Another of the Fringe Club's Hong Kong Live events saw some alternative rock from Innisfallen,Chochukmo and Empty Tomb.The venue is always atmospheric and loud with a good opprtunity to check out upcoming local and mainland bands.Empty Tomb play jangly,melodic,wistful indie.Highlights of their set were 'This is You'and 'You'll Be Home.' They have some good songs and even though they're not quite the finished article live, it looks like they just need more gigging experience to be a very good live band.
Empty Tomb @ HK Live
Chochukmo 'Number One'
Chochukmo are already one of Hong Kong's best and most loved bands.Frontman Jan's vocals are soaring and ecstatic and the songs begin simply but bloom into melodic crescendos of guitar and drums.Fans were interested to see how the departure of bass player Yan Yan Pang would affect the band's sound but new bassist Regina filled that role excellently and any missing vocal harmonies were well filled by Mike Makai as the band played a raucous,exhilirating set featuring "Head to Toe' and blistering versions of 'Number One' ,'Caroline' and 'One,two ,three,four'.
The band's sound is hard to pin down and freestyle might be the best word to cover a sound that ranges from powerpop to indiepunk,songs that begin with simple melodies and then climb to ecstatic choruses ,driven by Jan's soaring vocals.The set ticked all the boxes for a great live indie band:original material played with passion and a sense of fun.Hong Kong indiefans-you must see this band live!
Headlining were Innisfallen,whose well reviewed album debuted only last year and here they were after a few months break with lots of new material and getting ready to release another album.The band have a distinctive Britpop sound sometimes compared to Radiohead,although the sound is lighter and Erik's vocals are not nearly as anguished as Thom Yorke's.They opened with some of the new songs and it looks like the new stuff needs to be played a few times before it becomes as addictive as songs like'Butterfly Effect'and 'Beautiful Soul'.Watch out for this band playing live. Innisfallen @ HK Live 'Beautiful Soul' http://www.myspace.com/innisfallen
