So. The very next night after the oversold massively talked about Subs gig comes the barely mentioned show that doesn't even have any kind of name or billing that I can officially call it. What a shame because Bang Bang Tang and Pink Berries put on their best performances to date.
Bang Bang Tang on Neocha
As the night went on there were a lot of new ex-pat faces showing up. The Subs show has obviously introduced a lot of new people to the club. The first band on was Wildcat who play a bunch of J-rock sounding songs so generic that I got different answers as to whether they were covers or originals. Next time I will try to catch the band early on and get some background as they were fairly tight and got a good reception.
Bang Bang Tang. I see these a lot as they're always playing YYT. I'm not usually a big fan of this kind of music. They play very musical guitar pop-rock. Watching them belt out their very well rehearsed set it struck me that they were just as good as F.I.R. in Taiwan or a bunch of similar bands in Japan. They are great musicians and the singer Xiao Bai has a great voice too. If they were in one of those markets they'd be getting a major deal right now, not playing underground clubs. They have a quality recording on the new Neocha release (free here) and I have added a fourth video to the Youtube channel. And this time the lights don't flash away like a war on migraine sufferers.
This was a night of if-onlys. Pink Berries had a good, loud sound and after a few bars of intro and a 'we are Pink Berries' they positively ripped into the opening track. I have that one on video too, but with the flashing random lights, alas. This was the best I've seen them. They couldn't quite carry it through all the set but I was left thinking one thing - if they had played the exact same set last night as a support act for The Subs with all those people in there, it would have been a legendary mosh and a career launching performance.
While Little Nature, Momo and Crazy Mushroom Brigade reside in the rock-soulless Bar 288 and prepare CDs with Soma, these two bands are quietly becoming the next big things in pop-rock and punk respectively.
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