A special night at Underground 49 to celebrate 3 years of Underground indie music events in Hong Kong.The Cavern in Lan Kwai Fong was packed to see another highly eclectic line-up with genres ranging from electronic trip-hop with Violent Jokes to guitar band britpop from Audiotraffic.Another chance to catch up with some of the many new bands on the hong kong indie scene.
Take Bad with the Good kicked off the show Although formed only two months before the group members have played in other local bands(noughts and XXXs,Tonick)and they played a set full of yearning romanticism with a garage band feel.The band were high on energy but need to work on their songs more.Although the band are obviously finding their sound and there were a few hitches when the band were too unfocused the set had enough to keep me interested.All in all I'd say there's a lot more good than bad about this band.The vocalist Ah lam has a great voice for the mat erial and the band looked as if they enjoyed the set with some notable contributions from Hang ( lead guitar),Ding (drums) Siugwai (guitar) and Wai on (bass).Sounds like 80s new wave,new romantic with a modern twist ..
Violent Jokes is an electropop outfit who entranced us with their dreamy,complex synthpop fronted by the lush vocals of Shadow.There's more than a hint of Bjork in her vocal style with an added lushness ,well complemented by the intricate computer-looped beats and distorted guitar and funkybass.There's a nice balance betwen the electronic and guitar based sound and the superlative vocals of Shadow. I especially liked the eccentrically titled song 'Sun: Suckers at the United Nations ' and her energetic Bjorkesque performance on 'Me as a Wolf'. 'The band write songs with clever,evocative lyrics on songs like 'The Past'.Sounds like Bjork meets Portishead.
Very Ape are a mix between hardcore punk and free jazz with a few good hooks thrown in. Very Ape are Hong Kong's very own band of Japanese style rockers.The band is Urase Yoshito (vocal),Teramoto Atsushi (guitar),Koya Hisakazu (bass) and Ogura Yasushi(drums) There's a definite 60s/70s influence in the guitar solos.The material is hard -edged on songs like 'Jack off ....' but almost indiepop on 'You are very Ape...'.The band know how to generate excitement with their form of high energy,bluesy ,passionate rock.My favourite was their final song 'Rebirth:Die Off'with its strong bass lines,flamboyant guitar solo and crashing drums.You can also check out the band on their recent EP. ............. Very Ape play loud ,fast alternative rock with a passion.....
Audiotraffic are already veterans on the Hong Kong indie scene.They played at Underground 1 in 2004 when they won the Hong Kong region in the World Battle of the Bands.The band are Adrian Da Silva(vocals), Don Cruz (guitar),Woo Joo Lee (Bass),despite having a stand-in bass player on the night. and Masaki(drums).This was clearly the band that everyone wanted to see and their set lived up to expectations.The band have a slightly retro britpop sound,fuzzy guitars and in Adrian a charismatic singer with a great voice on tracks like 'Better', '101','Happy', 'Way too Long ','Warm Sunshine' as well as a great cover of 'Message in a Bottle' .Audiotraffic's live set has a good balance between rock and indiepop.The band can rock out but also play songs with infectious hooks and pop melodies.With their final song 'Lost City' the band again showed us their ability to rock out a venue and brought the evening to a satisfying close.Sounds like late shoegaze meets early britpop. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this band.
