Earlier this year, Michael Burkett, singer for San Francisco punk band NOFX, called Kevin Lee of Consider the Meek and asked if he thought their bands, who were preparing to tour together in Japan, should play a show in Taiwan. As the founder of one of the country's more active expat bands, Lee had seen lots of overseas groups visit Taiwan and knew it could be hit or miss. "If you're happy to play in front of 300 people, I think we could do that," he remembers telling Burkett.
Burkett said that wouldn't be enough. But he called back a day later and asked if Lee thought 400 people might show up. Lee said it was worth a shot and NOFX booked a gig at Taipei live house The Wall (這牆) with Consider the Meek and Hong Kong's King Lychee (荔枝王). The show was so successful - it sold out - that NOFX put on another show the following night. "After NOFX we were like, 'We can do this again - and there's no reason we can't do this all the time,'" Lee said.
Consider the Meek - a political punk band whose album Dream Up a Threat has sold 4,000 copies, mostly in Japan - were thinking of leaving Taiwan to find a more developed market for their music in Europe or Australia. Instead, they decided to give it one more try and have organized this weekend's Antipop!, which they hope will be the first of a series of concerts that expose Taiwanese audiences and bands to musicians from other parts of Asia and in the process jump-start a more vibrant local underground music scene.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TAIWAN LEEK RECORDS
"We're hoping that we can bring overseas bands to create interest for supporting independent music, learn from bands who have done this before and try to build some solidarity with bands," Lee said.
Lack of solidarity is one of the main reasons Taiwan's independent music scene, despite rapid improvement in areas like songwriting, hasn't grown as quickly as the country's dance music industry. (Another major reason is that most bands don't stay together long enough to build a following: Many Taiwanese bands don't survive when members have to perform military service. Bands with foreigners break up when someone leaves the country.)
Instead of working together to organize concerts and promote themselves at each other's shows, young rock groups sign up for gigs at bars and clubs, tell their friends and hand out a few fliers. One rarely sees music venues aggressively plugging performances, much less bands aggressively advertising themselves.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TAIWAN LEEK RECORDS
When Consider the Meek visited Japan, they were exposed to a completely different world. "In Japan we were surrounded by promoters and surrounded by the live houses who wanted to sell our shows," Lee said. "So many bands are able to pull off really great shows and sell records because they have the backing. They have promoters and record labels that are in the scene and want to promote the scene. People feel like there's a buzz gong on. People want to go to your show."
Antipop! - which kicks off tonight, with the first of two shows at APA Lounge 808 in Ximending (西門町) - is an attempt to foster a similar buzz in Taiwan. Participating bands include Japanese all-girl punk band Akiakane, Consider the Meek, The Hindsight (光景消逝), Faded Moment, and Rabbit is Rich (兔子很有錢). Consider the Meek and Akiakane travel to Taichung on Sunday for a third show at Groovecity.
Groovecity and Lounge 808 were chosen because they don't take a large cut of revenues. Cover prices were kept low to attract a larger audience. Profits will be used to pay for Akiakane's airfare and other expenses. As of Wednesday, more than 80 tickets had already been sold for the Taipei shows. A surprisingly large number, Lee said, were purchased by foreigners.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TAIWAN LEEK RECORDS
Lee said he knows lots of other Japanese bands who are eager to play in Taiwan but can't afford to foot the bill themselves. "If this weekend is successful we'll announce a new show next week."
Antipop! Tour
Tonight at 7pm
The Hindsight(光景消逝)
Consider the Meek
Akiakane (Japan)
Where: APA Lounge 808, 6F, 152, Zhonghua Rd Sec 1, Taipei
(台北市中華路一段152號6樓).
Call (02) 2381-5378 for more information
Tickets: NT$350 presale or NT$450 at the door
Tomorrow at 7pm
Faded Moment
Rabbit is Rich (兔子很有錢)
Consider the Meek
Akiakane (Japan)
Where: APA Lounge 808, 6F, 152, Zhonghua Rd Sec 1, Taipei
(台北市中華路一段152號6樓).
Call (02) 2381-5378 for more information
Tickets: NT$350 presale or NT$450 at the door
Sunday at 7:30pm
Consider the Meek
Akiakane (Japan)
Where: Groovecity, inside Tiger City (台中老虎城旁停車場)at 120, Henan Rd Sec 3, Taichung
(台中市河南路三段120號老虎城).
Call 0939-574-737 for more information
Tickets: NT$200 presale or NT$300 at the door
Note: Tickets can be purchased online by writing to leekrecords@hotmail.com, calling Greg at 0986-867-774 at the venues. Presale tickets are available online and at the venues until doors open
In 1990, Amy Chen (陳怡美) was beginning third grade in Calhoun County, Texas, as the youngest of six and the only one in her family of Taiwanese immigrants to be born in the US. She recalls, “my father gave me a stack of typed manuscript pages and a pen and asked me to find typos, missing punctuation, and extra spaces.” The manuscript was for an English-learning book to be sold in Taiwan. “I was copy editing as a child,” she says. Now a 42-year-old freelance writer in Santa Barbara, California, Amy Chen has only recently realized that her father, Chen Po-jung (陳伯榕), who
When nature calls, Masana Izawa has followed the same routine for more than 50 years: heading out to the woods in Japan, dropping his pants and doing as bears do. “We survive by eating other living things. But you can give faeces back to nature so that organisms in the soil can decompose them,” the 74-year-old said. “This means you are giving life back. What could be a more sublime act?” “Fundo-shi” (“poop-soil master”) Izawa is something of a celebrity in Japan, publishing books, delivering lectures and appearing in a documentary. People flock to his “Poopland” and centuries-old wooden “Fundo-an” (“poop-soil house”) in
For anyone on board the train looking out the window, it must have been a strange sight. The same foreigner stood outside waving at them four different times within ten minutes, three times on the left and once on the right, his face getting redder and sweatier each time. At this unique location, it’s actually possible to beat the train up the mountain on foot, though only with extreme effort. For the average hiker, the Dulishan Trail is still a great place to get some exercise and see the train — at least once — as it makes its way
Each week, whenever she has time off from her marketing job, Ida Jia can be found at Shanghai Disneyland queuing for hours to spend a few minutes with Linabell, a fluffy pink fox with big blue eyes. The 29-year-old does not go empty handed, bringing pink fox soft toys dressed in ornate custom-made outfits to show the life-sized character, as well as handmade presents as gifts. Linabell, which made its debut in Shanghai in 2021, is helping Disney benefit from a rapidly growing market in China for merchandise related to toys, games, comics and anime, which remained popular with teenagers and young
RSS