This year’s Blues Bash features eight groups, including headliner and regular Blues Bash performer Shun Kikuta, a Japanese musician best known as the former guitarist for female blues legend Koko Taylor. Kikuta left Chicago shortly after Taylor died in 2009, and now divides his time between performing in Japan, the US and Taiwan, where he teaches part-time.
Other performers include Rapier’s band Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), local blues and psychedelic rock mavens the Blues Vibrations, my own group the Muddy Basin Ramblers and Japanese female singer Nacomi, who performs pop and R ’n’ B-infused blues along the lines of Bonnie Raitt. There will also be a short performance from an unusual lineup consisting of a marimba player, Pascal Pons, and a cellist, Frederic Audibert. The two will participate in a blues jam with Kikuta and drummer Chris Wabich, and their performance will set out to demonstrate that blues can be performed on unconventional instruments, Rapier says.
Dreamgirls, which is a lounge bar (yes, it’s named after the movie), may not seem like a first-choice venue for a blues festival, but Rapier says it was the best possible place given the last-minute decision to hold the event. He says that the venue will be making adjustments to accommodate the event by moving out the furniture to give the audience room to dance.
The Blues Society on Taiwan will be selling Asahi beer at NT$100 a can and holding a raffle with prizes that include an electric guitar, harmonicas and hand drums. The event ends at 10:30pm, but the party will continue with a blues jam at Bobwundaye, 77, Heping E Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市和平東路三段77號).
World Music performances at the Red House Theater
Coromandel Express, 7:30pm to 10:30pm, tonight
A Moving Sound, 2:30pm to 5:30pm, tomorrow
Orbit Folks, 7:30pm to 9pm, tomorrow
Address: The Red House Theater (西門紅樓), 10 Chengdu Rd, Taipei City (台北市成都路10號)
Admission: Tickets are NT$500 for each show, and can be purchased online through www.artsticket.com.tw
Blues Bash 8
All shows take place tomorrow night.
Funsong Band, 5:10pm
Taipei Rockets 88, 5:35pm
Kenyatta Funksters, 6pm
BB Cooky and Stevie, 6:25pm
Blues Vibrations, 7pm
David Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers, 7:40pm
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