I just got a time-flies-by type shock when I looked up my review of the YYT IDH show and saw it was just short of two years ago now. Shit.
So, it was the weekend before Halloween and Yuyintang had two seasonally appropriate shows on. Saturday was the now traditional dress up tribute band show ... and Sunday was the Hollow Shadow show: a side project of IDH's Xiao Yu that is a detailed tribute to Bauhaus, goth and darkwave (with mostly original material).
There was a strange choice of opener. A Japanese solo performer passing through on her one woman tour called Naoryu. Actually, she was extremely talented, using vocals, taps and looping to create layered beats and backing ... then adding flute and guitar lines, and finally she was an excellent technical singer. The Douban blurb reveals that she has even won competitions hosted by Boss for looped live compositions. Unfortunately she committed the unspeakable act of performing Utada Hikaru's First Love in a rock venue and shall be shortly appearing in the International Criminal Court.
Xiao Yu's Hollow Shadow set was really inspirational although the audience was sparse and people who seemed to know and appreciate it even sparser. He started out with a synth and effects set up that was surprisingly equipment heavy and varied. The opening tracks captured the pace and sounds of darkwave perfectly. Some tracks were instrumental, some had vocals. All were long, methodical and unafraid to slowly build ideas. The vocals, Xiao Yu has got the genre's vocal sound down pat like an expert impressionist. True to his usual form, he played a long set and changed up to guitar and loops at the end. Xiao Yu created a detailed genre world for an hour and half that was heaven for those who like the sound ... all five of us. Hopefully some of those at the venue who heartily and genuinely applauded First Love learned a thing or two about real layering of tone and emotion.
