Vibe’s image makeover from den of iniquity to den of iniquity-cum-music venue continues tonight with a performance by Pan Africana Cultural Troupe.
The group of musicians from Ghana, South Africa, Saint Vincent’s, Canada, Dominica, Cameroon, the Caribbean, Trinidad and the US put on highly entertaining, danceable shows with music that ranges through genres such as reggae, funk, hip-hop and even rock.
The troupe’s drumming in particular had crowds at this year’s Spring Scream, Peacefest, and the Myanmar Cyclone Relief Concert, grinding and a groovin’ in a manner rarely seen here.
The range of instruments they use is astounding: from the familiar bass guitar, drums, congas, castanets and maracas to the more exotic djembe and doundoun, which are hide-covered West African drums, and the sousaphone, which is similar to a marching tuba.
Bassist and percussionist Justin Lewis said in an interview on Tuesday that his experiences playing in Los Angeles “bring in some of the R ’n’ B, funk and soul sound,” with the other group members adding “authentic Caribbean flavor,” African roots, and soca to produce a fusion of sounds. “We try to come together and make it work with really hot, hot, hot grooves,” he said.
While Vibe has had a reasonable turnout for its live shows, there has been a dead zone from around 1:45am to 2:45am when people who attend the live shows leave. At one point last Friday, there were less than a dozen in the entire bar during unhappy hour. Several were overheard bemoaning the lack of a party vibe and eventually left.
By 3:30am the place was packed, with bodies gyrating on the dance floor, lushes drinking at the upstairs bar, couples flirting, phone numbers being exchanged and furtive groping going on in one corner.
The nightclub can go two ways. It can either play host to two separate crowds and never the twain shall meet, or some of the band audience could stay on after the live shows, while some of the club crew could turn up earlier.
Given most acts start at 10pm, if you stay until close at 7am, a night at Vibe becomes a marathon.
One of the benefits of Vibe as a venue is the association many have with it as a place where, as one clubber put it, “anything goes … you don’t have to put on any pretensions, and no one cares what you do.”
Tomorrow is the Roots Dub Session at The Wall, with Taimaica Soundsystem, High Tide, and DJs Taili and Katzu.
Both events offer party people a chance to get down to some soulful music with a different flavor than most weekend club fare.
Pan Africana Cultural Troupe performs tonight at 10pm at Vibe, located at B1, 155, Jinshan S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市金山南路一段155號B1). Cover is NT$300 and includes one drink. The Roots Dub Session begins tomorrow at 11:30pm at The Wall, at B1, 200 Roosevelt Rd Sec 4 (北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Cover, which includes a drink, is NT$350.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
RSS