With Valentine’s Day sneaking up on us all like a lecherous drunken expat at Carnegies’ Ladies Night, the following classy parties offer the chance for couples to cut loose and get loved up and desperate singletons to find someone special to get down with.
Kaohsiung has found the love with Mark Stewart’s Frisky promotions hosting Marcus Aurelius, Nina and Lexicon performing at Valentine’s Break Up IV.
The Valentine’s Break Up parties have been going strong for the past three years now and are “a great way to let loose after a few tough weeks of work, have a great night with that special someone ... and win lots of prizes including a NT$10,000 designer bracelet,” said Stewart.
Valentine’s Break Up IV at The Roof Park, 15F, 165 Linsen 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市林森一路165號15). Tomorrow from 10pm until 5am. NT$400 plus two drinks. Arrive before midnight to receive three raffle tickets.
Miss Represent plays liquid funk drum ’n’ bass at VU Live House tonight, promoted by Konkrete Jungle who are working hard to develop the drum ’n’ bass scene in Taiwan.
MissRepresent has been working the crowds for seven years in Europe and for drum ’n’ bass heads out there, this is a must-see event before LTJ Bukem hits Luxy in two weeks. MissRepresent from England is, “overjoyed to be playing for the first time in Taiwan.”
Liquid funk drum ’n’ bass is often referred to as “intelligent,” which some feel disparages the rest of the genre.
“Liquid is not aggressive,” said MissRepresent. “Liquid funk d ’n’ b is more chilled and deeper. It attracts a different crowd than the jump-up crew who are into the harder stuff. It is intelligent in the way it works the crowd.”
Like tonight, MissRepresent often plays without an MC because “they can make it or break it.” She prefers to let her music do the talking. “I am looking forward to digging out some new stuff that people may not have heard.”
Also playing with Miss Represent are Too Bad It’s Not Tronic, comprised of Matt Schism and Eben Pretorius, and Konkrete Jungle boy NoNSeNsii from the US.
For the boys, your NT$600 entrance fee gets you a drink while the lucky ladies only have to pay NT$400 for the same privilege. Sexist? Yes. Fair? Probably.
MissRepresent at VU Live House (地下絲絨), B1, 77, Wuchang St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市武昌街二段77號B1). Tonight from 11pm until 4am.
On the Net: www.missrepresent.com
With plumbing problems resolved but a few issues remaining with the neighbors, Copa reopens tonight with The Love Below. A Valentine’s Day warm-up for those looking for decent cocktails and an eclectic track list of songs to do with love, solicited over the past few months from the Facebook group Bet I Can Find People Who Love Love (the brainchild of man-about-town, Tommy Milloy). With Cap (yours truly) and Sunrise Soup.
The Love Below at Copa. Tonight from 10pm until late. Free entry. Copa Bar, 2, Ln 137, Yanji St, Taipei City (台北市大安區延吉街137巷2號).
Tomorrow in Taipei there’s Return to Paradise, a new club night launched by the resurgent ESPDJs, who are recreating the Eden Deep Inside house party vibe, which ended on New Year’s Eve two years ago. Playing will be Saucey, Matt Ward and SL, the latter of whom is “synonymous with deep house,” said Saucey.
The party will be going off at China White, “because of its intimate size,” said Saucey. “We have rented a beefed up sound system to provide us with the extra oomph required for a nice rolling deep house set.”
Return to Paradise at China White, 2F, 97-101, Dunhua S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City, (台北市敦化南路二段97-101號2樓). Tomorrow from 11pm until 5am. NT$350, includes one drink.
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It looks like a restaurant — but it’s food for the mind. Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Art Center is currently hosting Comic Bento (漫畫便當店), an immersive and quirky exhibition that spotlights Taiwanese comic and animation artists. The entire show is designed like a playful bento shop, where books, plushies and installations are laid out like food offerings — with a much deeper cultural bite. Visitors first enter what looks like a self-service restaurant. Comics, toys and merchandise are displayed buffet-style in trays typically used for lunch servings. Posters on the walls present each comic as a nutritional label for the stories and an ingredient