Taipei enjoyed a first-class lineup of modern rock last week, as a handful of international acts brought their shows here en route to Japan’s Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic and festivals in South Korea.
The week started off with a highly anticipated appearance on Sunday by Canadian indie rockers Broken Social Scene, in a one-off concert presented by White Wabbit Records (小白兔唱片).
Brit-rock fans got their fill from psychedelic pop band Kula Shaker, which performed on Monday, and former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown, who played at Legacy Taipei on Friday as part of the TWinkle Rock Festival.
But the highlight for many concertgoers were stadium shows from trip-hop legends Massive Attack and electronica duo Pet Shop Boys, who headlined the festival at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Nangang Exhibition Hall (台北世界貿易中心南港展覽館).
The two concerts offered a stark contrast in mood and atmosphere. Massive Attack’s show on Wednesday was dark and brooding. Pet Shop Boys, who performed on Thursday, were flamboyant and jubilant. Both shows were visually spectacular and smoothly executed.
MASSIVE ATTACK
Massive Attack’s five-piece band provided a solid root for the evening’s downbeat, dub-flavored music, directed by group founders Robert del Naja, aka 3D, who sang on many of the evening’s songs, and Grant Marshall, aka Daddy G, who kept a low-key presence on stage.
Martina Topley Bird, best known for her work with trip-hop icon Tricky, featured in many songs during Massive Attack’s two-hour set. The British singer, who donned a masquerade mask on stage, also opened the show with an impressive solo performance as a one-woman trip-hop band, beat-boxing her beats into a loop machine and laying down orchestration on a synthesizer while she sang.
But it was the band’s rotating guest vocalists who drew the strongest responses from the crowd. Roots reggae legend Horace Andy elicited a wild cheering on You Are My Angel, while Deborah Miller brought the house down with a soulful rendition of the group’s signature tune Unfinished Sympathy.
Massive Attack’s stage was adorned with dark-hued lighting and shadows, which underlined the concert’s political tone. The visual centerpiece was a set of life-sized LED screens behind the performers, one of which ran a cable TV news-like ticker, flashing a long list of facts, statistics and trivia that included quotes on freedom from Jean-Paul Satre, John F. Kennedy and Noam Chomsky. Another LED screen segment included a world map visualization of the US’ extraordinary rendition program for terrorism suspects.
While Massive Attack’s show searched for solace in a heartless world, Pet Shop Boys and their audience were intoxicated by love and romance. The duo performed its colorful, theatrical show Pandemonium on Thursday at the Nangang Exhibition Hall.
PET SHOP BOYS
TWinkle’s organizers said more than 7,000 people showed up for Massive Attack, but the crowd seemed bigger at Pet Shop Boys, who began the evening with a medley of More Than a Dream and their forgotten 1980s hit Heart.
Singer Neil Tennant pranced and strode about on stage throughout the evening, all the while keeping the signature cool composure that also marks his distinctive vocal style. His counterpart Chris Lowe kept busy behind the DJ booth, working the synthesizer and drum machine magic that fueled their long list of dance club classics.
The beats kept everyone dancing (the floor at the exhibition hall literally shook), and the pace never let down. From start to finish, Pandemonium was visually engaging. The brilliantly conceived stage set consisted of hundreds of cubes made of white cardboard paper, with their arrangement reflecting the show’s loose narrative. At the beginning, the cubes were stacked neatly into a huge wall, which disintegrated into a strewn mess of boxes. From this backdrop, a budding romance emerged, portrayed by a crew of four dancers.
The dancers put on inspiring, top-notch performances. They encouraged audience members to move on the anthemic songs and attracted their gaze on the tightly choreographed numbers. One memorable segment came from dancers Sean Williams and Charlotte Walcott’s dramatic portrayal of a lover’s spat during The Way It Used to Be.
Unsurprisingly, Pet Shop Boys saved a few of their best-known songs for the finale. It’s a Sin was one of the last songs of the set, and West End Girls was the encore to this two-hour spectacle, which gave credence to the TWinkle Rock Festival’s moniker.
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
Also worth remembering in this year’s summer of rock was the loose, spirited show on Sunday last week from Broken Social Scene. The beloved Canadian indie-music “collective” played to a packed house at Legacy Taipei’s 1,000-person capacity venue.
Their set, which lasted around two hours without a break, mostly covered material from their latest release Forgiveness Rock Record and their classic You Forgot It in People.
The band’s wall-of-sound jams came across well that evening. The group had up to 10 members sharing the stage, as they constantly traded duties on guitar, bass, synthesizer, percussion and vocals.
The musicians were clearly having fun on stage, and their infectious energy made it easy to forgive occasional lapses such as the lackluster, off-key singing in Forced to Love, one of the new album’s catchier tunes.
Lisa Lobsinger, who was mostly in the background on percussion and backing vocals, drew a rousing response halfway through the show for her singing on synth-pop tune All to All and Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl; it’s too bad she didn’t feature in a few more songs.
There was no seating at the venue, so you had to squeeze through the crowd to get close to the stage. One drawback to Legacy Taipei, despite its relaxed, art-space/warehouse vibe and excellent sound system, is the layout. The room is long and narrow, which makes it feel a little claustrophobic closer to the stage. It’s also hard to see from the back.
In the latter half of the show, the band obliged fans with crowd-pleasing songs like KC Accidental and Kevin Drew’s ballad Lover’s Spit. By then, it felt like the audience was part of the band’s onstage party.
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