Taipei has its fair share of glitz and glamour with the laser madness at the entrance of Luxy, the dance floor on the ceiling at Spark, the nouveau riche at Room 18 and the “puppy squad” (狗仔隊) snapping photos of celebrities outside of Primo. This weekend, three underground parties dare to go against that grain and play the music they feel people need to hear.
Charles (陳思愷) earned his stripes in party rocking when he attended the DJ Scratch Academy in New York City. He teams up with a newcomer on the scene, Lucy
(金長泰), for Spark Light at Kosa Bar tonight.
Charles’ tastes veer towards block-rockin’ old school hip-hop, with his favorites ranging from Run-DMC to De La Soul and N.E.R.D. Lucy prefers to play indie rock and promises that people will enjoy dancing to his selections like Dat Politics and The Pipettes. When asked what to expect from the party, Charles said, “I can guarantee
the freshness.”
Spark Light, tonight from 9:30pm to 3am at Kosa Bar, 66-1 Yanji St, Taipei City (台北市延吉街66之1號). Tel: (02) 8772-0676. Admission is NT$500, all-you-can-drink.
A different form of the underground sound will be out at Bass Invaders at Hook Bar tonight with an all-UK lineup of Robi Roka, Radio Rahim, Stoppa, Dave Da Rave and Richie (Richie Partridge). While the speaker system at Hook is known to be very sensitive, Partridge is excited to be playing with his fellow countrymen. “It will be the best of old and new bass shakin’ electro and drum and bass,” he said.
Bass Invaders, tonight from 11pm to 3am at Hook Bar, 1, Alley 7, Ln 205, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City
(台北市忠孝東路四段205巷7弄1號). Tel: (02) 2771-7107.
Admission is NT$150 and comes with a drink.
It’s hard to call a party underground when it’s on one of the nicest yachts in the Tamsui harbor and the captain recently spent NT$10 million to upgrade the sound system and interior.
Tha Shamen (Elliot Tsai, 蔡一暐) promises nothing but hardcore beats. Rhymes will be making waves on water as he is joined by his homies from THC (Taipei Hip-hop Crew, H中P在台北), the Grand Trapperz and Foreign Affairs for the 911 Clash of the Titans (911嘻哈<瘋>神榜遊艇派對).
While it is the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Shamen promises he won’t be lighting fire to any biblical texts. Instead, he just wants to burn up your brains with rhymes.
911 Clash of the Titans, tomorrow from 10pm to 6am
at the Lixing No. 1 yacht at Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf
(淡水漁人碼頭). The yacht leaves the wharf at 12:30am sharp. Admission for men is NT$500 with two drinks. Admission for women is NT$400 with two drinks. For reservations call Chika Sun at 092-615-0321.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist