F.B.I.

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Live review from True to This:

1. Man Love!
2. Sinorita
3. The Great Wall (長城)
4. Jasmine Revolution
5. Gonna Make Love
6. The Masquerade
7. Loneliness
8. FU
9. Respect tou PK (到仆街)
10. FBI

中秋佳節, 人月兩團圓, 每天每月都會和朋友聚頭的人大既不同有太大感受。但對於三年沒有一同踏上台板的F.B.I., 今年中秋應該別有一番意義。

加入The Underground的年資尚淺的我, 並未看過F.B.I.的演出, 但卻常看他們的鬼佬主音阿Cain的表演。今天阿Cain和吉他手Archvictor, Bass手Jerald和鼓手Nice在台上的交流卻是前所未見。阿Cain隨著拉丁曲風的第二首歌<西班牙跳舞女郎>跳起肚皮舞, 搔首弄姿的Cain完全顛覆了他平時Hard Rocker形象。

之後鬼佬Cain用唔咸唔淡的廣東話Cover了Beyond的<長城>, 不可否認他們的認真, 但娛樂性也十足。輕鬆過後, 之後Heavy Metal的<Jasmine Revolution>和<The Masquerade>帶起了演出其中一個高潮, 興起時Bass手Jerald和吉他手Archvictor更互彈對方的樂器。作為演出老手, 他們適時提供觀眾一個喘息的機會, 慢板的<Loneliness>由Cain和Archvictor合唱, 好像在細訴他們在分開日子時的孤寂。情深的時間只是維持了一首歌的時間, 其後Archvitor放低了結他, 執起咪高風變身Rapper Cover了廿四味的<Respect到仆街>。最後的一首歌<F.B.I.>就是他們的自我介紹。Archvictor笑說自己已經老了, 忘記了歌詞但即興Rapping也不俗。最後在Archvictor帶領下全場高呼F.B.I.數次為可能是唯一一次的F.B.I.重組演出畫上句號。三年沒有玩過的歌, 一時重拾起來, 少許甩漏難免。但能看著他們將多年來的對F.B.I.音樂的熱情一次過爆發出來才是當晚最過引的事
– Dicky Kwong

After a 3 year hiatus, Hong Kong legends F.B.I reform for a night of crazy shouting, intense screaming, bizarre erotic dance moves and funky rap sections.

Starting off with the energetic ‘Man Love!’ the pop-punk/rap melody, immediately getting the crowd involved with chants, manic screams from the bassist and powerful vocals from the lead singer. A few minutes of banter in between the songs lead into the comedic ridden ‘Sinorita’, with the crowd bopping around and intense build-ups leading into frying solos from the guitar. A few more lines of funny talk leads them into a cover of Beyond’s “The Great Wall” (長城), very surprising and well pronounced Cantonese by the band’s English speaking singer, with power emanating from his voice and letting the crowd join with addicting gang vocals. The next protest-y song ‘Jasmine Revolution’ had the band pogo jumping everywhere, and the lead singer featuring strong Black Stone Cherry-type vocals, with a crash-loving drummer and a beefy guitar tone, the band’s tone turned a bit more intense in lead up to the next song, ‘Gonna Make Love’, which featured sexy dance moves and outright erotic vocals.

The Masquerade’ came next, with heavy, gothic-inspired lyrics, angry choruses, maiden style vocals and a breakdown driver verse. A few brutal screams let out by the singer, and got the crowd hard rocking and headbanging. The next song ‘Loneliness’ got the atmosphere down-tempo, as the ballad style song serenaded the crowd, the bassist’s guitar strap fell off but still kept playing a dedicated set. Speeding up the tone again with ‘FU’, the band delivers more intense screams, crazy shenanigans and hearty gang vocals with rage-style breakdowns in their penultimate song ‘Respect the PK’ and their introductory-style song ‘F.B.I’.

F.B.I. managed to squeeze a lot of improv into their set, and spared no effort in making the crowd laugh, dance and move all the while having a good time on stage.

– Sherman Leung


IMG_8934.JPGLive review from Underground 104:

1. The Masquerade

2. Sinorita

3. Loneliness

4. Gonna Make Love

5. Jasmine Revolution

6. Hey

7. FU

8. FBI Rap

9. Man Love

A well known band in Hong Kong, FBI plays their 8th Underground at the Hard Rock and probably for the last time as the lead singer will be leaving Hong Kong soon. The band is a 4 piece heavy rock band famed for its high energy live performances. The band’s music is largely based around a tight and busy rhythm section of drum and bass, with the guitar providing an overlay of hooks throughout the song, with a generous does of slap bass here and there. As always, the band drove the crowd wild with its infectious energy, starting off with a couple of their well known “in your face” songs, Masquerade and Siñorita, then a couple of slow ones to give everyone a chance to catch their breath, before proceeding at a breakneck speed, ending with Man Love as an encore, which was pretty much the first song they wrote together as a band which completely brought the house down.

Having followed the band more or less from the start, I have seen F.B.I. grow as a band, their music changed and rearranged, but one thing that has been consistent throughout, is that they never fail to rock the house whenever they play. I wish Cain the best wherever life takes him and look forward to seeing what the rest of the boys will get up to post F.B.I.

— Thlayli

IMG_5131wtmk.jpgLive review from Underground 100:

1. Senorita
2. Hey
3. Jasmine Revolution
4. FU
5. FBI Theme Song
6. Man Love [Encore]

We’ve come to a stage in the HK indie scene, where there is such diversity, that there are at least 2-3 bands that are right for the same job. What I’m trying to say is, if you need a band that will guarantee entertainment, the veterans in FBI should be on your top 5 list. It’s been very quiet on the Fire Bird International’s front recently, so I was quite keen to see whether or not they still had their trademark flair. To fill in the usual lull that is rigging up, front man Cain offered his congratulations to the UG in the form of a poem that he had prepared. “Ode to the Underground” I believe it was called. It set the crowd in good spirits, actually, perhaps maintained the current good vibes set by the previous band and heroes: ‘Airtub’ I should say. FBI then proceeded to demonstrate that being an energetic band with great stage presences is like riding a bike, you simply just don’t forget. They rifled through their brand of what I’m calling fusion-pop-punk at a good pace and never failed to capture the interest of the crowd, who’s appreciation of popular songs such as Senorita, Jasmine Revolution and of course Man Love, was reflected in the amount of dancing and jumping that was taking place. My favourite moment from the set was during the FBI Anthem, which is this sort of … rap, I suppose, where the band introduces themselves, I saw a middle aged man in the audience watching very intensely with this look of bemusement on his face. It was sort of like he was unsure if it was the strangest, or greatest thing he had seen. Listen, the point is, he was watching… closely, and so was everyone else. Well done fellas, welcome back. — Timmy Gunn (Shotgun Politics)Global Battle of the Bands Hong Kong 2010 Finalists

GBOB_HK_final_140.jpgLive review from GBOB HK Final 2010

Speaking of bands that can entertain, not many local bands put up as much of a show as do F.B.I. With their usual uniform of FBI tees (except for bassist Jerald, whose attire of choice that night was, a suit (SHOCK! Surprise!) – a major step up from his skeleton-inspired veritable Halloween costume from their Heat) their set was really charged. As expected, we got major commitment from each member to the performance (basically involving them going apeshit on stage), which was solid and interesting. They clearly were loved by most of the audience, who almost mirrored singer Cain’s groove. Not being their biggest fan myself, it must be admited that they sounded tight, and the songs made a very good case for why they should win (and why they have been runners-up before). Their brand of Noughties rock, combined with their stage-presence certainly made for a very enjoyable 8 minutes.

— Shashwati

Live Review from Underground 95:

U95_177.JPGSetlist:

1. Don’t Quit Your Day Job

2. Lan Kwai Fong

3. Gonna Make Love

4. Loneliness

5. Man Love

6. Fu

7. The Masquerade

8. Ghouls and Ghosts

9. F.B.I. (or F.B.I. Theme Song)

Playing the Underground for the 6th time, their tuning up featured some tantalising, mean-sounding slap-bass. An epitome of the Noughties’ rock sound, Don’t Quit Your Day Job featured a very lostprophets’ attitude combined with Hillel Slovak-era RHCP guitars ripping through screamed vocals. Lan Kwai Fong, undoubtedly meant to be the party-goers’ anthem, positively reeked of the Stooges’ 1969 and LedZep’s Black Dog, along with the crowd-participative chorus of “When I say LK, You say” – “F!” . With the bass up to bone-rattling levels, there was heavy use of delay and wah, and semi-military beats in the songs. Loneliness being their slower song, featured the almost-sparkling guitars of 3rd-wave punk, and moved into double speed with its’ leading bassline; in fact, the bass got so fast towards the end that you could scarcely see bassist Jerald’s fretting fingers- always a good sign. Evidently the crowd felt this as well, as the crowd was well into every song as was the band.

Man Love caused some of their more Rancid (and other 3rd-wave punk) roots to show, suddenly changing direction mid-song to a more Noughties’ feel. The screamed opening of Fu was followed by some classic punk chord progressions. With the crowd definitely on their side, they proceeded into The Masquerade, with some some stop-start Iron Maiden influences and a melodic coordination between the vocals and guitars. The crowd actually began headbanging to the single-strummed bits of the chorus – a classic hardcore ruse, which worked very well for F.B.I. in Ghouls and Ghosts, which also had some classic solos that reminded one of Tony Iommi, if he had played in the Noughties. With an mock-offhand comment to the guitarist about not needing his guitar since he couldn’t “sing and play at the same time”, their set closer had a bass-line reminiscent of Paranoid, and it was a song in the spirit of RHCP’s What it Is. Despite the lack of melodic accompaniment, the crowd really got going to the Bootsy Collins-like, insanely-wahed bass, and singer Cain’s encouragement to join in with the “When I say FB, You say” – “I!” They ended the night in the best possible way- with a long, flourish to heavy applause and a very tired but fully satiated crowd.

–Shashwati

Live Review from Underground Macau 4:

IMG_5356.jpgF.B.I. did not disappoint in their set at Macau Underground IV. Perhaps one of the heavier acts of the night F.B.I brought the grunge out with some serious vocal work and heavy guitar riffs, The band even brought out a definite Macau Underground highlight when they brought out some rap verses invoking memories of when Limp Bizkit topped the charts. With a set like that F.B.I.’s future in the Macau music scene seems like a bright one.Olinto OFBI were nothing short of fantastic! They lived up to their reputation by delivering a head banging performance that satisfied all heavy rock music cravings. All band members were at one stage in the spotlight, getting the crowd pumped up, making sure that every one in the audience were ready to rock. At the peak of anticipation, they’d smash a song on everyone’s head, evoking loss of limb control A.K.A: mosh. Overall, a very entertaining concert that left the crowd yelling for more.

Jake D.

Live Review from Underground 69:

u69094.jpgHaving been a devoted follower of Chochukmo, I decided to move on: I had chatted with the FBI guys on a web-radio programme a while ago, and within 4 weeks I had seen them twice. FBI started with a Blink 182 cover song first to show their love for punk. A speedy and energetic number to warm the crowd up. They interacted with the audience as they yelled out “I say LK, you say…” and expected the people to shout back “F!” This turned the crowd on and they (especially the girls) started to dance. Cain told me earlier on his voice was almost gone. How could I believe him? He became another person as he sang onstage – his voice was perfectly fine – with the professional music back up: Jerald’s RHCP-esque bassline, precise slapping and tapping; Kam’s thick and catchy guitar riffs; and Nice’s tight percussion, last but not least. While Cain decided to take a short rest, his amazing force took the lead and sang a couple of fast Canto-pop numbers, with a character of course – most of the mainstream Cantopop singers were poorly covering songs, with no style, written by the original composers anyway. Shortly Cain went back and insisted to sing “Man Love” with the guys. A very bright number. They ended their set with freestyle rap about number “6 and “9 (two suggestive numbers). Could be the sexiest band of the night, but let me determine a bit later, because the next band’s coming up. One of them would take off his clothes in the middle of the show. Check it out.

Erik Piece

Live Review from Underground 57:

u57100.JPGFireBird International and their brand of metal pop delivers impact. They are no newcomer to the Underground, and allegedly they spent some time in Soler’s studio after the last show on December 7, 2007 (Not allegedly … it’s a fact). But, I thought pop and alternative don’t mix. Well, Julio showed up to cheer his friends. I hope he finally get to learn some blues from the headlining band of the evening.

Their opening salvo of metal funk is rock solid rock. You’ve got to like it if you like band music. The singer Cain is the right kind of front man for any band, especially for a band this busy, and even has the good looks of Justin Timberlake, unless I was fed too much Asahi by Chris for the evening, which makes the guitarist Archvictor just a good conventional guitarist. No hard feelings please, the other two front guys are just too good. And to you too, Nice, Mr drummer. You’re sitting way back and those guys really grab our attention.

Which leads me to single out Jerald the bass player. He gives you the playing, which is really quite versatile (trouble is he plays in the same evening when there would be a God of bass in the room, at least a demi-god). He has the build of those bass players you don’t want to run into in a dark alley, and the hair to go with it. He even cares to give you all the right moves, including the finger that he tots every so often. So, let’s have it, is Jerald a great bass player or what?And when they pick up speed, with the jumping around by every member except Nice the drummer, you’ve got to admit rock’s in their blood. A gweilo who’s Chinese and three Chinese guys who are gweilos (if you weren’t there you won’t get the joke) they make rocking in Hong Kong cool.

Bun Ng

Live Review from Underground 50:

u50074.jpgInventively using a slogan of “The Underground” to soundcheck, F.B.I. kicked off their debut at The Underground with energy and excitement. Their stage persona is cheeky and fun and the audience picked up on this immediately. The band also has an uncanny ability to get the crowd doing things from waving their arms and even jumping in a song with “Jump” barked at them. With strange lyrics about boiling children to songs poking fun at wannabe-musicians, I find F.B.I. immensely appealing. The cover of the Chili Peppers was a nice touch and F.B.I played it well (as they do all their songs – the technical aspect of this band is of a great standard for HK). Cain certainly endeared himself by speaking Cantonese to the mostly Chinese audience. It’s easy to like F.B.I.

Ashley B

“Opens your eyesTo the underground

The show case of Hong Kong sounds

You’ll all be jumping all around

When F.B.I. can be found”

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