Sea Monsters live at Pan-Asia If you want to check out the unexpected and the unpredictable on the indie music scene in Hong Kong then get along to the Underground.The Pan-Asia edition gave us indie music of different styles and locations.This gig had everything from the frenzied freestyle of Sea Monsters to the crazy moshing of Shepherds the Weak fans with some J-pop and emo for light relief and in case anyone felt left musically excluded. Yes,I believe in monsters!.Sea Monsters gave a riveting performance,even if no one had any idea what they were doing or singing aboutin their crazy,punk-jazz,improvised freestyle.The band may be mainly improvisatory but they have an awesomely tight sound,led from the front by the amazing vocals of Bjork -like Shadow Kim and powered by the funky bass of Koya and fluid guitar of Hiroshi powered along by Ogura on drums.Lets just call it electro-jazzpunk.It was crazy,weird ,spellbinding and could even become addictive to fans of avant-garde indie..                           Sea Monsters live at Club Cixi      The audience were clearly enthralled,confused and captivated .The band supposedly caused a riot when they played in a Shenzhen wine bar.Fortunately Hong Kong indie fans are more experimental and better behaved ! In fact the only mini-rioting of the evening occurred at the end of the show when the Shepherds the Weak fans indulged in lots of hardcore moshing.                                                           The Sea Monsters Experience .

Just when the show was may be getting too weird for some we were returned to indie rock of a more accessible form as Pan-Asia morphed into a J-rock set with Wildcat(Shanghai)who played an uptempo pop-rock set of J-rock numbers which were more accessible with songs like 'May Be Love' and 'Rising Sun'. Wildcat live at Pan-Asia Wildcat at Neocha.

No matter what labels we attach to it it's all indie rock.For those with any anti-emo stance,The Ember are a perfect antidote to stereotyping.They're just a young Hong Kong indie rock band with a passion about their music.However you categorize it, it's just indie with some hard edges.                   The Ember Live at Pan-Asia         l.                                                                            The Ember at myspace

Trashbox could be labelled as 'J-rock' or just 'fun-rock'.The music is uptempo indie a little like The Ramones.The band are Hisahi (Vocals),Nobu (bass,vocals),Hiro-4 (drums,vocals) and Inoue (guitar,vocals).                Trashbox live at Pan-Asia ). The band played a great set of melodic pop-rock with some energy .

Shepherds the Weak were like a storm warning before this week's typhoon, with their loud,raucous hardcore as they pounded through their hardcore set but they were also the most danceable band of the night as the encore to their set unleashed a frenzy of moshing in front of the stage. .   Shepherds the Weak live at Pan-Asia   Another  great Underground show for Hong Kong indie music fans!