Outside it was cold and wet but inside we relaxed in the warm glow of The Ember, Pick Pak Zhai,Bone Table and Helter Skelter.Another great chance to check out Hong Kong's new indie music scene.
Underground 53 opened with an excellent set from Pick Pak Zhai who played a freestyle set with influences of jazz,funk and pop.The band are winners of Asia Beat and are Angel/Fiona (vocals)Nick (keyboard),Michael (drums) and Arion (bass).....They opened their set with 'Get Drunk ',a punchy ,funky number and then continued in a more jazzy,Norah Jones style with catchy guitar hooks on 'Out of the Mouth'.Next song 'Impatient ' was upbeat,with an infectious melody.The band then changed mood with 'Winter Swim ',a more romantic indie pop style number with a latin feel over which Angel's vocals lazily drifted.Next song 'Famous People 'was more jazz funk before the band finished their set with 'Without Him ',a bluesy uptempo song with clever basslines,crashing drums and excellent jazz rock guitar. All in all,an awesome set from a great new band.
The Ember played a set that was dark,moody and passionate and with a much more rock feel. The are Kea (vocals),Nico (guitar),Kristal (bass) and Karen (drums).They play an emo/screamo style with lots of fuzzed out guitar.The set opened with 'In This Hole' an emo song with lots of passionate vocals from Kea..Next song 'Thursday ' had a slower intro but progressed to an impressively raucous climax.In the following songs ' No One ' and 'Forgive' the pace and emotional intensity picked up even more and the crowd loved it.
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Bone Table were a revelation to me.They play an accomplished,dark country blues style that reminds me of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.They have some great songs from the bluesy opener 'Black Sedan' through the Clash type punk of Taxi to Wanchai 'to the rockabilly blues of 'Sugar Baby'with Van Morrison style vocals .The band's second song was the SF country blues ' Giant Electric Flying Insect' followed by ' Takematsu Joe ' a tale of a Japanese yakuza, and 'Like a Man',a tight rocking country blues sounding like the soundtrack to a Roberto Rodriguez western.'You're Wrong ' was more country rock in an uptempo , rockabilly style before racing to a climax with 'Sorry'.
Helter Skelter had no connection with the Beatles' song of the same name apart from a willingness to rock it out.They played a blues based rock that really got the audience jumping after the delayed arrival of their lead vocalist.The band opened with some blues jamming in the style of The Yardbirds or John Mayall on 'Funk Ass Jam ' and 'Ten Past Ten ' but after Vince,the main vocalist arrived on stage the set got rougher and rockier like some classic early American R&B and country rock on 'Say You say Love' and 'the rockier 'Delusions'.Keyboardist Adrian took back the vocals on the more romantic 'Don't Wanna Have to Lose You' before the band brought their set to a close with the uptempo rock of 'Hey ' and 'Honest With You' by which point the audience were going crazy with all sorts of wild dancing on the floor.
