April 10, 2005
News | Taiwan's Spring Scream 2005 |
Kenting, Taiwan's Spring Scream has become something of a subcultural institution. When I went to the first one, over a decade ago, it was more like a big party than a small music festival. Much has changed--now some 3,000 to 4,000 local and expat rockers migrate to the southern beach town each year for a fest that has nonetheless stayed true to its non-corporate roots. We'll have a couple of reports on what went down at the Scream this year, starting with this overview by Taiwan-based writer Leonie Sanderson:
Over again for the 11th time, Spring Scream Chicken still managed to come up with the goods – original, fresh music from more than 200 bands over 5 days in sunny Kenting.
Not only has Spring Scream continued to attract a consistent audience of music lovers, each April the seminal Taiwan festival provides punters with myriad new music to feast upon as well as old favorites.
With four stages to choose from, Spring Scream could be a little hit and miss without a good watch and a trusty schedule. But the quality of bands this year meant that no matter where you found yourself, there was bound to be something worth seeing.
Friday night saw 88 Guavas take to the stage with a good crowd in attendance. Punk trio, Bubblelovele from Japanese label People’s Records, also infected the audience with some nervous energy, a good warm up to the five day slog. They were one of eight bands from the Beijing-based label in attendance this year, including Buzz Dogs, Goofy Style and Seven Star Rockers.
Good weather on Saturday saw the crowds swell and New Yorkers Team Sasquatch put on an amped up show just round sunset. Moving into the evening, African drumming troupe Baba Alex and the Pan African Cultur managed to get the whole crowd dancing – on the stage. Next up were some solid reggae beats from Taiwanese locals RED-I & Bukakkae posse who took the opportunity to communicate their sociopolitical views. But the real fun started when oldtimers Milk took to the stage midst sexy dancing girls, bewigged acrobats and funked up hip hop, rock meltdown. Meantime Dynasty, a US punk duo, were steaming up an already humid night and rumour has it their other New York friends Dynamite Club played a killer aftershow. They must have really blown everyone away because high winds on Sunday threatened to shut down the show with buckled scaffolding and one collapsed stack, but with a bit of highly dangerous gymnastics, things got sorted and the show went on in true rock’n’roll style,
MC Hotdog, Taiwan’s controversial rapper showed he still had the rhymes with the crowd running to catch the show. The Deported totally punked out, complete with requisite writhing on the ground by the lead singer whose parents were seen in the audience taking pictures. Taichung funk-rockers .22 played Sunday night and although the bass player, drummer and guitarist from longtime Japanese favorites Mimie Chan couldn’t make it this year, it didn’t stop the all-female horn section from hopping up on stage with .22 in an impromptu ska number. Perennial Taiwanese favorites Clippers pumped out a rocking set, not forgetting to introduce their synthesizer as a key member of the band and Full House lead the assault of five, count ‘em, rockabilly bands in a row.
Monday and Tuesday saw smaller numbers but performances continued to be top notch, with People’s Records’ HAKAIHAYABUSA and Buzz Dogs playing to tired but faithful fans.
Spring Scream manages to stay true to the grassroots and independent ethic with which it began and yet still bridge the gap between the signed and the unsigned, the freelance and the fulltime, the paid and the unpaid. Next year is number 12, the last in the horoscope cycle. Put it in your diary now. Spring Scream Dog is bound to be better than ever.
Written by Leonie Sanderson
Posted by Mack Hagood at April 10, 2005 09:42 PM