Live Review from Underground 78:
The next act was Hong Kong band Sway Dog, singing in Cantonese, but this power trio was about as far as you can get from Canto-pop. I heard a heavy Brit-pop-punk influence in their sound, ranging from the Jam up to Blur. Their mix of covers and original songs had an appealing ragged edge. Sway Dog is a veteran band, having played more than 100 gigs since their launch, and you can tell these guys really enjoy playing together. Spike
Live Review from Underground 65:
Sway Dogs’ review would be easy to write. I shouldn’t need to take notes. A power-house three-piece band singing very hilarious Cantonese pop songs with a sizeable following. At the show, they brandished a self-made demo CD which I didn’t know if they really distributed. But I got one from Chris B. They started the set with a cover song of local pop star Sam Hui. Quickly you’d realise it was one band you could listen to and identify swiftly. Songs were simple pop-rock not unlike Monogel’s (oh, you also didn’t know them, did you?). Bass was loud and snappy reminding me losely of Peter Hook of New Order, that style actually added percussive feels to the songs. It was strange that lead guitarist Kay had his guitar turned down so quiet (not that it was really quiet like candlelight dinner … I mean comparatively quiet) so the songs lost a bit of kick but it was enough to get a crowd jumping up and down like they were the headliner. Well, The Underground typically does not have one single headliner anyway, so why not. Before the last song, they played one more cover song from Cannes winner movie star Tony Leung. Chris B was frowning: two cover songs, a sin. Oh, well, if you turned a song upside down, may be it’s an original. The crowd loved it, right? This was a lazy band. They formed in 1999 but hardly ever played, so you better keep a lookout or … you’d miss their next performance.
Bun Ng