Consider the Meek frontman Kevin Lee said he would announce a second Antipop! tour sometime this week if the first one, three punk rock shows held in Taipei and Taichung over the weekend, was a success. He didn't have to wait that long. Before seeing what kind of crowd last night's concert at Groovecity in Taichung would draw, he had already committed to organizing a second round. "We got great feedback [from Friday and Saturday's shows]. Everybody was really happy and wondering when our next show would be," Lee said yesterday evening in a phone interview before the doors opened at Groovecity. "Because of the buzz it created, we don't want to wait too long. We're hoping to get something organized in six or seven weeks."
Lee and bandmates Greg Russell and Sharm Rowland organized the Antipop! tour, which visited Taipei for two shows Friday and Saturday at the APA Lounge 808 in Ximending before heading to Taichung for a final show last night, to foster more interaction between Taiwanese and other Asian bands and help jump-start a more vibrant underground music scene here. In addition to their band, the lineup included The Hindsight (光景消逝), Rabbit Is Rich (兔子很有錢) and Faded Moment from Taiwan, and all-girl Japanese punk band Akiakane.
Judging from Saturday night's show - it packed more than 60 people into a space designed to hold 50 and somehow still had room left over for a decent-sized mosh pit - the market is ready. Tickets sold out, and overall attendance for both of the Taipei shows was "just over 100," Lee said, which meant that the most important goal - paying for Akiakane's airplane tickets and hotel rooms - was reached when the tour was only two–thirds of the way through.
PHOTO: STEVE LEGGAT
On Saturday, Lounge 808 was nearly full by the time Rabbit Is Rich - a relative newcomer to the Taipei pub scene with a sound that's reminiscent of the White Stripes, if the White Stripes sung in Mandarin and had a female vocalist - took the stage for a surprisingly tight set. The moshing then began in earnest when hardcore activists Consider the Meek followed with a politically charged performance featuring songs that had the crowd chanting "Fuck Bush!" and "[China] don't threaten Taiwan!" Akiakane finished things off with the night's most impressively loud display, a long set that had the crowd jumping up and down and slipping across the beer-soaked floor. "Akiakane said they were surprised," Lee said. "They didn't expect to have such a big response from the crowd. They always thought of Taiwanese crowds as being shy."
Jarrod McClay, who arrived in time to see the last two bands, was also impressed. "It was a good amount of people for the space," he said. "The crowd was super-friendly; everyone was talking outside." "Ridiculously cheap booze - that was fantastic," he added.
Antipop! felt like a real punk concert. It was loud, hot, the lighting was superb, and the audience was as enthusiastic as the artists. Consider the Meek set out to create the kind of buzz they experienced when they toured Japan earlier this year. And they succeeded.
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
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
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