You know its a great start to the year when the first show is packed and full of musical talent! Thank you so much to the responsive & eager audience, the five amazing bands, The Melting Pot, Asahi, BC Magazine & HKGFM.net!! This night was a night to remember.
love Chris B xx

David & Kyra

alright!!!! this is Underground 91 (cannot believe it’s ALREADY 91?!) and the night started with “David and Kyra”, an acoustic duo formed by two youngsters David Shurr and Kyra Santiago, who write about everything and everyone in their age. I did enjoy their songs almost as much as I enjoyed the songs in the movie JUNO, very well written and nicely sung, especially when we consider how young they are, most of us didn’t even think about singing like them when we were 15, did we?! Without question they have a lot of potential in them, and they showed that “acoustic music” is a genre, but not playing what you’d play on electrics using acoustics.

And when they “acoustified” some of the dance floor anthems including GaGa’s “Bad Romance” and Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” into a medley, and then with Kris Allen’s version of Kayne West’s “Heartless” ending their set, it’s obvious which way they are going to. With more experience and dynamic in their writing and performing, I’m sure they will have a lot more good times performing ahead of them.

Click here to watch David & Kyra playing their original song: Digging Holes!
Marvin – In Love And Pain!

Daniel Martin

Singer songwriter Daniel Martin originated from Denmark, and with loads of commerical writings under his belt, it’s not surprising that he and his mates brought us some of the finest tunes of the evening.

The songs are mellow and tender, with Daniel himself sitting and singing comfortably with his acoustic guitar, and the violin and keyboard accompanists adding the right amount of heaviness to the songs, which definitely made the songs more tasteful. If you enjoy the like of James Blunt, Rialto or Kent, you’ll probably enjoy his set as much as I did. I can imagine enjoy listening to his songs while driving or chilling out at home, and like i said about David and Kyra before, Daniel here as well defined “acoustic” genre for the night.

Click here to watch Daniel Martin playing their original song: Jealousy!
Marvin – In Love And Pain!

WhyOceans (Macau 澳門)

All the way from Macau, 5-piece rocker WhyOceans is no newcomer, I first heard of them from the Linkin Park contest in early 2009, then Macau Undergrounds and I also had the pleasure to share the stage with them while I was drumming for GongWu when we both performed for the Esprit Hong Kong Flagship Grand Opening. Veterans, that’s how we normally called experienced musicians.

Right from the beginning of their set, we knew the rest of the night was going to be different. The instrumental ballad opening set up the tone, and the rest of the set we were all drowned by this giant Ocean, their music is very open, very atmospheric, it’s not hard to find some New Grave and Post-Rock influences through out their music, if they could roll out the bass a little bit, I’d say the vibe would be even better. With most of the slow songs in their set list, we cruised along nicely through the WhyOceans.

Click here to watch WhyOceans playing their original song: At Land!
Marvin – In Love And Pain!

Good Fellas

This is going to be the shortest review in the history of The Underground.

If you are not dancing, nor head-banging, nor foot tapping with these Good Fellas, that is YOUR PROBLEM, not theirs, they are just THAT good! Period. =)

Click here to watch Good Fellas playing their original song: Move On!
Marvin – In Love And Pain!

OneLastFall

Closing Underground 91, is OneLastFall. My band In Love And Pain! played with them once at Underground 85, and that, was love at first sight. The fivesome lead by guitarist Faro, vocalist Sheila, second guitarist Rob, bassist Charles and drummer Maijd fused every single essence of heaviness and became OneLastFall. They are pure heavy, with unquestionable vocal skills and range, catchy hooks, adrenaline driving grooves and riffs and great stage presence. They once again tore The Melting Pot apart with their immense energy and intensity, sadly since they are the last to play, the audiences size gets abit smaller, personally i think they definitely deserve a bigger crowd but apparently they enjoyed the set and so did we!!! OneLastFall is not “pointless”, and they had proved it with actions, as the Steel Panther anthem goes, “Death to All but Metal!!”.

Click here to watch OneLastFall playing their original song: Pointless!
Marvin – In Love And Pain!

photos © Copyright 2009 by ANGUS LEUNG
except photos of Good Fellas by ANGUS LEUNG and Carina Ho
Poster by ANGUS LEUNG