Independent rock 'n' roll takes center stage in Taipei and Taichung this weekend when Japanese punks the Vickers and a battery of Taiwan-based underground bands tear it up for the second Antipop! tour.
After the success of the first Antipop! in November last year - the Taipei leg saw crowds of roughly 100 people at each of its two shows - organizers wasted no time in announcing Antipop! 2. This weekend's three-day event starts tonight at Groovecity in Taichung before heading to Taipei for shows tomorrow and Sunday at APA Lounge 808 (阿帕808) in Ximending (西門町).
"There's a really positive vibe about this weekend," said Consider the Meek frontman Kevin Lee, who is organizing the second Antipop! with bandmate Kelly Holtz. "We'll do it every two months if we can. We just want to make it bigger so we can bring over bigger bands."
PHOTO: COURTESY OF RABBIT IS RICH AND CONSIDER THE MEEK
Pop-punk unit the Vickers are headlining the tour and, along with political punks Consider the Meek, will play all three shows. The Vickers are known for their fierce live performances - their guitarist likes to stage dive while playing guitar solos - and hard partying after shows.
They've released three full-length albums and have visited Taiwan before, performing at the Formoz Festival (野台開唱) in 2004. Bassist Chisato Ohtsubu, a founding member of the influential all-female punk band Thug Murder, co-founded the Vickers along with the guitarist for Tokyo heavy metal band Real Shit.
A review on www.pacifictionrecords.com says the Vickers "are sure to appeal to any punks who have an appreciation for heavy metal and go for poignant lyrics and speedy rock 'n' roll." On its MySpace site (www.myspace.com/thevickers), the band lists its influences as Motorhead, the Dropkick Murphys, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Social Distortion and Black Sabbath.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF Steve Leggat
Joining the Vickers and Consider the Meek tonight at Groovecity will be The Hand Knife (手刀樂隊), founded by the former bassist of Taichung's well-regarded all-girl punk band BB Bomb (BB彈), and WinSky, which plays hard rock in the style of late 1970s and early 1980s bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.
It will be the last live music show at Groovecity and Patrick Byrne, the venue's co-founder, said they will be "going out with a bang."
"It's going to be a very party-oriented rock event," he said.
In Taipei, tomorrow's opening acts are Rabbit Is Rich (兔子很有錢), a young garage band that sounds like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; the Deadly Vibes, a straight-up rock outfit whose three members used to play together in the Daymakers; and pop-punk band Kenny From Casino (賭場肯尼). The opening bands will play 30-minute sets. The Vickers will follow after Consider the Meek and play for an hour. Afterwards, funk combo New Hong Kong Hair City will take to the stage and mellow things out before Saturday's after party.
Both tonight and tomorrow's shows are scheduled to end around 1am. Sunday's show will end earlier but features To a God Unknown, one of Taipei's most impressive post-rock bands. Also performing Sunday are Casanova, a new pop-punk/emo college band that sounds like Blink 182, and False Arrest (錯誤拘捕), another new band that also plays emo.
Lee and Holtz got the idea for Antipop while touring Japan with US punk band NOFX. There, they found an underground music scene where musicians and clubs promoted their shows much more actively than their counterparts in Taiwan. Even though they sing in English and are based in Taiwan, most of the 4,000 or so CDs Consider the Meek has sold were purchased by Japanese.
"We're hoping that we can bring overseas bands to create interest for supporting independent music, learn from bands who have done this before, and try to build some solidarity with bands," Lee said in an interview in November.
The first Antipop! sold enough tickets to more than cover headliner Akiakane's travel expenses, and the Japanese girl-punk band was impressed by the enthusiasm of the audiences they played for in Taipei, Lee said. Akiakane spread the word in Japan and The Vickers, Last Target, FC 5, and the Savas all contacted Lee and asked if they could come to Taipei, he said.
For Lee to organize Antipop tours every two months, two out of this weekend's three shows need to draw sizeable audiences. To that end, members of Consider the Meek have passed out roughly 20,000 fliers over the past two weeks in Ximending, Lee said. Drink prices for the two Taipei shows will be kept low - NT$100 for two beers and NT$100 for cocktails, of which there will be a larger variety. The Taichung leg has been moved to tonight, to encourage a larger turnout there, and Byrne said there will be drink specials at Groovecity.
"We don't want to be restricted to just bringing over Japanese bands. We're hoping to look overseas," Lee said. "We really need two really successful shows to make that happen. Our main goal is to sell out the shows so we can move it to a bigger venue. If we move it to a bigger venue, we can sell more tickets and therefore bring over an American band."
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