A Tale of Two Tours: CNBLUE and One OK Rock In Japan
A special guest post by CNBLUE fan Glenn!
I was in Japan for a bit over a week in April 2023 and in that time was lucky enough to attend shows on tours by two different veteran acts – CNBLUE’s Calling Zepp tour and One OK Rock’s Luxury Disease stadium tour. Very different in their size and scale, but both exceedingly worthwhile.
Introduction
I suppose since I am Valerie’s guest here I should introduce myself. My name is Glenn and I am a 55-year-old man who lives in the DC suburbs of Northern Virginia. So, not exactly in the typical CNBLUE demographic. I first saw CNBLUE on the old MNET America cable channel about 8 years ago and I was immediately captivated by their music (and good looks). Until then I had only really been exposed to KPOP dance groups, so the idea of a real band playing their own instruments was fascinating. I dove headlong into their story, watching every youtube video and collecting as much of their back-catalog of CDs and DVDs as I could. Luckily, the many, many tour DVDs do a good job of capturing what the band is all about. Shortly after my intro I discovered that the WHITE Spring 2015 tour was going to be happening. In those days getting tickets was difficult but there was a fairly straightforward way to get them via secondary sources. So with that in mind I used one of the many little companies that work on behalf of foreigners to get a ticket to one of the Yokohama shows. I also became aware via the CNBLUE International Fans group on FB that someone had an extra ticket to the other Yokohama show. After an easy paypal transaction I had secured tickets to both and made my plans for a whirlwind weekend in Yokohama. It’s nice to have the tour DVD of a show I attended. So those are my general bona fides.
For the 2023 CNBLUE Calling Zepp tour I had already booked a trip to Asia before the tour was announced that included about a week in Tokyo for the first week of April. Given the byzantine world of Japanese concert ticketing I expected it would be difficult to get tickets since the initial lottery was only open to Japanese BOICE. which seems to basically require you to live in Japan (or be close friends with someone who does). Luckily when the winners of the first round of the lottery were announced several BOICE with extra tickets were advertising them on Twitter. Thanks to Valerie for making me aware of this! I contacted a few and was able to fairly quickly line up a ticket for night 2 in Nagoya and night 1 in Sapporo. Both were extremely helpful to me and I sent payment by PayPal, then had to go through the process of figuring out how to get a Japanese phone number to be able to use the electronic ticketing system. This also proved to be stressful but fairly straightforward.
With all of that out of the way, let’s (finally) get on with the show!
When this tour was announced I was initially a bit baffled. Why was a band that’s been playing arenas for years scaling way down to a tour of Zepp live house clubs? From what I can gather it was a chance to rebuild their audience and to reconnect with their biggest fans after being on hiatus for military service and after the loss of a band member.
I arrived in Nagoya a few hours before the second night’s show. I had seen the set list posted from the first night so had some idea what to expect. Zepp Nagoya holds about 1800 people. Signs were posted around the club and around the block for every 100 people. Everyone lined up by their ticket reference number. My number for this show was 1062. Around 5:30 I walked across the street from my hotel (Strings Hotel Nagoya – highly recommended if you’re going to a show here) to the club to see where I needed to go. Once doors opened at 6 PM the ticketing app made the tickets active and the line eventually started moving.
Despite my high number when I got inside the club I managed to be one of the last people to squeeze into the area about fifteen rows deep from the stage. Anticipation built as the 7 PM show time approached with audio of past CNBLUE shows playing over the club’s PA. Shortly after 7 PM the lights went down and Kang Minhyuk was first out to his drum kit. Now that they are a trio Minhyuk’s spot has moved to the front of the right side of the stage with bassist Lee Jungshin in his customary spot on the left and of course frontman Jung Yonghwa in the center. The sound is filled out on this tour by three extra musicians—two guitar players and a keyboard player who mostly were kept off on the fringes of the stage.
The show was arranged in short blocks of songs, the first of which was the “Rock” block that opened with IN MY HEAD. The sound in the club was a bit bass-heavy so having concert earplugs made a big difference in filtering the sound. Yonghwa’s vocals were loud and clear and Jungshin’s takeover of former band member Lee Jonghyun’s vocal parts was pretty seamless. It also felt like having Minhyuk that much closer to the audience really made the drums even more immediate. The block finished out with ONE TIME: RYU CAN DO IT, WHERE YOU ARE, and one of my favorites, TIME IS OVER. It was quite interesting to see how the set was constructed with some real out-of-left-field choices. I’m not sure I would have expected TIME IS OVER but I’m glad it was there.
Then it was time for the first MC block. Since I don’t speak Japanese I don’t know exactly what was said but it was the usual introductions from the three of them welcoming everyone to the show and riffed on the word “Calling.” Yonghwa also mentioned that IN MY HEAD was their major label debut single.
Second was the “Dance” block that opened with FACE TO FACE (with Yonghwa mugging for the crowd), THIS IS, and SHAKE SHAKE. That was followed by the next MC block with a recap of the SHAKE SHAKE choreography.THIS IS also seemed like a pretty deep cut.The guys were all extremely relaxed with lots of laughter and gentle ribbing of each other.
Next was the “Emo” block that kicked off with SUPERNOVA—yet another track you wouldn’t have really expected. This part of the show was very strong, however I felt like at the end of this song the drums got a little out of sync with everyone else. It definitely sounded better at the Sapporo show. That was followed by one of the real highlights of the show for me which was ROYAL RUMBLE. I feel like this song is really underrated and Yonghwa really gets to exercise his vocal talents. The additional musicians also allow him to just sing this song without having to worry about anything else. The section closed out with MOON, with the very excited crowd enthusiastically clapping along.
The following MC section was time for Food Talk, a staple of every CNBLUE performance.
The next section has apparently been dubbed “Powerful” by YH and included LET IT SHINE, TRIGGER, and BETWEEN US. Again the crowd seemed to really enjoy this section of newer material followed by another MC.
And the main set closed out with the crowd-pleasing “Final” section that included some of their best-loved audience-participation songs: LADY, WAKE UP, COFFEE SHOP, and I’M SORRY. Honestly, these are probably four of the best live songs ever. Because they’ve played them so many times and are free to play around a little it’s really a joy between Yonghwa goofing around during LADY, followed by all of the various “Wake Up, Wake Up” call-and-responses that can really be played with. Since the club is small Yonghwa several times called for silence from the crowd and did his call without a microphone, which worked well in such an intimate setting. And then he coached Minhyuk in a couple of rounds of the same thing. For my money COFFEE SHOP might just be the perfect song. It’s just so fun in the live environment and the whole club was really dancing along. I’M SORRY will always be a crowd favorite, with Yonghwa’s overhead arm thing that looks like a little kid asking a truck driver to blow his horn.
Of course the band returned after a brief break to change into the tour t-shirts. Yonghwa delighted the crowd by telling everyone it was ok to get out our phones to take photos and videos of TRY AGAIN, SMILE AGAIN. As someone who’s been to lots of shows in North America over the years I have to say that the prevalence of smartphone photography has largely detracted from the concert experience. So being in a place where photography is strictly forbidden is kind of refreshing since it allows everyone a chance to concentrate on just enjoying the show. But for one song I guess we could all be distracted by trying to get as many good pictures as possible. After that we had time for thank you’s to the extra tour musicians and I presume to the tour and club staff and of course all of us for being there.
The show closed with GLORY DAYS, which I guess seems to be the new traditional closer. After that they took their bows and it was all over.
The show in Sapporo was basically exactly the same but with different Food Talk. The queues were organized slightly differently and I was number 485 for this show. Once inside I got the almost identical spot to the previous show. Zepp Sapporo holds about 2000 but I think this show was not quite sold out and there was a little more personal space on the floor which I really appreciated.
If I could suggest one thing to the band it would be to change up the set from show to show to make them all different. They have such an extensive catalog now that it would be easy to switch out at least four or five songs every show. I get that they like everything to be well-scripted, but my favorite artists over the years like James or REM always played a different show every night. So if you went to multiple shows it was always fresh and it kept the band on their toes. On a tour like this where there is no big video or light show it would be somewhat easier to do.
I had wondered how the smaller stage would affect Yonghwa’s manic energy and his running all over the place, but in general he was focused and had plenty of chances to get out his energy. He’s always been the consummate frontman and in a venue this size he’s really able to connect with everyone.
The chance to see the band in a venue this size was really exciting and I still can’t quite believe how lucky I was to see them twice on this tour. A huge thank you to the two Japanese fans who sold me the tickets and were so nice in looking after me to make sure I got the tickets and knew where to be. In such a crazy world these days it’s great to see that there are still people who are happy to help a complete stranger.
One OK Rock at Tokyo Dome
Sandwiched between these two shows I had a chance to see One OK Rock at Tokyo Dome. On a bit of a whim I checked when I arrived in Japan to see if there were any tickets available in the Pia website and sure enough there were. I had no idea where the seat was located but it was easy enough to buy my ticket.
Tokyo Dome shows are very well-organized. I found the appropriate entrance and asked if I was in the right place. The staff member tapped on my phone and then another person applied a little NFC device to the screen to verify my ticket and I was in. One of the nice things about shows in Japan are the early start times. CNBLUE was doors at 6 PM, show at 7 PM. One OK Rock was doors at 4 PM, show at 6 PM. I had arrived a little after 4 PM, which was obviously quite early. It turned out that my seat was in the outfield bleachers with a generally obstructed view of the stage and no view of the big video screens. I couldn’t even see Kanki Toyoma but could just see the front of his drum kit.
I will admit that, while I really enjoy their music, I am not as intimately familiar with their catalog. But I knew this would be an interesting experience. When we entered everyone was given a radio controlled LED bracelet. These were certainly an integral part of the overall light show.
The band were fresh off a North American arena tour opening for Muse, but of course they are so huge here in Japan that they can sell out consecutive nights at the biggest stadiums in the country. I believe Tokyo Dome holds about 50,000 people for concerts and the place was packed full by show time.
The lights went down a few minutes after 6 PM and the opening strains of WONDER hit the crowd, but only Tomoya was on the stage so everyone was a little confused. Then spotlights hit two raised platforms around 1st base and 3rd base with Yamashita Toru and Kohama Ryota atop them playing before eventually coming down and running to the stage. And then Moriuchi Taka was raised up to the stage extension in front of the stage to start singing. I am not really a fan of stadium shows but the band are veterans of big shows like this and know how to make BIG movements and grand entrances. There is clearly a lot of work that goes into putting together a show on this scale. They really brought out all of the pyro, fireworks, and dry ice aided lasers.
I won’t do a song by song of the show, but they played 25 songs over the course of nearly 3 hours including some quite long MC sections. Here’s a link to the set https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/one-ok-rock/2023/tokyo-dome-tokyo-japan-3bbb6490.html Apparently this show was recorded for the eventual live DVD.
The show was quite a spectacle as I expected. Once the bracelets got activated the whole audience became a giant mood light. Everyone was REALLY into the show with most people singing along to everything and most arms in the air. Permission was granted for everyone to photograph the encore.
Taka is another fantastic frontman who loves being dramatic with lots of grand gestures. They’ve played lots of very large venues through the years so he’s clearly had time to hone his craft and play to a venue this enormous. For such a little guy he really has a large presence in addition to his huge voice.
Among the interesting contrasts between these events was the breakdown of the crowd. At the two CNBLUE shows I attended I’d estimate that I saw a total of ten other men (besides the band, crew, and venue staff) and I think the average age was probably in the area of forty. At One OK Rock I think it was about 50/50 women to men with the crowd skewing younger to their twenties – although I did see one businessman in a suit who was probably in his sixties. I’m not really sure why CNBLUE doesn’t have much of a male fan following. Are they just too handsome?
Overall it was three great shows by two excellent bands. I’ll always prefer a more intimate venue, but the OOR stadium experience was worth doing.
Practical Information
Valerie (again!) suggested a company called Mobal (www.mobal.com) which will provide you with a Japanese SIM card and real Japanese Softbank or DOCOMO phone number. Just make sure your phone is unlocked. You can either pick the card up when you arrive in Japan or they will ship it to you for free. The cheapest short term plan is currently about 8000 JPY for thirty days which includes a phone number for calls and texting as well as 7 GB of data.
Once you receive the SIM you can request a specific date to activate your account and they suggest that activation may take up to a couple of days so getting it activated right before you arrive is a good idea.
You will need a Japanese phone number to create and verify your account with the Ticket Pia site (t.pia.jp) and their service called Cloak which allows you to receive ticket transfers from other users. Because I had never used this before and couldn’t actually register until I arrived in Japan there was some stress about whether I would be able to get it working. But the worry was unnecessary as I was able to register no problem. As part of the process you call a toll free number from your phone number to verify it. Once I had that set up I was able to receive the ticket transfers. Until I actually got into the show though there was still some question over how it worked. But just showing the ticket screen to the venue staff was all I needed to do and they quickly clicked the link they needed to and I was in.
For the One OK Rock show however I also needed another app called MOALA to use this ticket. The Google Play store told me this app wasn’t available to me (presumably because it’s a US phone even though I had my Japanese SIM installed), but I managed to install a sideload version that worked fine. Just search for something like “How to install the MOALA app” in your favorite search engine and you will find the apk to download and install.
Summum bonum: 2023 SFFILM festival
The 2023 edition of the SFFILM Festival took place this year in mid-April , with in person screenings in San Francisco and the East Bay. This was a streamlined version of the festival, with just two or three screenings of most films and taking place at just three venues, the Castro and CGV Cinemas in San Francisco and BAM/PFA in Berkeley, plus one show on Opening Night at the Grand Lake in Oakland. The number of programs was down from 105 in 2023 and 130 in 2022 to 96 this year. It was a bit trickier catching films but I managed to see three excellent non-fiction films, each of which challenged documentary filmmaking conventions.
With King Coal, director Elaine McMillion Sheldon creates a poetic elegy to Appalachia, at once dreamlike and hard as nails. The film is a stylistic departure from her earlier verite-style films Heroin(e) and Recovery Boys, both of which looked at the opioid crisis in the region where she was born and raised. King Coal blends observational filmmaking with several staged, unscripted sequences featuring two young girls and was shot in the heart of the heartland where coal mining was the backbone of the economy for decades. The film is a fascinating hybrid that sympathetically portrays the plight of a region that has long been exploited for its natural resources, at great human cost. King Coal does make the case that white working class people are victims of capitalism, which may skirt a bit too close to arguments about “economic anxiety,” ignoring the presence of white privilege. But McMillion Sheldon’s cinematic vision is so compelling and so lyrically realized that in this case I’m willing to overlook a little bit of societal myopia.
In The Tuba Thieves director Alison O’Daniel, who is hard of hearing, creates a film that questions the presence and absence of sound from the perspective of mostly Deaf characters. As might be expected from its title, the film takes as a jumping off point a series of thefts of tubas from Los Angeles area schools over the span of a few years, but its scope is wide-ranging and only tangentially touches on those events. The Tuba Thieves consists of several short vignettes that look at sound and silence, including a dramatization of the premiere of John Cage’s 4’33” to a somewhat bemused audience in upstate New York, archival footage of the organizers of Prince’s 1984 concert at Gallaudet University (the famous institution for Deaf and hard of hearing students), a recreation of a concert at the legendary San Francisco punk venue The Deaf Club, and parallel narrative threads focusing respectively on a Deaf drummer and a hearing teenager in a marching band whose tubas are among the stolen items referenced in the film’s title. O’Daniels’ film makes creative use of open captioning, creating poetically descriptive titles that enhance and embellish the sounds and dialog in the film.
Another particularly telling element is the recurring discussion of sonic booms, which are created when an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound. Instead of including the actual sound of the phenomenon, O’Daniels instead shows pictures of planes breaking the sound barrier. In these ways the film privileges the perceptions and points of view of the Deaf and hard of hearing community. The result is a fascinating take that draws attention to what most hearing people take for granted—the way that sound interacts with the environment and with daily life.
Milisuthando, Milisuthando Bongela’s semi-autobiographical eponymous essay film, is a long and dense look at South Africa just before and just following the end of apartheid. Comprised of much archival and broadcast footage, personal reminiscences, some sit-down interviews, and the filmmaker’s own astute observations in voiceover, the film explores South Africa’s fraught and convoluted history of race relations. Milisuthando examines a multitude of topics including Nelson Mandela, white guilt and white privilege, school integration, and the perils and pleasures of interracial friendships, among many others. Bongela allows many passages in her film to run a bit longer than may be comfortable to viewers accustomed to the rapid pace of most commercial films, a technique that works to good effect in both stimulating introspection and creating discomfort. It’s a good film and one that I plan to revisit to tease out more of its nuances.
NOTE: SFFILM had most of its San Francisco screenings at CGV Cinemas (formerly the AMC 14), an outpost of the huge South Korean cinema chain, which opened in 2021 in the middle of the pandemic. The theater was my go-to whenever I wanted to see a blockbuster Hollywood or Korean movie all by myself and the handful of times I saw a film there there were usually about a half-dozen other customers in attendance. Once or twice I was the only person in the entire theater (and possibly in the entire multiplex) and for some reason the venue either didn’t have or never turned on the air-con, which made it much less appealing to go to. For whatever reason, business has continued to not be good and in late February CGV announced that it would be closing the San Francisco branch as of March 1, with sporadic events such as SFFILM continuing in the space. With the future of the Castro Theater still in limbo and the closure of the last movie theater in downtown Berkeley in January 2023, big-screen moviegoing in the Bay may be very limited in the future.
Deeper Into Movies: San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 42
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival just completed its 2022 run, which marked a return to in-person programming after two pandemic years during which the festival was almost exclusively online. As usual the programming spanned a wide range of genres and films.
The festival opened with the Israeli narrative, Karaoke, which looks at a middle-aged Tel Aviv married couple whose lives are upended when a swinging bachelor moves into the penthouse of their apartment building. The film is a subtle study of a seemingly banal and ordinary couple, unobtrusively revealing its story with restraint and insight. There’s a whisper of queerness that’s too understated to be called a twist but the information adds complexity to the overall effect of the film.
Another narrative, Haute Couture, is much more conventional and much less successful in its storytelling. Although beautifully shot and nicely acted, the film lacks much depth in its characterizations and is at its core deeply problematic. The story follows Esther, a seamstress in the Dior fashion house who meets Jade, a streetwise young French Arab woman, and takes her under her wing by giving her an apprenticeship at Dior. Though on the surface Haute Couture seems forward-looking by including actual Arab characters in a film set in France, most of the characters’ various cultural identities are plot devices that are quickly skimmed over, including a token trans character who primarily serves as window dressing. Even Esther’s Jewish identity is quickly introduced but ultimately irrelevant to her actions. Esther also utters some pretty egregiously racist comments, but the film uses the old trope of including an even more racist character to make Esther seem less offensive by comparison. Structurally, the movie races from one contrived plot point to the next, and Jade’s worshipful acceptance of her “rescue” from her ghetto roots reeks of white saviorism.
More successful were several documentary and essay film selections in the festival. JFF Director of Programming Jay Rosenblatt is a noted experimental filmmaker (his most recent accolade being an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Documentary) so it’s no surprise that the festival included films that depart from the standard narrative or documentary fare.
Oakland resident Pratibha Parmar’s My Name Is Andrea explores the life and legacy of radical feminist theorist Andrea Dworkin. Dworkin’s a controversial figure and has been reduced to a cartoon character over the years so revisting her work is a revelation, and the film showcases her charismatic presence and her unrelenting examinations of misogyny in contemporary US culture. Parmar re-enacts key moments in Dworkin’s life as played by several different actors including Ashley Judd and Christine Lahti, interspersed with archival footage of Dworkin herself in all her astute, well-spoken, and passionate glory. The film is visceral, gripping and ultimately brilliant and makes a strong case for the continued relevance of Dworkin’s perspective and theories on violence against women—she ain’t wrong, people.
A more conventional documentary, Bernstein’s Wall (dir. Douglas Tirola) looks at the life of legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein as told almost exclusively in Bernstein’s own words. The film is archival archival archival, with Tirola taking a trove of footage and shaping it into a cohesive, engaging narrative. Although Bernstein himself never spoke publicly about his queerness, the film also includes excerpts from private missives between various intimates including mentor Aaron Copeland, Bernstein’s siblings, and his depressed wife, who describes herself as “the governess.” Nicely done and eminently watchable, the movie paints a respectful picture of Bernstein as a driven, ambitious, and somewhat frustrated artist whose consuming career may not have been very kind to some of the people closest to him.
In A Reel War: Shalal, director Karnit Mandel describes her experience trying to track down the whereabouts of the lost film archives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization that were seized by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon war. This incisive essay film emphasizes the importance of images in cultural memory and the way that cultural erasure and forced amnesia act as a forms of imperialism.
Babi Yar: Context, focuses on the genocide of the Jews in Ukraine during World War II. Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa (winner of the JFF Freedom of Expression Award) makes the case that residents of Ukraine were complicit in one of the most infamous Nazi atrocities, the 1941 massacre of nearly 34,000 Jews who over the course of two days were shot and buried in the Babi Yar ravine near the city of Kyev. The film, which is completely without narration, tells its story exclusively through archival footage and a reconstructed sound design. Although the evidence is circumstantial, Loznitsa deftly makes the argument for Ukranian complicity through footage such as the hero’s welcome that Nazi officials recieved in Ukraine and cheerful Ukranian women and children digging mysterious trenches. These are later followed by chilling testimony of both Jewish survivors and German perpetrators of the executions who described the massive scale of death. Although the film skirts toward atrocity porn, it nonetheless makes a cogent argument for the Ukranian collaboration in the “holocaust by bullets” that occurred at Babi Yar.
Love Fool: Fire Island at Frameline46 Film Festival
I recently caught Fire Island, Andrew Anh’s latest feature film, at the Frameline Film Festival here in San Francisco. As always the festival is the leadup to Pride Weekend, which is the last weekend of June and which culminates in the massive and legendary San Francisco Pride Parade. One of the most memorable Frameline screenings that I attended took place in 2013 on the same day that the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down by the Supreme Court, legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States. That night the Castro district was packed with joyous revelers celebrating the decision and we had to fight our way through crowds thronging the streets to get into the movie theater.
As fate would have it, the screening of Fire Island at Frameline also occurred right around the time of another landmark Supreme Court case, but this time it was night before the grim and regressive decision that reversed the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the US. As I write this I can barely articulate my sorrow and rage and my continued despair as the US slides further toward fascism. Now that Roe v Wade has been overturned, Fire Island is either a beacon for the future or a time capsule of a way of life that will be threatened soon.
The film itself is delightful—a queer Asian American reworking of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set on the titular island that follows a friend group of five QTPOC who arrive at the legendary gay vacation mecca for a week of fun and frolic. Joel Kim Booster grounds the film as Noah, the pretty, somewhat jaded narrator of the story, with Bowen Yang as his sweetly vulnerable bestie Howie. Conrad Ricamora is droll and deadpan as Noah’s romantic foil, the upright and slightly repressed Will. James Scully as Charlie, Howie’s earnest love interest, is appropriately dorky and starry-eyed, with slightly absurd windswept hair. Margaret Cho as the lesbian den mother as usual lights up the screen. Most definitely a fun and kicky romcom, the film captures Fire Island’s cruisy, hedonistic vibe with many scenes of sleek beautiful cuties gyrating at underwear parties and swimming pools. Though the film casts a somewhat critical eye on the young, hairless, slender gay male standard of beauty, one of my quibbles about the movie is its lack of a lot of body diversity. But the film does critique the shallowness of the Fire Island scene and it doesn’t shy away from exploring the racism and classism Howie and Noah et al face in the snobby, mostly white Fire Island milieu.
Most significantly, Fire Island emphasizes the community minded mentality of Noah and Howie’s BIPOC chosen family. As director Andrew Ahn mentioned in the Q&A following the screening at the Castro, whereas David, the protagonist of his first feature film Spa Night, was pretty solitary, in Fire Island it’s all about the importance of supporting your tribe and *SPOILER* the film’s last scene interrupts Will and Noah’s first kiss to reestablish those collectivist connections. Fire Island is the saucy, community minded queer Asian American romcom we’ve all been waiting for and it’s great to see director Ahn successfully make the jump from indie film world to more mainstream productions. We need strong and articulate Asian American and queer voices like Ahn’s in Hollywood in order to combat the oppressive forces in the US that want to obliterate the progress toward liberation and justice that our communities have made in the past fifty years.
Note: There’s another melancholic aspect of this screening. The management of the Castro has recently been taken over by Another Planet Entertainment which plans to use the theater as a mixed-venue with an emphasis on live music. Will this be the last film I see there before the seats are ripped out and the floor is leveled? Over the years I’ve spent countless hours there watching movies so the possibility that the Castro will no longer primarily be a cinema is endlessly sad. There is movement afoot to prevent this, however, but whether the effort will succeed is yet unknown.
I Don’t Take A Break, I Break Bricks: Rhetorical And Poetic Devices In CNBLUE Lyrics
So since I’ve been spending the past 10 days in a quarantine hotel in Taipei as part of the social experiment that is Taiwan’s COVID-10 response, I have a lot of time on my hands. Around the fifth day of my quarantine I came across a twitter thread with examples of rhetorical devices in Taylor Swift lyrics, which inspired me to adapt the idea to a list of rhetorical and poetic devices in CNBLUE’s lyrics. CNBLUE’s leader and chief songwriter Jung Yonghwa, who writes in English and Japanese (in collaboration with Japanese translators) as well as his native Korean, has a distinctive way with words and it was interesting to analyze the craft he puts into his wordsmithing. I’m no rhetorician so some of my examples might not be quite right but I had a good time doing a deep dive into the lyrics of my favorite band.
Lyrics in translation from Korean or Japanese are in italics. All others are in their original English. All lyrics by Jung Yonghwa unless otherwise noted. A version of this originally appeared as a twitter thread. Some lyrics are from solo releases by Yonghwa. Many translations courtesy of justjyh.com
1. ALLITERATION: the succession of words with similar sounds
“Let’s stay sober tonight”
–Stay Sober
2. ANAPHORA: the repetition of a word or phrase in successive clauses.
“I think of you at the blowing wind
I think of you at the dazzling sunlight”
–Can’t Stop
“My heart stops at this cold love, my heart breaks into pieces
My breath stops at this sick love, my breath slowly dies”
–Cold Love
“Love is meant to be cruel
Love is meant to be piercing
Love is meant to be like fire”
–Love Is
3. ANTANACLASIS: The repetition of a word within a phrase or sentence in which the second occurrence utilizes a different meaning from the first.
I don’t take a break, I break bricks
–Ryu Can Do It
4. ANTIMETABOLE: The repetition of words in successive clauses in transposed order.
I see right through you the same
Same way you see right through me
–Brothers
5. APOSTROPHE: any instance when the speaker talks to a person or object that is absent from the poem.
Hello Hello Hello Mr.KIA
Don’t be such a snob
Don’t get on the high horse, man
–Mr. KIA
6. ASSONANCE: The repetition of similar vowel sounds in neighboring words.
“You shine a light so bright that it’s blinding
Like a firework that’s blooming in the sky”
–Summer Dream
7. ASYNDETON: the omission of conjunctions from a phrase or sentence.
“People become enemies, piercing, ripping, disappearing”
–Checkmate
8. BLASON: describes the physical attributes of a subject, usually female.
“It’s the stain of your lipstick
On the glass that you share with
Slowly crossin’ your legs
As you’re playin’ with your hair”
–Make You Mine
9. ENJAMBMENT: a line break that interrupts the flow of a sentence
“Slowly tracin’ all the droplets
As they’re drippin’ off your hair it’s
So amazing how you find
Another way to blow my mind”
–Make You Mine
10. EPISTROPHE (aka epiphora): the repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases or verses.
“Can’t you be my light?
Please be my light”
–Lonely Night
11. EPIZEUXIS: The repeated use of a word for vehemence or emphasis, generally in the same sentence.
“That day, that day, that day, that day, that day”
–One Fine Day
“I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know who I am who I am who I am”
–Till Then
12. EXTENDED or SUSTAINED METAPHOR; the use of a single metaphor or analogy throughout a poem.
“If life is nothing but a party
Your name is on the marquee”
–Life Is A Party
“Even if there are speed bumps to slow me down
I have to speed up again
I keep stopping, when I start to go, I stop again
I raise the speed but you tell me to stop”
–Navigation
“We’re like a puzzle
I want to put them together
Fitting vivid-colored pieces with each other”
–Puzzle
“Because the heart can act like a mirror
In a reflection of one another
The pieces coming together make the world brighter”
–Mirror
13. HYPERBOLE: The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
“Even sweet rest is utterly bitter survival”
–Royal Rumble
“On the blackest of the nights
My heart burns blacker than the night”
–Tattoo
14. HYPERCATALECTIC: having an extra syllable or syllables at the end of a metrically complete verse
“It’s time of the season
I just wanna breathe it in”
–Summer Dream
15. HYPOCATASTASIS: An implied comparison or resemblance that does not directly name its referent (an implied SIMILE or METAPHOR).
“The streets of Paris speak to me”
–The Moment
16. INTERNAL RHYME: two rhyming words juxtaposed inside of the line
“What can I do to get you through
And make you change your mind?”
–Someone Else
17. LETTER-FOR-LETTER SPELLING
“D.I.A.M.O.N.D girl”
–Diamond Girl
18. METAPHOR: A comparison which directly relates one thing to another unrelated thing.
“Every night’s a breath of life when the city never sleeps”
–Life Is A Party
“We are the fire in the rain”
–Fire and Rain
“I’m your navigation”
–Navigation
19. METONYMY: the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is associated
“Only black and white, like the piano”
–Still
20. ONOMATOPOEIA: a word that sounds like the noise it describes
“Tick tock when I see you”
–Face To Face
21. PARALLELISM: the usage of repeating words and forms to give pattern and rhythm to a passage, either to juxtapose contrasting ideas or connect similar ideas.
“’Cause when I’m with you
You’re not with me”
–Someone Else
22. PARADOX: a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true
“When I see you I can’t breathe, I need to see you to breathe”
–Between us
23. SIMILE: A stated comparison (usually formed with “like” or “as”) between two dissimilar things.
“Something in the way that you laugh is like a sunflower”
–Summer Dream
“Like a child
Just like heaven”
–Like A Child
“Like the water drops that soak the dry earth
You filled my insecure heart”
–Glory Days
“My past times are on film like a movie star”
–27 Years
“I can feel your lips settle down on mine like a butterfly”*
–Daisy
*lyric by Lee Jungshin
24. SLANT RHYME: two words located at the end of a line of poetry themselves end in similar—but not identical—consonant sounds or syllable
“Don’t know how to describe
What’s going on inside”
–The Moment
“Can you let me breath?
Can you let me dream?”
–Lonely Night
“Every day is a miracle
The colors are a spectacle”
–Summer Dream
25. CONCEIT: a typically unconventional, logically complex, or surprising metaphor whose appeal is more intellectual than emotional
“People told me nothing’s easy, that’s why I go hard”
–Ryu Can Do It
“When the cloud covers the sky
And stars have closed their eyes”
–Supernova
“So I’m drunk by noisy sights”
–Jellyfish
You’re Playing Me Like A Fiddle: CNBLUE’s Wanted album review
Wanted, CNBLUE’s latest release, dropped this past October and as usual it’s solid all around. On this EP CNBLUE is going back to the 80s when power pop, punk rock’s cheerful sibling, ruled the world, or at least my playlist at the time. Wanted is a textbook example of what Nick Lowe dubbed Pure Pop—simple, upbeat, cleverly crafted pop songs. Once you hear a power pop classic such as 99 Luftballons, Back Of My Hand (I’ve Got Your Number), Starry Eyes, or Attitudes it never leaves your backbrain and the same is true of CNBLUE songs. This five-song EP is power pop at its finest, anchored by Jung Yonghwa’s reliably stellar songwriting and vocals.
Whereas their 2020 release, Re:Code, was moody and introspective, Wanted is bright and buoyant. It’s a throwback to CNBLUE’s earliest releases, with an added sophistication to their musicianship and songwriting. The lead track, Love Cut, is a fun and fabulous blend of so many things, including muscular stride piano runs, twangy, evocative guitar licks, brassy Mexican horn flourishes, a supple bassline, and world-class whistling that pays homage to countless Western soundtracks of yore. The track is a little bit Sparks, a little bit Ennio Morricone, a little bit Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and all CNBLUE. Yonghwa’s triplets in the pre-chorus and a swinging, half-time bridge that breaks up the beat makes this song all the more kicky and surprising.
Interestingly enough, if the lyrics are read straight up they’re fairly grim, as they lament a toxic relationship gone bad. Taken at face value the bridge reads as some serious stuff:
From the beginning
We were broken
Without a word, you trampled me
I used to laugh and cry at your words
But I’m not that person anymore
But Yonghwa’s plaintive, mournful delivery is almost parodic, like a sad clown miming sorrow. The rest of the track’s upbeat, fast-paced delivery and sassy instrumentation and production further flips the script, making the song’s seemingly overwrought storyline melodramatic and satirical.
Yonghwa also manages some fine and impressive bilingual lyrics. Whereas his very early attempts at writing in English resulted in a peculiar not-quite-there use of the language, here he’s able to seamlessly integrate English and Korean. The second line of the first verse has a killer bilingual Internal slant rhyme (Love or not/animyeon jangnangam) and another equally outstanding example shows up in the pre-chorus (lyrics originally in English in italics)
O ireon That’s my fault
tto igeon nae jalmot
The translation also works perfectly:
Oh, no, That’s my fault
Like how this is my fault as well
This is insanely clever and complex wordplay in two different languages.
The music video fits the song like a glove and in fact the song almost feels like a soundtrack it’s so cinematic. The deadpan way that Yonghwa and Jungshin lipsync their lines, the zooming, vertiginous camerawork, and the smooth-as-silk surfaces of the members’ faces are a video game come to life and it all perfectly matches the song’s inventive instrumentation. With this track CNBLUE is having a lot of fun, tossing out musical references at a mile a minute and behaving like animatronic versions of themselves on screen. The MV’s climax, where the band members whip out their deadly weapons which turn out to be—scissors? underscores the song and the MV’s self-reflexive, surreal, and witty presentation. The whole thing is a ridiculously entertaining simulacra that’s as fun to watch as it is to listen to.
In contrast to Love Cut’s dense, fat production, 99%, the second track, is stripped down to its most necessary elements, but the tune itself is so catchy that it doesn’t need much embellishment. I like the way the track gradually adds elements: guitar, drums, vocals, bass. Yonghwa’s singing is completely on trend as he spits staccato vocals just like everyone’s favorite trap singers. This breezy little number is the epitome of the perfect three-minute pop song and it promises to be completely amazing live.
Following 99%’s sharp, spiky groove, the third track, Hold Me Back, shifts gears to a more relaxed Bruno Mars-esque R&B sound, anchored by Yonghwa’s suave and effortless vocals. The only track written by bassist Lee Jungshin (Yonghwa penned the other four), the song’s finger-snapping, silky vibe boasts a laid-back beat by drummer Kang Minhyuk and a sleek pre-chorus piano and bass riff. Yonghwa’s vocals shine once again as he glides smoothly between his rich midrange to a sweet falsetto.
The next track, Nothing, is a throwback to vintage CNBLUE as this energetic tune sounds a bit like an updated version of their 2012 hit Hey You. The track’s intro is a jazzy guitar, in part to transition from the smooth slow jam of Hold Me Back. This impeccable and well-thought out flow from one track to the next is another feature of CNBLUE releases. Minhyuk’s light and powerful, intricate drumming is one of the highlights of this track. The original Korean title, Teori, literally translates to “bullshit,” demonstrating Yonghwa’s more relaxed attitude toward maintaining his previously perfect pop idol persona.
On Nothing as well as Love Cut Yonghwa has figured out how to best showcase Lee Jungshin’s voice. Whereas on last year’s Blue Stars track from Re:Code Jungshin’s lines were pretty close in tone and range to Yonghwa’s own, here the focus is on Jungshin’s lower, more growly baritone register, which contrasts more clearly with Yonghwa’s light tenor. One of the highlights of early CNBLUE songs was the interplay between Yonghwa’s and former guitarist Lee Jonghyun’s voices, so it’s nice to see that happening more successfully on this EP.
The album closes with the wistful and sweet midtempo ballad Time Machine, which creates an entire mood out of the simplest chord progression. Yonghwa’s mostly known for his power vocals but on this track he highlights the softer qualities of his voice. He gently croons most of the song, hitting a sweet high note in the bridge. Like the best pop music this track does exactly what it needs to do, no more, no less. It could have been cheesy or overwrought but in CNBLUE’s capable hands it’s instead beautiful and affecting.
The song’s repeated refrain, “Everything is the same, only time and the two of us have changed,” evokes a dreamy nostalgia. The sentiment is not unlike Yonghwa’s earlier ballad One Fine Day, with the singer lamenting the loss of love, but here the mood is sadness and remembrance as opposed to the fresh, searing pain of the first song. The feelings are still there but perhaps burnished by time and distance and the song’s soft, sweet melody echoes that feeling. The little bit of flute embellishing the last few bars of the song adds a lilting conclusion to the track.
One thing that stood out for me when I saw The Sparks Brothers documentary last year was the intelligence and care that Ron and Russell Mael put into their music. I feel like CNBLUE is the same—they are always making interesting, creative decisions about their music and they are thoughtful, imaginative, and rigorous in their craft. Not everything they do is a slam-dunk success but they are constantly making informed, intentional decisions about what they put out into the world. That to my mind is the definition of an artist.
Love Is The Only Way (愛是唯一): Taiwan Showcase at Frameline 45
Frameline 45 is in full swing and this year’s festival marks a return to limited in-person screenings, along with a full slate of programs available to stream online.
This year’s program includes a segment focusing on films from Taiwan. The first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage, Taiwan is one of the most queer-friendly countries in the region, as evidenced by its large and popular Pride parade every year.
Frameline 45 includes several features and shorts from the island country, including the gender-bending Shakespeare adaptation As We Like It (揭大歡喜), directed by Hung-i Chen and Muni Wei. Loosely based on As You Like It, The Bard’s iconic cross-dressing play, the film takes place in a slightly futuristic Ximending, one of Taipei’s artsy hipster neighborhoods, which in the film is a no-internet, gender-free zone. In a twist on the Shakespearean tradition of excluding women from performing on the stage, the entire cast is female. The players are cute and charming queer folks working on relationship issues and the film’s mood and tone are a sweet celebration of finding true love.
On a much more poignant tip is Dear Tenant (親愛的房客), directed by Cheng Yu-chieh (鄭有傑), which is a delicate and sensitive story of a man caring for his dead lover’s son and sick mother. When the mother passes away the legal complications of his unclear status act to prevent him from continuing to care for the son. The film is nicely wrought, with sensitive performances from the leads including Mo Tzu-yi (莫子儀), and Chen Shu-fang (陳淑芳), both of whom acting awards at the 57th Golden Horse Awards last year, as well as Runyin Bai as the 9-year-old You-Yu. Neither overly sentimental nor melodramatic, this dramatic narrative explores the gray areas of the law and biases against gay couples when the custody of a child is involved.
The short film program Taiwan Shorts, which is streaming for free, includes four films that are very different from each other. Unnamed (未命名) directed by Gao Hong & Chang Chun-Yu looks at the fluidity of queer identity through a naming conceit, with fun performances from the two young leads. Taiwan Pride for the World (世界驕傲在台灣), directed by Larry Tung, documents Taipei’s 2020 Pride Parade which due to the COVID-19 pandemic was possibly the only one to take place in the world that year. At the time Taiwan had a very low incidence of coronavirus and LGBTQ+ organizers there decided to hold a parade in honor of those around the world who couldn’t. Since then Taiwan’s COVID-19 situation has reversed so it’s bittersweet to view this film from a June 2021 perspective.
Hidden (迷藏), directed by Kuo Hsuan-Chi, follows a young teenage boy as he struggles to navigate the waters of his sexuality while trying to avoid predatory online hookups and catfishers. Undercurrent (宵禁), directed by Weng Yu-Tong, is almost dialog-free, creating a moody, smexy atmosphere. The film follows the smoldering cigarettes and smoldering desires of two young men playing cat-and-mouse during martial law in Kaoshiung.
Each of these films gave me the Taiwan feelz, as they emphasize the specific culture, language, geography, and architecture of Taiwan. The films include shots of the distinctive tile-covered buildings, the humidity and fog, the green mountains, the scooter-covered streets, and the neighbors bringing garbage out to the garbage truck in pink plastic bags, which are details that all scream Taiwan. The films are a window into Taiwan’s singular vibe and delineate the many distinctive elements that make up the island nation.
All films in the Taiwan showcase, which also includes Arvin Chen’s outstanding 2013 romcom Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, will be streaming through June 27, 2021 on Frameline’s online platform.
I’m Sorry: The Low Point in Sell Your Haunted House
SPOILER ALERT: for up to Episode 13
I’m currently watching the outstanding South Korean drama Sell Your Haunted House, the fantasy thriller about a badass female exorcist and her conman partner, which is now airing on KBS2 and on various online international platforms. In addition to stellar performances by the cast, a strong script and excellent direction, killer art direction, and finely tuned worldbuilding, I’ve been impressed by the show’s impeccable demonstration of storytelling skills.
Right now the drama is at what is usually referred to as the low point or the crisis point in classic story structure. It’s the moment in the narrative when the main characters are facing their most difficult challenge and when the situation seems most dire. In the case of Sell Your Haunted House, Hong Ji-Ah (played with fierce and cool conviction by Jang Nara) has just discovered the truth about her mother’s death and she’s so shook that she’s decided to quit exorcising and abandon her past life. She also seems to be cutting ties with two of her most important relationships, with her business partner and mentor Secretary Joo and with her “special psychic” Oh In-Beom (a charming and lovely Jung Yonghwa). In other words, she’s rejecting all human contact and running away because her world has crumbled around her, which is a classic reaction to the low point in a narrative.
Of course she probably won’t actually run away and stop being an exorcist, as is shown later in the episode by her returning to help her distraught neighbor send off her dead son’s unrested spirit. She also reconciles with In-Beom, though she claims it’s for the sake of expediency, not because she’s permanently accepted him back into her life. But the last three episodes of the show will lead to the final confrontation with the bad guy, the evil real estate developer who’s the reason for most of the havoc in the story. This also follows classic storytelling form, as the low point usually precedes the narrative’s climactic events. Sell Your Haunted House has so far been flawlessly paced and plotted and I fully expect that its conclusion will be deeply satisfying, in no small part because the writers understand how storytelling works. Because the bones of the plot are so solid and the show is rooted in a strong narrative structure, I’m pretty sure that the grand finale will deliver. Now the only question is, will the main leads hook up at the end? Or will their potential romance be unrequited? Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing how the writers wrap it all up.
Watch Sell Your Haunted House on VIki, Viu, and Kocowa
Save It For Later: 2021 SFFILM Festival
Before COVID-19 upended our lives I was a big-screen film snob. Living in San Francisco, with its year-round calendar of world-class film festivals as well as rep theaters such as the Pacific Film Archive, the Roxie, and the Castro, it was easy to consume a steady diet of a huge range of cinematic treats solely in movie theaters. All of that changed with the pandemic, and as we enter the second year of the age of coronavirus pretty much all film festivals have shifted online. The SFFILM Festival’s 2021 edition was no exception, and as usual it presented a broad spectrum of international programming. Though my time was very impacted I was able to catch several outstanding movies.
I really enjoyed South Korean director Lee Ran-hee’s impressive debut feature, A Leave, which is a small slice of life about an out-of-work laborer who’s been suing his former employer for the past five years. While manning a protest station in Seoul with a few other diligent souls his daughters who are living apart from him in a Seoul exoburb have entered their teen years and grown up without him. When he returns home for a brief week he cleans the house, fixes the sink, does itinerant labor at a small furniture-making shop and gradually re-enters his family’s life. But his duty as a protestor calls him back to Seoul despite his older daughter’s pleas for him to abandon his quixotic cause. Gritty and realistic, this humanistic portrait shows the crushing weight of workers who live hand to mouth in a neoliberal economy.
Also outstanding was Iranian director Firouzeh Khosrovani’s personal documentary, Radiograph of A Family. Tracing her parents’ relationship starting in the 1960s from their meeting in Switzerland, when her father, who was educated in the West, met her mother, who was younger than her husband, more conservative and more religious. The film follows their lives together in both Europe and Iran, where her mother became a teacher and an activist during the Islamic revolution. Using archival footage and photographs, home movies, and fictional and non-fictional dialog Khosrovani creates a delicate, fascinating portrait of a family caught up in great historical events.
Roberto Salinas’ unobtrusive observational documentary Cuban Dancer follows aspiring ballet dancer Alexis Valdes from age 15 from his home in Cuba to the US where he trains in Florida at a private dance academy. The film includes some failures and some successes as Alexis adjusts to his life in a very different environment from the nurturing world he left behind in Cuba, as he gradually learns English and makes friends in the US. This is the third documentary I’ve seen about Cuban performing artists this year, the other two being the outstanding Los Hermanos/The Brothers and the somewhat more pedestrian but still enjoyable Soy Cubana. Cuban Dancer falls somewhere in between the two of them, as it lacks the cultural and political context of Los Hermanos but has a sturdier and more compelling narrative than Soy Cubana. Postscript: Alexis Valdes went on to attend the San Francisco Ballet School and is now an apprentice dancer in the company.
The festival also included several mid-length films with running times between 30-50 minutes. Created as promotional material for his album of the same name, hip hop artist Topaz Jones’ essay film Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma is structured around replicating the Black ABCs, the iconic flashcards created in the 1970s by a pair of Black educators in Chicago in an attempt to center African American culture. Jones’ film similarly focuses on the Black experience, blending archival footage, staged vignettes, and interviews with Black intellectuals. Tiffany Hsiung’s mid-length documentary, Sing Me A Lullaby, follows her mother Ru Wen’s journey back to Taiwan to find her own mother who she hasn’t seen since she was five years old. This emotional doc captures the sense of loss and longing among exiles as it traces Ru Wen’s poignant story.
The last film I managed to see was Chloé Mazlo’s narrative feature, Skies of Lebanon. Charming and inventive, the film follows the lives of Joseph, a Lebanese rocket scientist and Alice, a Swiss expat who moves to Lebanon in the 1950s to escape her oppressive family life. Joseph and Alice fall in love and marry, raising their daughter in 1960s Lebanon among a large and affectionate family. Beginning in 1975, the long destruction of the Lebanese Civil War takes its toll and gradually most of Alice and Joseph’s extended family flees Beirut, including her beloved daughter Mona. Like Radiograph of A Family, this film looks at the effect of history’s upheavals on everyday individuals. Director Mazlo is a French Lebanese animator and artist and Skies of Lebanon, her first feature film, uses claymation, subtle CGI, theatrical devices, magic realism, and surrealism, as well as some really beautiful, economical storytelling, to spin its engaging tale.
Though I appreciate the ease of viewing that comes with streaming films at home on my laptop it’s still no substitute for watching movies in a theater with a crowd of like-minded cineastes. Still, until it’s safe for us all to go back to the cinema, I appreciate SFFILM’s thoughtful and varied programming. It’s a balm in a year of deprivation.
Born by Irreproachable Gorgeousness: 2021 SXSW Online, part two: Music Festival
Trying to make sense of the vast number of musical performances I witnessed at this year’s SXSW Online music festival is a fool’s errand so I’m just going to highlight some of the things that have stuck with me in the weeks after the event.
Although there was no shortage of guitar-based indie rock bands from around the world, SXSW also included some really great performers from other musical persuasions.
The Korean Traditional Performing Arts Foundation showcase included Dasom Baek, a traditional instrumentalist who incorporates electronic loops into her work. Her set included loops produced by a Korean wooden flute, the daegeum, and the sound of water swished in a metal bowl, overlaid with passages played on a smaller wooden flute. Seated cross-legged on the floor and washed by a single moving beam of light that was at times tinged green or blue, Baek’s set was understated, elegant, and intense.
On a louder, more post-rock tip, Jambinai combined guitars, a trap set, and electronic loops with traditional Korean instruments including the zither-like geomungo, the two-stringed haegeum, and the reedy, metallic taepyeongso, and wordless, softly keening vocals. They worked up a good head of steam in their dark, metal set.
Another Korean act of note was Haepaary, a duo that blended traditional Korean singing styles with electronic beats to create a mesmerizing, evocative atmosphere. Featuring a very big drum and dreamy vocals adapted from 15th-century royal shrine music, Haepaary’s set was pure awesome sauce.
I went into SXSW with the intention of seeing this year’s edition of Taiwan Beats, which showcases indie music from the island nation, and I wasn’t disappointed. Each of the four acts performed in iconic locations in Taiwan and each brought their unique sound and style to their presentation. Vocalist Enno Cheng performed in the mountains of Taiwan, combining her clear, relaxed vocals with understated instrumentation and very subtle synth backings. Interestingly enough, she wore running shoes with her flowing red skirt, not unlike her compatriot KT Chang from Elephant Gym.
I was especially happy that power-punk quartet FireEx was included in the Taiwan Beats showcase, since they had been slated to tour the US last year pre-pandemic and their concert in San Francisco had been on my calendar before COVID killed live music last year. To honor Taiwan’s laborers they staged their set in a factory in the southern port city of Kaohsiung and their performance was interspersed with cutaways of workers doing their thing.
Among other things, FireEx is famous for writing and performing “Island’s Sunrise,” the anthem to the 2014 Sunflower student movement, and they sing mostly in Hoklo Taiwanese dialect. Similarly, the titles of their songs from their SXSW setlist reflected their revolutionary stance. They kicked off with the straight-ahead rock tune Stand Up Like A Taiwanese, followed with the double time beat of Don’t You Fight, which starts with guitar solo and features lead singer Sam’s ragged but clear vocals. The chorus further demonstrates their fiery stance.
Don’t you fight, don’t you fight
It’s a brand new revolution
Time is running out, so let’s go fight
The song shows off their musicality and features a brilliant little break at the end.
The crunchy guitar and deep, heavy bass of Keep on Going, with its strong urgent vocals, subtle harmonies, and crisp drumming, finished off their energetic, anthemic set. This is the music of a people who don’t want to be oppressed by a dictatorship anymore.
Following FireEx was The Chairs, a retro-pop combo who performed in an indoor shrimping-fishing venue. Having spent some time shrimping in Taipei I can attest to its authentic Taiwan vibe and it was a fitting location for The Chairs’ mellow, jazzy set, with their sweet three-part harmonies and acoustic and electric guitar sound. Dressed in neat suit jackets over turtlenecks and collared shirts with white shoes, The Chairs sang in both Mandarin and English, demonstrating how next level Taiwan is.
East London’s Damnably Records showcase was one the best of the lot that I watched, featuring five artists from Asia. The set of the South Korean skate punk trio Drinking Boys and Girls Choir was literally shot in a garage, which all made sense considering their clean, sharp, thrashy sound. The group consists of two girls on drums and guitar and a guy bass player and their sound vaguely resembles the Shaggs on speed. Their Busan compatriots, the quartet Say Sue Me, performed in their practice room which was dressed to look like a suburban living room. Driven by the bass, they played some nice mid-tempo surfy power pop.
Japanese indie power pop quartet Hazy Sour Cherry’s set was fun, poppy, and light. Consisting of four members from Tokyo’s indie scene who play spare, lofi guitar-based pop, they say their biggest influences are the Beatles and it shows. The Damnably showcase also included Grrrl Gang from Indonesia. Another fun power pop group, their sound, with its melodic, plaintive vocals, is mildly riot girlesque, though softer than classic punk.
The highlight of Damnably’s showcase was the all-girl combo Otoboke Beaver, the superb punk band from Japan lead by lead vocalist Accorinrin, whose powerful throaty growling drives the band’s muscular sound. The band’s set was a perfect mix of party dresses and speed thrash.
I also loved Marca Unica’s showcase of Música Regional Mexicana, the first in the history of SXSW. These cool Spanish-language groups performed in what looked like an auto dealership, with fancy rims on the wall and flanked by two all-black vehicles. From Houston’s South Side, Equilibrio, billed as trap corrido, mixed plaintive narcocorrido harmonies, dual guitars, and some gorgeous tuba runs. My Spanish skills are very lacking, but their emotion came through in the singing. Solo vocalist Janine was backed by a nine-piece mariachi band including guitarron, horns, and strings, and her set highlighted her big, beautiful corrido vocals.
Another nicely organized showcase was Northern Expo, which highlighted performers from the north of Norway. Northern Expo really tried to cinematically tie together the performances as the showcase traversed a snow-covered city from street level to a tram to a mountaintop.
The showcase opened with a street-level performance by Ozas, a duo of sisters Anine and Sara Marielle from the indigenous Sámi people who performed their excellent yoiking (traditional Sámi singing) backed by a sideman on a double-necked acoustic guitar. The film then followed the rapper Oter, riding in a car through the snowy streets while showing off his intense flow as he spit rhymes over metal beats.
Oter ended up at a tram station, where the showcase transitioned to the performance of I See Rivers, This female duo on guitar and what looked like an electronic autoharp had a fun, quirky neo-folk pop sound with sweet, lilting soprano harmonies.
Once the tram reached the top of the lift the scene cut to the last band, Heave Blood and Die, who performed their 90s-style grunge rock on the rooftop of the building. As indicated by the name, theirs is a more traditional rock style, with screamo vocals over a guitar-bass-drums sound. Props to this showcase for being both musically and cinematically engaging.
A few other acts scattered throughout the massive music festival program also caught my eyes and ears. The F16s, from Chennai, India, played a lively, engaging indie rock set. Lead vocalist Josh Fernandez has a nice range, with good, deep low notes and a sweet raspy falsetto. A fun detail of their set was their bassist sitting comfortably on the floor with the rest of the band ranged around him on sofas or standing up. I’m not sure why but this seemed metaphorical for the casual, comfy mood of their set.
I also really liked Dutch-Turkish psych rock band Altin Gün. They had a good groove with electronic and guitar/bass/drums instrumentation, along with an electric oud and a doumbek, the ubiquitous Turkish hand drum, combining sinuous polyrhythms with some funky grooves to create a memorable sound.
Also of note was UK jazz artist Theon Cross, who played lead tuba (!) over a funky afrobeat groove. Cross also appeared as a digital avatar at the SXSW’s virtual reality showcase, offering an alternative to live performance in the time of COVID-19.
I also enjoyed the off-kilter set of Teke::Teke, a seven-piece Japanese combo based in Montreal. Led by Maya Kuroki’s growly vocals, they have a fun electric enka sound.
Another big ol’ group, Tokyo-based Millennium Parade, had what seemed like ten people on stage. A collaboration between musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, designers, and producers, their big, messy, bombastic funkiness includes two trap sets, a sax, synths, and a rapper and several vocalists as well as a dude on a megaphone. The epitome of chaotic good, Millennium Parade produced a full gorgeous sound, with pentatonic scale vocal processing, rapping, horns, and an animated video backdrop with dancing and swimming babies, expanding brains, and electronic singing fetus in VR headset. It’s P-Funk + city pop for the 21st century.
This is only about half of all the acts that I watched at SXSW which combined with the film festival ate up a good portion of my life for five days back in March. Though it doesn’t replace the thrill of experiencing live music, SXSW Online helped to ease some of the pain of the cessation of live performances during this pandemic year. Here’s hoping this online iteration of SXSW is an aberration and that next year’s SXSW will be back to live music in person in all its loud and messy glory.
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