While last week's long electronica lineup promised diversity, it posed a problem for those seeking the standard partying prerequisite: attendees.
Although established venues such as Roxy 99, which offers punters four free drinks and no cover on Wednesdays, and Luxy continue to thrive, the independent music nights are crying out for attention.
Is all this choice too much of a good thing?
PHOTO COURTESY OF GREGORY DION RUSSELL
"It really is getting hard to choose where to go with a smorgasbord of decent parties being promoted to death every week," said Gregory Dion Russell, 30, from New Zealand, who promotes for Roxy Vibe Live [see story on Page 14 of today's Taipei Times], VU Livehouse, Center Stage, Bliss and drum 'n' bass night Konkrete Jungle at Ageha. "There seems to be an influx of new venues ... That means more parties being put on ... People are being split up. Simple as that."
A case in point was Saturday's Summer Clash at Tonghsiao Beach Resort (通宵海洋渡假村) in Miaoli, which featured two deejay rigs, a stunning location and top deejays such as Saucey, Paul Energy and Michael Ohlsson of Shanghai Antidote fame, who dropped a splendid rock-based set.
Competing with Summer Swank's pool party and The Freak Show in Taipei, plus Rising at Liquid Lounge in Taichung, Clash's attendance fell in the low hundreds. This wasn't the case a few years ago when thousands regularly cut loose at all-night beach raves.
After featuring in the Vinyl Word two weeks ago lauding the proliferation of parties, Marcus Aurelius, who recently returned from Shanghai, has modified his opinion. "I do agree that there is an over-saturation of events happening at the moment ... ," he said. "Most weekends have two or three things happening and not enough time to check them out."
In a marketplace where competition for predominance prevails, if the big players are doing a roaring trade but independent nights struggle to survive, the pendulum could swing in the opposite direction.
"I think it is important that there is a large underbelly of people [who are] discontent with the usual stuff you will hear in a lot of clubs," said Russell. "To 95 percent of club owners, the attraction of earning wads of cash far exceeds the drive to introduce people to more alternative yet musically rewarding genres such as drum and bass, dub, funk, or 2-step … Competing with the big clubs is tricky though, so smaller clubs should try for a different niche if possible."
Promotion is key. In the age of viral marketing, Facebook and other Web sites have superseded flyers as the media of choice for party promoters. But social networking sites often target people who already know about a particular venue and event, or are already members of a related group.
Although the Internet appears to be a wonderful tool for proclaiming the party message, there is a danger that it preaches only to the converted. New blood is arriving all the time in Taiwan and dance music fans want to feel connected to the scene, not just be a name on a members' list.
Although Swank deejay couple 3b and Kriz are leaving next week for a new life in Prague after 15 years and eight years, respectively, in Taiwan, and the Vinyl Word is sure that thanks and love go out from the many who know them as gold medallist partiers, promoters and deejays, it was refreshingly old school to see them on Friday night on their push bikes, baskets full of flyers, doing the rounds of the local hang-outs in Taichung promoting their last party here.
The Internet's impact on party promoting could spawn numerous high-brow explanations, but Aurelius may have a point when he says that … "a majority of people goes out looking for one thing: the opposite sex. If your party doesn't have that, no matter how great the music is, then you are a dead fish in the water."
The Vinyl Word: See you at Vibe.
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