The thrill of going to Triangle, which has its grand re-opening tonight and hosts DJ Nick Thayer tomorrow, is that the sound inside the venue is exquisite, the people come for the music and the vibe is always just right. The thing that makes Triangle distinctive is that the bathrooms are outdoors, located around some trees and shrubs, which means there are a lot of random people wandering around or hanging out. On some nights, the best party is outside.
THE GEOMETRY OF HIT AND MISS
For most of its one-and-a-half years of existence, Triangle has been struggling. It is usually open only on Saturdays and the parties have been hit (Werk gay parties) or miss (rock band playing with very few people watching).
Photo courtesy of Urban Asia
A month ago, the folks who have been doing Taipei Paris Nights for the past three years, Greg Colombet and Morgan Boudet, took over the club’s management and there is sea change happening. Triangle is now open Wednesday through Saturday with karaoke, open mic and live band nights, as well as DJ parties.
Boudet, who says managing Triangle is the next logical step in the evolution of Taipei Paris Nights, wants to run a venue that offers plenty of variety, “with theme parties, reggae music, a weekend cafe and, most of all, a place where anyone who thinks they have talent can come and perform.”
■ Taipei Paris Nights presents Grand Reopening tonight at Triangle from 11pm to 5am, 1, Yuman St, Taipei City (台北市玉門街1號). Admission is NT$300 and comes with a drink.
THAYER IN TAINAN, TAIPEI
Australian DJ Nick Thayer, who will be headlining U11 tonight in Tainan and Triangle tomorrow, comes from a musical family. At the age of four, they were happy to see him choose to study the violin and piano. As a matter of fact, they encouraged his involvement in metal bands when he was in high school and supported his turn to writing and producing electronic dance music later on, even if it meant that he would be traveling so much he would miss countless birthdays.
While Thayer’s style is hard to pin down because his tracks are a melange of sounds ranging from ghetto funk to dubstep to electro to drum and bass to moombahton, his deep musical knowledge has helped him immensely in his career.
“I still listen to a lot of classical music, and a lot of rock and metal, too,” Thayer said in an e-mail interview.
“On the theory side, knowing what chords will sound good in a progression speeds up the writing. Knowing which notes are right makes it easier to play the wrong ones if that’s what is called for.”
Thayer has been praised by a lot of big name folks including Skrillex, who signed him to his OWSLA label in 2012, as well as Tommy Lee, the notorious drummer for heavy metal bad boys, Motley Crue. Thayer said audiences this weekend can expect to hear a load of new music, some new takes on classics and a lot of unexpected things in his sets.
■ Urban Asia presents Nick Thayer tonight from 10pm to 4am at U11 (拾壹庫), 30 Beiman Rd, Sec 2, Tainan City, (台南市北門路二段30號). Admission is NT$500 at the door and includes one drink. Nick Thayer plays tomorrow night from 11pm to 5am at Triangle, 1, Yuman St, Taipei City (台北市玉門街1號). Admission is NT$500 at the door and comes with a drink.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built
RSS