A common complaint about Triangle, the offshoot of The Wall and Korner located in Yuanshan Expo Park, is that it’s been hit-and-miss since it opened five months ago. But last Saturday for Bass Kitchen’s Deep Fried House #8, Triangle was a grand-slam home run as punters squeezed into the intimate area to pack the dance floor and lose their minds to the slowed-down disco grooves of Eddie C. The mood was so upbeat that smiles spilled out of Triangle onto the picnic table and merry-go-round areas until the sun came up.
Eddie C (real name Edward Currelly), had as much fun as anyone at the party. “The party in Taipei was really fantastic,” he said in an e-mail interview. “I was totally surprised with the crowd, the venue and the DJs! Big!”
With a few days of downtime before he plays in Greater Kaohsiung tomorrow at ROCKS, Eddie C has been enjoying himself in Taiwan. “I tried stinky tofu tonight for the first time. It’s pretty disgusting but perhaps my palate is immature,” he said. “We found a pretty incredible reggae truck bar on the side of the road down here [in Kenting]. The owner, Ellis, made some great drinks and played some roots rock while about 1,300 school kids on a bus trip walked by us with almost everyone saying hello. I know maybe two words in Chinese so there was a lot of remedial banter. Ellis was deejaying and bartending at the same time, which is a respectable skill.”
Photo courtesy of Love City Central
One of the reasons everyone was having such a blast on Saturday night was because Eddie C still uses vinyl, which many purists say sounds better than CDs or MP3s. “I’ve said this before in other interviews, but my favorite way music sounded was when I recorded from the radio onto cassette,” Eddie C said. “When I first started buying records of the music I heard on the radio, I remember being disappointed with the sound. These days I’m completely in love with record store culture. I totally don’t mind what format anyone chooses to play music but without a doubt vinyl is the best. I’ve been completely addicted since I was a kid and don’t think I’ll stop any time soon.”
Raquell Yang (楊侶芝) has booked Eddie C to play at her WeAre party tomorrow with an eye to broadening people’s horizons.
“Too many people who play music for the clubs in the south are forced by owners or event organizers to pepper a set number of pre-selected hits into their sets,” she said. “Owners would rather play it safe and are scared to challenge their customers with something they’re not used to. Whether for money or not, this has created a musical staleness in the south that doesn’t reflect the talent that exists here. Instead of the DJ educating the crowd with the musical knowledge he should be credited with, he or she is made to bow down to the musical retrogression of those who haven’t spent most of their lives dedicated to music.”
The point of the WeAre parties is to show that the amalgamation of music and art can equal fun. “WeAre pays tribute to a broad variety of art forms including music, painting, sculpture, graffiti and tattooing,” Yang said. “We put all of these together into one night, giving each form a chance to influence the others.”
She added: “Our goals are to break people out of their shells, to show people that art can be combined with music and nightlife, and that art doesn’t have to be confined to quiet galleries. We want to show that the Kaohsiung nightlife can be more than just clubs and arena parties and that we, in southern Taiwan, can be creative.”
■ WeAre Party. Music and Interactive Art (音樂、繪畫及互動藝術派對) is tomorrow from 10pm till 4am at ROCKS, 219 Juguang St, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市鹽埕區莒光街219號B1). Admission is NT$300 and includes a drink.
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