Contemporary
The Wall (這牆), Taipei’s most prominent venue for indie rock artists, hosts punk rock group Take This! (出招合唱團), psychedelic folk/grunge combo WSSM (午休失眠) and Hong Kong’s emo/math rockers Emptybottles tomorrow.
■ 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
Photo courtesy of Boxing
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$550, available online through thewall.tw and tickets.books.com.tw.
All-women folk/math rock outfit GDJYB (雞蛋蒸肉餅) from Hong Kong arrives at indie music venue APA Mini (小地方展演空間) tonight. Japanese black metal act Basilisk hits the stage tomorrow, supported by Taiwan’s death/grind band Ashen and death metal group Manum. Sunday’s show is by pop/hard rock band NeverMind.
Photo courtesy of Lin Shen-lun
■ B1,147, Hangzhou S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市杭州南路一段147號B1), tel: (02) 2327-8658. On the Net: www.facebook.com/apamini
■ Show starts at 8pm tonight and on Sunday, 6pm tomorrow
■ Admission is NT$450 tonight, NT$600 tomorrow, NT$350 on Sunday, available through www.indievox.com
Photo courtesy of WSSM
It is live music with punk rockers Landman (殘僑仔), Lonely Elmo and The Last Hope (最後希望) tonight at Pipe Live Music, a main venue for indie music and parties. On Sunday, Rain and Picture mixes J-rock with punk and post-rock beats, along with Losers and Broken Drumsticks (鼓棒斷了).
■ 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 7:30pm tonight and 7pm on Sunday
■ Admission is NT$350. Tickets for the venue’s concerts can be purchased online through www.walkieticket.com, www.indievox.com and at 7-Eleven ibon and FamilyMart (全家) FamiPort kiosks
JJ & the Catz plays an eclectic collection of blues, jazz, latin and reggae tonight at Bobwundaye (無問題), a small pub on Heping East Road (和平東路) in Taipei. Alternative rock group Aerial Recall is among the performers tomorrow.
■ 77, Heping E Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市和平東路三段77號), tel: (02) 2377-1772
■ Shows start at 10pm
■ Admission is NT$300
Singer-songwriter Garam Heo and ukulele player Morrison Wu (吳書延) form the lineup tonight at Witch House (女巫店), an intimate coffeehouse-style venue in the National Taiwan University area. Tomorrow’s roster are progressive rock/sadcore act Figure Ground (人形觀點樂團) and Anie Fann (范安婷), followed by solo act Bruno Ben (班林) and Wenhe (文河) on Thursday.
■ 7, Ln 56, Xinsheng S Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生南路三段56巷7號), tel: (02) 2362-5494. On the Net: www.witchhouse.org
■ Shows start at 9:30pm. Restaurant/bar with queer/feminist bookstore and large collection of board games, open 11am to midnight Sundays through Wednesdays, 11am to 1am Thursdays through Saturdays
■ Entrance for music shows is NT$350
Our Piano Trio play original songs and jazz standards tonight at Riverside Cafe (河岸留言), while baritone guitarist Huang Chin-sheng (黃欽聖) performs on Sunday. Tuesday’s lineup is composed of instrumental group Sandbox (沙盒樂團) and Our Young (奧肖年), followed by young rockers Crockers (鱷魚) and The Exit (非常口) on Wednesday. Solo act Sam Liao (廖士賢) shares the stage with The Vanquish (范克希) 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 start at 9pm except for tonight which begins at 9:30pm
■ Admission is NT$400 tonight, NT$350 on Sunday and weekdays. Tickets available through www.indievox.com and tickets.books.com.tw
The Rocksteady Quintet presents a night of bebop featuring music by Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and Miles Davis tonight at Sappho Live, a late-night lounge bar that hosts mostly jazz shows. Crossover ensemble Not a Lady plays tomorrow. Naming itself after the popular Latin song Quimbara, Quimba’laaaa’ (金芭樂拉丁樂團) plays Latin music and Taiwanese songs with a hint of Latin flavor on Thursday.
■ 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.sappholive.com
■ Shows start at 9:30pm
■ Entrance is NT$400 tonight and tomorrow, NT$200 on Thursday
Singing duo Playground (慢慢說) croon tomorrow at There Cafe & Live House (那兒咖啡), a venue for indie music in Taoyuan.
■ B1, 454, Fusing Rd, Taoyuan City (桃園市復興路454號B1), tel: (03) 339-8819. On the Net: www.therelivecafe.com
■ Show starts at 7:30pm
■ Admission is NT$400. Tickets can be purchased online through tickets.books.com.tw and www.indievox.com
Tomorrow, Sound Live House (迴響音樂藝文展演空間), an independent venue for music and art exhibitions in Taichung, hosts an electronic party featuring Conehead (錐頭), Mengting Xie (謝孟庭) and Jade Eyes (孔雀眼). It is a punk night on Sunday with Noise Book from Taoyuan and Taipei’s pop punk band Mix Party (混合派對).
■ B1-1, 429, Henan Rd Sec 2, Taichung City (台中市河南路二段429號B1-1), tel: (04) 2451-1989. On the Net: soundlivehouse.msmusic.com.tw
■ Shows start at 7pm
■ Admission is NT$350. Tickets for the venue’s concerts can be purchased online through www.indievox.com
Yuchain (昱辰), the lead singer from folk rock group Green!Eyes, plays an acoustic show with a couple of jazz musician friends at Forro Cafe (呼嚕咖啡) in Taichung on Sunday.
■ 47, Jingcheng 3rd St, Taichung City (台中市精誠三街47號), tel: (04) 2310-1661. On the Net: forrocafe.blogspot.tw
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$350. Tickets for the venue’s concerts can be purchased online through www.indievox.com
Indie-folk musician Huang Jie (黃玠) comes to Legacy Taichung, a spin-off of Legacy Taipei, tomorrow.
■ 117, Anhe Rd, Taichung City (台中市安和路117號), tel: (04) 2359-8780. On the Net: www.legacy.com.tw/taichung.
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$800. Tickets for the venue’s concerts can be purchased online through www.indievox.com and at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks
Tonight’s main act at TCRC (前科累累俱樂部), a small venue for independent musicians and local artists in Tainan, is Emptybottles, a three-piece emo band from Hong Kong.
■ B1, 314, Simen Rd Sec 2, Tainan City (台南市西門路二段314號B1), tel: (06) 222 3238.
■ Show starts at 5:30pm
■ Admission is NT$400, available at www.indievox.com
Taipei indie rock trio Sunset Rollercoaster (落日飛車) and folk rock combo Green!Eyes each play a set tonight at Live Warehouse, a main venue for indie music located inside Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Arts Center (駁二藝術特區). Electronic folk ensemble WWWW (落差草原) plays tomorrow. Sunday’s spotlight is on Mando-pop singer Bai An (白安).
■ 2-5 Dayi Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市大義街2-5號), tel: (07) 521-8114. On the Net: livewarehouse.tw.
■ Shows start at 7:30pm
■ Entrance is NT$350 tonight and tomorrow, NT$500 on Sunday. Tickets can be purchased online through tickets.books.com.tw.
Taichung rockers Nowhere appear at In Our Time, a restaurant-cum-gallery located inside Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Arts Center (駁二藝術特區), tonight. Skyline (天際線融合爵士樂團) plays fusion jazz tomorrow.
■ 99, Penglai Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市蓬萊路99號), tel: (07) 521-0017
■ Show starts at 8pm tonight and 7:30pm tomorrow
■ Admission is NT$200, available through www.indievox.com
Paiwan folk/blues musician Danubak (毛恩足) shares the stage with indigenous folk rocker Balai (巴賴) 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. Paiwan hip-hop artists Boxing (拳樂團) take the stage tomorrow.
■ 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 available at tickets.books.com.tw
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and