For true rock fans around Taiwan who are tired of the cheesy soft rock and pop that blare from every street corner and alley, there's relief around the corner this weekend.
On Sunday, Steve Vai, the legendary hard rock guitarist will arrive in Taiwan for his third visit to the country. He will perform at the Taipei International Convention Center at 7:30pm.
The solo recording artist has worldwide sales of more than 2.7 million and he has played with luminaries such as Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, as well picking up two Grammy awards and a slew of other honors from around the world. His upcoming album, Real Illusions, is due out in February next year.
The musician Frank Zappa once dubbed "my little Italian virtuoso" has enjoyed popularity all over the world, and Taiwan is no exception. Fan Charlie Lee (李宥魴) describes Vai as both mysterious and noble, like a magician who can be both righteous and evil.
"I purely like his music -- his guitar can really grab your heart," said Gina, another Vai fan.
From his first solo album Flex-Able to his recent Alive in an Ultra World -- which incorporates unique sounds from numerous countries -- Vai has always aspired to produce a sound that's different from other rock gods.
One of Vai's finest moments was in July 2002, when he performed renowned Japanese composer Ichiro Nodaira's Fire Strings with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
Accompanying Steve will be a handpicked lineup of outsanding musicians, including famed bass guitarist Billy Sheehan along with Tony MacAlpine on guitar and keyboards, Dave Weiner on rhythm guitar and Jeremy Colson on drums.
Steve will be rocking out on his guitar, dubbed "Evo, "with a list of mainly instrumentals, including the classic Whispering a Prayer.
Last night, Rock Empire said 2,900 out of 3,000 tickets had been sold already. The remaining tickets, priced from NT$1,000 to NT$2,200 may be purchased online at www.rockempire.com.tw or by phone at (02) 2723 2535. The doors open at 6:30pm.
Has the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) changed under the leadership of Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)? In tone and messaging, it obviously has, but this is largely driven by events over the past year. How much is surface noise, and how much is substance? How differently party founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) would have handled these events is impossible to determine because the biggest event was Ko’s own arrest on multiple corruption charges and being jailed incommunicado. To understand the similarities and differences that may be evolving in the Huang era, we must first understand Ko’s TPP. ELECTORAL STRATEGY The party’s strategy under Ko was
Before the recall election drowned out other news, CNN last month became the latest in a long line of media organs to report on abuses of migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing fleet. After a brief flare of interest, the news media moved on. The migrant worker issues, however, did not. CNN’s stinging title, “Taiwan is held up as a bastion of liberal values. But migrant workers report abuse, injury and death in its fishing industry,” was widely quoted, including by the Fisheries Agency in its response. It obviously hurt. The Fisheries Agency was not slow to convey a classic government
It’s Aug. 8, Father’s Day in Taiwan. I asked a Chinese chatbot a simple question: “How is Father’s Day celebrated in Taiwan and China?” The answer was as ideological as it was unexpected. The AI said Taiwan is “a region” (地區) and “a province of China” (中國的省份). It then adopted the collective pronoun “we” to praise the holiday in the voice of the “Chinese government,” saying Father’s Day aligns with “core socialist values” of the “Chinese nation.” The chatbot was DeepSeek, the fastest growing app ever to reach 100 million users (in seven days!) and one of the world’s most advanced and
It was on his honeymoon in Kuala Lumpur, looking out of his hotel window at the silvery points of the world’s tallest twin skyscrapers, that Frank decided it was time to become taller. He had recently confessed to his new wife how much his height had bothered him since he was a teenager. As a man dedicated to self-improvement, Frank wanted to take action. He picked up the phone, called a clinic in Turkey that specializes in leg lengthening surgery — and made a booking. “I had a lot of second thoughts — at the end of the day, someone’s going
RSS