Our second event as part of our 21st Year Anniversary Series! So much fun to host five upcoming Hong Kong bands on the Community Stage at AIA Carnival. The bands stepped up to show what great talent we have brewing in Hong Kong. Thank you to Ed Bean at the AIA Carnival for making this happen. Thank you to Jack, Joseph and Josiah for handling the sound & lights magnificently. Thanks to Aaron Michelson for the photos. Thanks to Ally for filming the bands to make a summary video. Thanks to our reviewers: Rob & Jarrod. Thanks to Bay for the awesome artwork. BIG round of applause for the team members working so hard that day: Cadence & Chloe B. I couldn’t have done it without all of you guys.
我哋21周年慶祝系列啱啱開始，真係太開心啦！喺AIA嘉年華嘅社區舞台度，我哋邀請咗五隊香港新晉獨立樂隊嚟演出。佢哋好有型，展示香港有出色嘅音樂才華。特別鳴謝AIA嘉年華嘅Ed Bean，喺佢哋嘅支持底下，呢次活動先得以實現。多謝我哋嘅音響師及燈光師：Jack，Joseph 同 Josiah！多謝Aaron Michelson為我哋影相，感謝Ally提供的酷炫影片剪輯。多謝Rob 同Jarrod為我哋寫樂評。多謝Bay出色嘅藝術設計。要為當晚好努力嘅團隊成員大力鼓掌：Cadence 同Chloe B。冇你哋，呢個活動一定無辦法咁順利完成。
❤️ Chris B xx
ZOE HAYNES
1. beaches
2. awake
3. journeyer
4. start over
5. hopeless
6. true blue
7. what happens happens
At just 17 years old, it’s already clear Zoe Haynes has all the tools to succeed as a singer-songwriter of note – that classic combo of strong songs, relatable lyrics and an emotive delivery that have made the world swoon since Joni Mitchell et al first picked up an acoustic guitar.
The Hong Kong-raised teen has an intuitive ear for natural, easy chord sequences that offer few surprises, but roll satisfyingly together, pointing in new directions just when the ear is exhausted. Lower-register, confessional verses evolve into brief bridges and higher, cathartic choruses with a seamless design. Which would mean nothing without a strong performance: on stage Haynes appears warm but commanding, both content to share the scrapbooks of her diary yet presiding over the proceedings with assured authority. Indeed, following a kids’ theatre production onstage at the AIA Carnival community stage was the most Spinal Tap of bookings, but Haynes navigated it with ease (and brought a gaggle of fans to boot).
“I don’t normally write a lot of love songs, but this one has a special place in my heart,” she declares, introducing “True Blue”, a tale of frustrated teen romance and anxieties about making the first move. Another standout, “Start Over”, exists again in that same emotional no man’s land – sentimental but not quite sad, sun-kissed but far from content. The lyrics will make or break this music: lines like “In a taxi backseat, I see your phone”, from set opener “Beaches”, are the kind of hyper-personal but instantly universal vignettes that unite a generation.
“Hopeless” was built around a pleasing sequence of suspended chords which sounded somewhat familiar, while closer “What Happens Happens” opened with a brief barrage of fingerpicking. Otherwise, there wasn’t always much to tell these uniformly mid-tempo, strummed acoustic folk ditties apart. This won’t be a problem when it comes to the studio, when textures and dynamics will no doubt be worked into the arrangements. That debut recording will have to wait, however, until this most promising talent completes their high-school IB exams.
– Rob Garratt
失業園 unemployers
Good night
假性失眠
Headache
冰島沒有水豚
零度
唯讀者
Unemployers’ music is all about texture – about polish over form, the journey not the destination. About picking an idea and running with it, twisting and turning with the muse, and wringing it of every jot of musical and emotional weight it carries. Amid a sea of shimmery reverb-laden guitars, opener “Good Night” began with a stadium-sized refrain that felt better suited to a set closer – the steadily building “It’s gonna be all right” refrain building in intensity as the music pulses and stretches. It segued straight into “假性失眠”, another meandering meditation marked by Fung’s engaging guitar solo, and a few rhythmic mishaps. “Headache” was simultaneously rousing and dreamy, another journey without destination – if this is emo, as they claim, it’s a nebulous take with the harsh corners shaved off, and varnished with the ethereality of shoegaze and bedroom pop, an aesthetic embodied in lead singer Keiko’s husky, half-spoken delivery.
Major chords and city pop vibes marked out “冰島沒有水豚”, while keyboardist JC let out his inner jazz demon on the slow-burn build up of “零度”, which descended into another dreamlike finale. Closer “唯讀者” saw Keiko suddenly switch to, well, singing – unleashing a vocal register, clarity and command tactically but perhaps foolishly kept hidden up until that moment.
There’s much to admire in the earnest mood conjuring of 失業園 Unemployers, whose smart arrangements and conviction can carry the slightest of musical ideas up rugged emotional landscapes.
– Rob Garratt
THE FERALS (HK)
PROXIMITY
USED TO SAY
SCAM
THROUGH THE PARK
SUPERFICIAL
GARDEN OF LOVE
WOOFIE
For a gig presented by the “Underground” of Hong Kong music this was about the most overground, prominent public showcase of Hong Kong rocknroll: Friday night at the AIA carnival on the harbourfront in Central.
Normally when you see dinosaurs down the front of a rocknroll gig it means a couple of old white guys in Joy Division and Deep Purple t-shirts. Here there are actual dinosaurs. There are fibreglass stegosauruses to sit on if you would like to straddle a three-horned reptile while loud rocknroll is played to you.
Everyone enjoys music their own way.
We choose to sit at the big wooden picnic tables behind the crowd that is gathering to see the Ferals play. The stage is big enough for Clockenflap; the crowd is big enough for the Aftermath. The handy beer/stand next to us is staffed by people who pour coffee cup sized cups full of wine for 30 bucks. Hip flasks are being handed around to help warm against the crisp breeze coming in from the harbour.
Chris B, Hong Kong’s eternal and irrepressible bilingual rocknroll MC, walks on stage resplendent in signature yellow Doc Martens and patent leather pants to lead the band into a set that brings the heat to an increasingly cool evening.
There are few bands where the lead singer switches from energetic MC introducing the bands with endless energy and passion to front person dominating the stage while the band thunders behind them… actually there’s only one: the Ferals.
The sound mix is perfect – loud enough to let you know it’s serious hard rock where you can feel the snarl of the guitar and the throb of the bass, but not too overblown to require old rock fans like me to wear their ear plugs.
If you’re a fan of powerful rock bands with strong female leads you can both see and hear the lineage from bands like the Motels and the Divinyls in this sound. Having walked out many times to introduce other people’s bands Chris clearly relishes the opportunity to prowl constantly across the front of stage, owning the entire space in between rocking the mic as the band soars and powers behind her vocals.
She’s got props! She’s got a pile of money and is now down the front of the stage kneeling down as people run to be handed fists full of bills. Is this a nod to Patti Smith’s 1975 classic Free Money… or is it, as the song is titled, a Scam?
She holds up a sign that says Don’t Panic. No-one does.
The band kicks into Superficial – delivered in a mix of English and Cantonese lyrics, building and building until the guitar, bass and drums crash through and thunder into a new level and maybe this third cup of wine has me thinking the band is waking up the seafaring goddess Tin Hau, because the wind seems to increase in time with the band’s ascending intensity.
The chugging riffs of the power ballad Garden of Love are perfectly contrasted by a woman walking past, carrying a stuffed toy teddy bear that is larger than herself. She stops, takes in the music, grabs her boyfriend by the hand and is transfixed.
The band finishes with the song Woofie and a reminder of its music video. I swear I recognise the actors from the video in the crowd. The song opens with a peppered fusillade riff of drums and bass that shows clear symptoms of Dr Love before kicking into a stomping onslaught of rock.
– Jarrod Watt
omnimori
Dull (乏）
Hallucination（幻夢）
Endless Dream（長夢）
Lost in..（遺）
Is It Really You by Loathe (Cover)
“Abusive use of reverb and delay” might be Omnimori’s glib Instagram description, but they thankfully bring more sincerity (and talent) than this in-joke concedes. Yes, there’s all the gear – but also plenty of ideas brewing in this retro-facing alt-rock quartet.
There was a smidge of a windswept 90s MV to the satisfying loud/quiet grunge stomp of “Hallucination（幻夢)”, while “Lost in..（遺)” mined the same post-Pumpkins well of discontent to powerful effect, despite a mechanical middle crescendo that lost momentum midway.
The subtler, shoegaze-y moments engaged equally, and will prove more enduring on record. The suitably titled “Endless Dream（長夢)” rode for days on an irresistible two-chord tide, a churning bed of echo as open and intoxicating as the ocean. Featuring an additional guest vocalist, opener “Dull (乏)” may be more self-effacement, but it offered a strong introduction to lead singer Eddy Mok’s dramatic range and versatile delivery – moving between high, low and spoken passages seconds apart.
Closing with a cover of “Is It Really You?” by mid-sized British metal band Loathe was the only misfire, a song both less engaging than their own material, and noticeably less rehearsed to boot.
– Rob Garratt
WHAT THEY DO
see you in hell
Nothing
Climb
Beneath
Melanchloic fantasy
Amazing
Buttdial
Encore: I will Survive (cover)
It’s not often you are watching a band rip into an uptempo number as someone walks through the crowd carrying a giant plushie toy banana, but that’s exactly what happens when What They Do rip into their opening number, See You In Hell, with the cut-time snare beat brandishing punk rock credentials to anyone in any doubt where this band is coming from.
After the opening song is done it’s announced that it’s guitarist Bay Leung’s birthday.
Calls for him to nude up to honour the occasion are graciously ignored… the band swings into Nothing, a slow moody rocker that breaks out into a more fast-paced number with elements of heaviness.
Vocalist and frontwoman Josphine Welton has a big contralto/tenor voice that suits the blend of hard-rock, punk and metal being fused by the guitar, bass and drums behind her. By the time the song is finished there’s a sizeable crowd gathered. More hip flasks are seen being handed among the crowd, and the band kicks into Climb, a mid-paced rocker that builds off the rumbling bass and drums for an epic overdrive-cranked guitar solo.
Up the back among the picnic tables and young families a big American dude in a baseball cap holding a big fluffy white stuffed bear is banging his head as the band rips out chunky riffs and tapping fast-picked metal guitar solo, peaking with a drum solo that brings shouts and screams from the audience.
Some guys next to us appear to have brought an expensive bottle of red wine.
The next song Beneath rips the veil off to reveal this band’s metal foundation; pushing the sound meter right up to the level of what’s considered ‘family entertainment’ at this big open air carnival, Bay nails another solo and someone, somewhere is blowing bubbles that are flowing in and around the crowd, now vigorously nodding their heads in time with the beat.
Introducing their agitprop capitalism critique song Amazing and referencing Jeff Bezos seems timely in a city that had 48 hours earlier been banned by the United States Postal Service from shipping packages to the USA in an apparent direct benefit to Amazon; the double-kick drums fuelling the increasingly heavier Melancholic Fantasy are met with the intensity of Bay’s solo, but it’s the band’s encore finish that brings it home.
I’ve seen What They Do deliver some really impressive cover versions – from Rage Against the Machine’s Killing In the Name of to a most fabulously insane melding of The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men” with Slayer’s “Reign In Blood”
Josephine introduces the song as “a cover of a cover”, and indeed she’s accurate in that it’s a 1978 disco hit that became a dancefloor staple, then a song globally known as an anthem of gay liberation before being reimagined as a deadpan funky cabaret rock outing in 1996 by Californian rockers Cake.
It seems apt to end the evening’s gig here, in Hong Kong, on a big stage celebrating the continued existence of homegrown original live rocknroll on a 12 degree Friday evening as the carnival is beginning to close up and with the 28 floors of the PLA headquarters building looming above and behind the stage, with an extremely metal version of “I Will Survive”.
– Jarrod Watt
Photos by 攝影：Aaron Michelson
Poster by 海報: Bay Leung.
