VIEW THIS PAGE The lead singer’s hips pound out the rhythm, his head thrashes droplets of sweat onto the screaming faces of girls bopping along madly to the music, and as the guitarist rips a riff out from between the legs of a showgirl, the crowd goes into a frenzy. It feels like a time warp back to Elvis’ heyday. It makes you want to run away and join the circus.
The Deadly Vibes — lead singer and guitarist Jason Copps, and twin brothers JD and JT Long, on guitar and drums respectively — know how to put on a show. They want this weekend to have a “complete carnival feeling,” said Copps. “We’re trying to break down borders between bands and the audience.”
They have been on a break since touring Japan in December, recording new material and getting ready for this weekend’s second annual Rock ’n’ Roll Circus, before retiring again to prepare for a tour of Europe at the end of next month.
“We can’t just play shows every month [in Taiwan]; it’s too small, there aren’t enough venues,” said JT Long, in an interview last week. The Deadly Vibes have toured in China and Korea, and are putting on the Rock ’n’ Roll Circus in Taichung and Taipei tonight and tomorrow.
The Vibes have lined up bands, dancers, a burlesque show, and a dance contest for the audience.
Usually twins JT and JD Long have their mother help out with producing their band T-shirts, but this year the design is too risque — a sexy retro girl posing — so they did it on their own. What is the obsession with the pulp fiction pinup girls that features prominently on their fliers, CDs and T-shirts? “They’re hot!” said Copps.
“We’re a little bit retro,” said JT Long. “It’s classy, like when rock and roll first started, when girls first started modeling their sexy lingerie.” Last year some people “didn’t really get it, didn’t know what burlesque was,” he said. “Some guy in Tainan was like, ‘Hey I heard there were going to be some strippers,’ and I had to tell him, no, it’s a real show, it’s not strippers.”
New troupe Rock In Hose Burlesque will make its debut this weekend at the circus.
Lustsluts Burlesque, the Hualien-based troupe that performed last year, has disbanded, but it was a huge inspiration to the formation of this new, Taipei-based group (I know because I’m a member).
Copps said this year they worked on getting bands with energetic showmanship. JT Long said when they see a band, they know if it’s “circus material.”
The Vibes met The Drexel while on tour and convinced them to come to Taiwan for the shows. Their sound is “clean rockabilly like when Elvis first started,” said Copps.
Metal band Chrome Relic performs both covers and original tunes, and dress up “like ’80s rockers with Twisted Sister wigs and cut-off jean shorts,” said JT Long.
He elaborated on the concept: “It’s not just a musical performance, your body’s in there ... we’ve been together for five years and it’s not about ‘can I play the drums or can he play guitar’ anymore. It’s about getting up there — we write songs together, and it’s a feeling when we get on stage where you completely get into the show.”
They want to do something different, said Copps: “it’s a chance for people who are shy to have fun and do some stupid stuff … to get involved.” JT Long remembers when Copps first said he wanted to “do a show with all this going on, not just rock and roll” and “get people that don’t normally go out” to do so. “The circus thing attracts all kinds of people,” he said, and is “definitely getting a name.”
“It’s like Halloween but in the middle of March,” said Copps. VIEW THIS PAGE
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