economy nosediving and a sense of apathy spreading among the dance music crowd at large, innovation could take a back seat to lowest-common-denominator music.
The scene “seems less enthusiastic,” Hooker said. “More jaded ... Maybe that comes with education ... Or maybe it’s a reflection of the Taiwanese love for new things, and clubbing is not really new to them anymore.”
For Saucey, more venues would provide impetus for dance music.
“It would be nice to see places in the middle of the city that are open to doing more live acts or alternative acts, like maybe a trip-hop night or drum ’n’ bass,” he said. “It seems like a lot of established clubs are sticking to hip-hop and some electronic music.”
Rank, B1, 279 Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市信義路四段279號B1). For more info, check out www.rank-club.com.tw (Chinese only). Open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10pm to 4am. Call 0980-479-068 for more information and to make table reservations.
DV8, B1, 249 Fuxing S Rd Sec 1 Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段249號B1).
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