It’s been said before that for a city of several million people (including the metro area), Taipei is woefully short of live music venues, and it bears repeating. Local and expat underground musicians alike are left with few options between high-cost places such as The Wall or Legacy, and smaller, more modestly appointed joints like Revolver for the rock et al crowd and Sappho for the jazz heads.
The recent addition of the mid-sized Jack’s Studio (杰克音樂) in Ximending (西門町) has been a welcome boon, mostly to the metal and punk scene. But for the most part, Taipei is still a city desperate for some new cultural havens to replace those dearly departed dives like Underworld (地下社會) and APA Lounge 808 (阿帕808) — places that will foster the creative community at the grassroots level.
Though by no means a dive — quite the contrary, in fact — Cafe Vergismeinnich (Cafe V for non-German speakers) is at least one place that has stepped in to fill the widening void. The vintage-themed German cafe has been hosting live jazz and unplugged performances since the middle of last year.
Photo courtesy of Natalie Kohle.
The cozy, warm atmosphere was expertly cultivated by Taiwanese interior designer Huang Ching-pin (黃景彬) and German academic Natalie Kohle. The two met in Taiwan when Kohle first arrived in 2011 on a research fellowship for Chinese history. In exploring the burgeoning vintage interior furnishing and decoration scene in Taipei, the two often fantasized about how they would deck out their own establishment. Three years later, they managed to bring the daydream to life. The first year was a struggle for survival, but in that time, the little cafe found its niche as a new venue for live music.
“Our first live show was played by Miss Rose,” says Kohle on how the cafe’s new identity was born. “Rose’s show was such a success that it convinced us to try to turn our place into a music venue.”
Since then, the cafe has taken to hosting events every week. One of the regularly featured performers is Canadian singer/songwriter Arman Torus. For him, putting a dent in the dearth of places to play is indeed welcome.
Photo courtesy of Axel Schunn.
“The owner and his partner are wonderful people,” he says of his experiences playing there since October last year. “They always treat the musicians to a dinner and look after their best interests. It is so comfortable that I joke with my wife that I’d stay here overnight and sleep on the couches. It means a lot to have a new place to play.”
■ Cafe Vergismeinnich, 92, Aiguo E Rd, Taipei City (台北市愛國東路92號), plays host to singer/songwriter Miss Rose tonight and Eugenia tomorrow night. Music on both nights starts at 7pm. Admission includes a minimum charge of NT$150 on drinks.
Also on this weekend is the annual Tainan May Jam (台南五月音樂季). There are many parallels between the event and the aforementioned cafe a few hundred kilometers to the north. For one, both are run by Germans, with the May Jam headed in part by long-time Tainan resident Axel Schunn. For another, both are very much founded in the spirit of growing culture at the organic level, rather than taking a more corporate or business-like approach.
Though perhaps less high-profile than other annual festivals in Taiwan such as Spring Scream (春天吶喊), the May Jam has been running for nearly as long, with the first one kicking off in 2000. In that time, the philosophy behind the festival hasn’t changed. Schunn says it’s always been about friends and family getting together to relax and take in some music in a casual, laid-back setting.
“As the theme of May Jam has been for years now; Bands for Friends, Friends for Bands, a warm atmosphere of people that are passionate about music but at the same time enjoy the company of their friends, family and fellow musicians and their families.”
Over the years, Schunn has observed the other notable music festivals that have taken off around Taiwan, and taken lessons from what he’s seen.
“Bigger is not necessarily better, meaning more stages,” he says of the ethos formed over 15 years of putting on the festival. “In order to be a sustainable music event, it is of paramount importance that it needs to be firmly rooted in our local community.”
And so what we have with the May Jam is a music festival that is not divorced from the surrounding environment — that is, it does not exist in spite of all that Tainan represents as a city, but rather one that is fostered by its environs. For Schunn, Tainan — a city that very much has two feet firmly planted on the ground — has given rise to a festival with a similar cultural mentality.
“The people in Tainan are very much involved with the environment that surrounds them. People are more down to the earth here, less disconnected from the land on which they live. That in itself brings a very different element to the event.”
■ The Tainan May Jam takes place tomorrow and Sunday at Hutoupi Scenic Area (虎頭埤風景區), 36, Zhongxing Rd, Ln 42, Tainan (台南市中興路42巷36號). Admission is NT$40. Bands hit the stage at noon and continue into the evening.
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