Live Review from The Underground Festival @ Fanzone
1. P.S. I Love You
2. We Are Colourful
3. 飛
4. 機械人
5. 無盡
By the time these guys took the stage, the crowd had swelled almost miraculously; they’re clearly a popular band. Proof of this, if any further were needed, was the fact that they were the only band that drew screams from members of the audience that night. They certainly have the stagecraft required to draw such reactions from a crowd; the jumping into the crowd during 飛 was a nice touch, and exactly the sort of thing that audiences like. Were they a heavier band, a stage-dive would’ve been warranted, but such was not the case. The sound setup was perfect for them, being vocal-heavy and less so on the rhythm section. Indeed, they had a rich-sounding tone for their set, which was pleasing to the ears. Having said that, it didn’t look like the crowd cared much for things like this – right from P.S. I Love You, nearly everyone in sight was swaying along, and it’s always impressive to see a band that has such an effect on people.
In terms of sound, I’d say they’re in the vein of Coldplay, but with the typical HK-singer sound – lots of throaty high notes with plenty of vibrato, and very arch melodies, creating a light drama with sound. This also means, however, that there’s little to differentiate them from tens of other local bands in terms of sound. What they do do, however, is arrange stuff in the best tradition of pop to sound nice to most people, and the crowd’s reaction to them was evidence of this. Typically, the band are solid musicians, but the focus is on the singer; still, they managed to have a few moments of their own, such as the deliberately messy keyboard solo on 機械人 which sounded pretty good, or the bass runs on 無盡 (which sounded a little like a mix of Aerosmith’s Don’t Want to Miss a Thing and Seal’s Kiss From a Rose). They ended with an extended flourish, to a huge roar from the crowd, and in the enormity of that moment, they really owned it and did a great job of exciting the crowd. And, that’s what the whole night was about, and it could scarcely have proceeded better, or ended on a higher note.
— Shashwati Kala
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Live Review from Underground 85:
1. 日記 (Diary)
2. 最後晚餐 (Last Supper)
3. 對岸.對望 (Look Across Coast to Coast)
4. 話別空氣 (Farewell to the Air)
5. 無知的一伙 (Orphan)
Supper Moment are no newcomers to the Hong Kong Indie scene, having been involved in many competitions and band shows around the town. They are a four-piece band that consists of Sunny on vocals and guitar, Martin on guitar, CK on bass and Hugh on drums. They claim to be heavily influenced by John Mayer and you can sense it in their music as they are really Pop rock.
In their first song, ‘Diary’, Sunny’s voice immediately shines through and you can tell instantly where the influence comes from. This was a very short song that was quite melodic instrumentally and was lead by Sunny’s awesome vocals. He has an amazing voice, and while he sings in Cantonese you can still tell that his vocal skills are awesome.
After the short and quick opener the band played their song, ‘Last Supper’, which sounds like it has religious connotations to it. I wouldn’t know as I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but the tone of his voice made me feel quite content and relaxed. I felt like the music video would be something like two people who really liked each other, constantly looking each other’s way and smiling shyly. I felt like the guy wants the girl but doesn’t know how to express his feelings to her. I really liked this song because of the imagery it gave me, even though it might not be the intended message.
They said that their next song was a new song. ‘Look across coast to coast’. Before they started the song Sunny spoke a little about the song. He said to imagine that you were walking down the street and you saw you ex-girlfriend. He asked what would you do? Would you go up to her and tell her that you still loved her or would you just walk away? So, this was another love song, but this time I was told it was sung in Mandarin.
The band moved onto their next song, which I wrote down originally as the ‘la la la’ song as they repeat this part in the song quite often. I found out later that it is actually called ‘Farewell to the air’. But, I thought that my song title was more appropriate. I think it is quite nice how they have the full band sound while Sunny played an acoustic guitar as the rhythm.
By the fifth song I was kind of feeling like I had heard it all before, most of their songs have the same feeling and I felt that there was not much diversity in their style of music. Not that there is anything wrong with that. They have a distinct style and again, as with the last band, their songs seem to be heavily influenced by relationships. This song, ‘Orphan’, which I don’t think is inspired by the recent thriller at the cinema, was another gentle song with great vocals. I loved how Martin played the guitar trills in this song.
Supper Moment are a great bunch of musicians, I never felt like they played any wrongs notes or made any mistakes. They are very well rounded musicians, but again I couldn’t help my attention being focused on Sunny, the vocalist. Maybe it’s because I am a vocalist too, but he seems to hold most of the stage presence for the band. I think that this guy could almost do it on his own if he wanted to, but the whole band sound completes the songs.
Cain (F.B.I. vocalist)
Live Review from Macau Underground 5:
Supper Moment had a uphill job, with the bar raised so high by OTO, but they managed admirably. Their music managed to be both tight and controlled, and soulful and heartfelt at the same time. Sunny proved to be a perfectly comfortable vocalist and front man, and it was easy to see how they won the 2008 TOM Lee Acoustic Band competition. The John Meyer influence was easy to spot, although it was harder to spot the Sigur Ros and Jimi Hendrix influence they mentioned on their AliveNotDead site. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; Supper Moment is a band that does pop-rock well. They probably would have benefited by being at an earlier point in the evening, as by this late in the night the audience was getting rowdier, but overall Supper Moment held their own and made Hong Kong proud.
the FU
Live review from Underground 68½:
Supper Moment won this year’s 2008 Tom Lee Acoustic Band Competition and for good reason. The band as a whole is talented and play excellent music. I love their style! Still, I can’t help but feel they need to “experiment” perhaps with blending Acid Jazz/Punk with Alternative Rock/Funk? I don’t know what, but just DARE to be DIFFERENT! Lead singer/guitarist Sunny, mentioned that his idol is John Mayer and it shows in most of his compositions and style of playing. When he sings JM’s covers he captures the essence of JM but when he sings his Cantonese numbers his vocal changes to Canto-pop idol, and it’s quite challenging. I think it would be fantastic if he could blend his English JM vocal style with his Canto-pop style and find a comfortable spot in between. Supper Moment has created an excellent sound that’s almost their own, but it won’t be long before they find “it”, and when they do, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
Joves
Live Review from Underground 63:
I surely enjoyed this supper moment at The Cavern!
A first-timer at the Underground but they never looked intimidated to take on the stage as the opening band of the night. Started with an original instrumental piece blended with John Mayer’s cover “Back To You”, the band has already shown a bit of what they are made of. For the rest of their set, they showcased their pop rock originals, shadowed with John Mayer’s flavor, yet also establishing their own consistent style with a bit of folk, blues, and funk.
Most of their originals were written in Cantonese, seemingly having a theme going… one writing about a story of a prostitute and then another one about one-night-stand. All those “catchy but not cheesy” tunes and “flavoured” topics were coming out from the band’s 20-year-old lead vocalist, Sunny. While I was still admiring Sunny’s talents, he amazed me further by finishing off the set with a track “Love Song”, which he wrote for his puppy lover way back then when he was still a high-school kid! I felt ashamed for myself when I tried to think of the songs I wrote way back then. For sure, I wouldn’t dare to put those up on stage without a major make-over!
I wish I could say that they were influenced by AirTub (well, of course not!)… but I do see similarities of an early day AirTub. The difference is… Supper Moments is much more polished, much younger, and with a less metallic sound. They surely have the potentials to excel and become the talk of the town one day! They are definitely one of the bands I’d like to produce.
Supper Moments were also distributing some free demos after their performance too. Demos were nicely produced, both in its sound and design. Rock on!
marcus@AirTub
