Contemporary
Legacy Taipei, located in a former warehouse at Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914), hosts top Taiwanese pop performers and international acts. Tonight, garage rock favorites 88 Balaz (88顆芭樂籽) presents a concert, along with Japanese rockers Takayukidan and electronic artist Black Wolf Nakasi (黑狼那卡西). Led by Yu Kuan-hua (于冠華), one of Taiwan’s early rock bands, Starry Eyes (幻眼合唱團), holds a tribute concert honoring late rock legend Hsueh Yueh (薛岳) on Wednesday.
■ Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914), Center Five Hall (中五館), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號)
Photo courtesy of Riverside
■ Shows start at 8pm
■ NT$800 tonight and NT$1,200 on Wednesday. Tickets for the venue’s concerts can be purchased at ERA ticketing outlets, online through www.ticket.com.tw, www.legacy.com.tw and at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks
Indie rockers Mary See The Future (先知瑪莉) celebrates the release of its latest album tonight at The Wall (這牆), Taipei’s most prominent venue for indie rock artists. Tomorrow’s spotlight is on Japanese idol singer Sayaka Akimoto from all-girl group AKB48. Kaohsiung rockers Youth Banana’s (台青蕉樂團) is the main act on Sunday, with hip-hopster activists Kou Chou Ching (拷秋勤) and folk rock group Young David (青春大衛) also on the bill. Based in Brussels and Taipei, dream-electro band Western Moon blends elements of classical, electronic, trip-hop and psychedelic rock on Wednesday, along with electronic outfit Salamader (沙羅曼蛇). It is the release party of dance/rock band Acidy Peeping Tom’s (微酸的偷窺狂) new album on Thursday, joined by B.B.Bomb (BB彈) and Tight Tight Crotch (緊褲襠).
■ B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1), tel: (02) 2930-0162. On the Net: www.thewall.com.tw
■ Shows start at 8pm except tomorrow which begins at 7pm
■ NT$600 tonight, NT$1,800 and NT$1,000 for people with disabilities tomorrow, NT$200 on Sunday and weekdays. Tickets for all shows, with discounts on advance tickets, can be purchased online through www.thewall.com.tw and tickets.books.com.tw
Currently on tour, hardcore/punk outfit Thesameday (平凡生活) makes a stop tonight at indie rock club Revolver, with indie rockers After Quiet and The Roadside Inn also playing. Tomorrow, Funnynoise and punk rockers Birdhelms from Okinawa, Japan join hands with Taiwan’s melodic punk/ska band Hotpink and indie rockers B.B.Bomb (BB彈). Wednesday’s lineup includes pop rock group Lazycall and pop punk outfit Wade 911 (維特911), while shoegaze band Nuin 8 (扭音八), post-rock trio The Capelin (柳葉魚) and psychedelic rock/blues The Robbie Y. Group (羅比楊) appear on Thursday.
■ 1-2, Roosevelt Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路一段1-2號), tel: (02) 3393-1678
■ Shows start at 10pm
■ Entrance is NT$300 tonight, NT$350 tomorrow, NT$200 on weekdays
Alternative/funk group Liou Jiou (六腳) and hardcore/comedy rap artists Appendix Deux-Killers (闌尾雙煞) are scheduled tonight at Roxy Rocker, a basement hangout for indie rockers and fans in Taipei. Rock violin band PlayGround and ClueZ each plays a set tomorrow, followed by indie rockers 30 Years Of Pain (三十萬年老虎鉗) and Japanese rockers Takayukidan on Sunday.
■ B1, 177, Heping E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市和平東路一段177號B1), tel: (02) 2351-8177. On the Net: roxyrocker.com
■ Shows start at 9pm. Roxy Rocker is open daily from 8pm to 4am, closed on Mondays
■ Entrance is NT$200 for all shows
Pipe Live Music, a main venue for indie music and parties, hosts rockers F?cking 5 (告5人) and Boiling Frogs (溫水煮青蛙) tonight. Tomorrow, it is a psychedelic rock night with DJs Angel, Ben, JackE and Koala.
■ 1 Siyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市思源路1號), tel: (02) 2364-8198. On the Net: www.pipemusic.com.tw
■ Show starts at 8pm tonight and 11pm tomorrow
■ Admission is NT$350 tonight and NT$600 tomorrow. Tickets can be purchased online through www.walkieticket.com and at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks and FamilyMart (全家) FamiPort kiosks
Alternative rock outfit Frande (法蘭黛樂團) celebrates the release of its new album tonight at Riverside Live House (河岸留言西門紅樓展演館). Singer and actress Aggie (謝沛恩) and pop musician William Wei Li-an (韋禮安) aka WeiBird are among the performers taking the stage tomorrow. South Korean idol singer Jung Joon Yong arrives on Sunday, while Taiwan’s young crooner Lin Yu-chieh (林郁傑) and Chinese online sensation Duyao (毒藥) are scheduled on Thursday.
■ 177 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路177號), tel: (02) 2370-8805. On the Net: www.riverside.com.tw
■ Shows start at 8pm except Sunday which begins at 7pm
■ Entrance is NT$500 tonight and on Thursday, NT$600 tomorrow, free admission on Sunday with the purchase of VIP package worth NT$1,200. Tickets can be purchased online through www.riverside.com.tw and tickets.books.com.tw
Veteran pop songwriter Shane (曹軒賓) celebrates his debut album tonight at Riverside Cafe (河岸留言), followed by popular reggae/Aboriginal rock group Matzka (瑪斯卡) tomorrow. Sunday’s lineup is formed by post-rock combo 2HRs and progressive rock group Kishikan (既視感). Pop rocker Misi Ke (柯泯薰) plays with The Yugins (于京樂團) on Tuesday, while emo rock band ChicKNUP (奇克拿樂團) and Fang Zhang Band (方丈樂團) gather on Wednesday. It is pop/country/folk band Eagle Baby Band (小老鷹樂團) and pop folk group Blue Box (藍色盒子) on Thursday.
■ B1, 2, Ln 244, Roosevelt Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路三段244巷2號B1), next to Taipower Building (台電大樓), tel: (02) 2368-7310. On the Net: www.riverside.com.tw
■ Shows starts at 9pm except tonight which begins at 8pm
■ Free admission tonight with the purchase of CD, NT$550 tomorrow, NT$350 on Sunday and weekdays. Tickets can be purchased online through www.riverside.com.tw and tickets.books.com.tw
Funk/disco/nu-jazz combo Funky Brothers (放客兄弟) are scheduled tonight at Sappho de Base, a late-night lounge bar that hosts mostly jazz shows. Tomorrow, The Muddy Basin Ramblers (泥灘地浪人) play original songs inspired by the classic sounds of blues songsters, jug bands and swing jazz groups from the early 20th century. Billy the Kid (比利小孩) performs fusion jazz tunes on Wednesday. Jazz musician Peng Yu-wen (彭郁雯) teams up with drummer Lin Wei-chung (林偉中) and horn players Su Shen-yu (蘇聖育).
■ B1, 1, Ln 102, Anhe Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市安和路一段102巷1號B1), tel: (02) 2700-5411. On the Net: www.sappho102.biz
■ Shows start at 9:30pm. Closed Mondays
■ Entrance is NT$200 for all shows
Young crooner Christ (伍澤) appears tonight at A House, a venue dedicated to a cappella with a focus on classical, jazz and world music. Ars Nova Trio (新藝術三重奏) perform tomorrow.
■ 18, Alley 5, Ln 107, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段107巷5弄18號), tel: (02) 2778-8612. On the Net: ahouse.vocalasia.com
■ Shows start at 8pm
■ NT$350 tonight and NT$400 tomorrow, available online through www.walkieticket.com and at 7-Eleven ibon and FamilyMart (全家) FamiPort kiosks. Admission includes one drink
Zamar (薩瑪合唱團) plays eclectic music ranging from jazz, rock to Aboriginal and African beats tonight at Tiehua Music Village (鐵花村), an arts village composed of a music venue, design and crafts shops and a weekend arts fair in Taitung City. Tomorrow, the indie rock IGU Band (那我懂你意思了) shares the stage with indigenous group The Sun Goes Down (太陽下山).
■ 26, Ln 135 Sinsheng Rd, Taitung City (台東市新生路135巷26號), tel: (089) 343-393. On the Net: www.tw.streetvoice.com/users/tiehua
■ Shows start at 8pm. Music venue and crafts shops are open 2pm to 10pm Tuesdays through Sundays. Weekend arts fair opens 6pm to 10pm every Friday, 3:30pm to 10pm every Saturday and Sunday
■ Admission is NT$250 tonight and NT$350 tomorrow. Tickets can be purchased online through tickets.books.com.tw
The Wall (這牆) programs regular live rock shows at Kaohsiung’s Pier 2 Arts Center (高雄駁二藝術特區). The indie rock IGU Band (那我懂你意思了) travels to the harbor city tonight, while it is top indie act 1976 and alternative rock band PUMPKINney Fan Club (南瓜妮歌迷俱樂部) on Sunday.
■ 1 Dayong Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市大勇路1號), tel: (07) 521-5148. On the Net: www.thewall.com.tw
■ Shows start at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$450 tonight and NT$600 on Sunday. Tickets can be purchased at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks, www.books.com.tw and www.indievox.com
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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