Sunday 28 June 2015

Sem 2: Batch #2 - Slowly Rock Amongst Oyster Plantations

I like this, this revisiting the past thing. It's fun. Makes me feel I didn't waste my semester.

This post will be about a music festival I attended a few days after I landed in Tainan. It's called 蚵寮漁村小搖滾 which roughly translates to Oyster Plantation's Fishing Village's Little Rock. Oh, I love roughly translating Chinese words.


Note: I posted two of my favourite acts of the day below. You should totally check them out. Mostly because this is going to be quite a long post. They're all playlists, one is a full album and the other is a bunch of their random songs. 


The poster for the event. I think it's rather fetching, as it's held at a fishing village in Kaohsiung.

Some of the seniors in GuitarClub asked our group if we wanted to go and of course I said yes. The setlist of the first day was more acoustic, it was more suitable for our club's style, but since I had no transport on the first day, I went on the second with a bunch of senpais and I'll get to how it sounded like in a bit.

We set off mid-morning and it was a gorgeous sunny day. It took about a 30 minute scooter ride to get there. I honestly don't really know the exact location of the place besides the fact that it's a harbor and it's located at Kaohsiung. The road there was long and straight.

We arrived early and since the first act didn't start and we didn't really want to see it anyway (謝銘祐與麵包車), we decided to explore around a bit.
I think this looks like some album cover art tbh



Ah yes, on the beach, they strung up a massive line of kites and they were so hard to photograph. I really wanted to show you guys how cool it was, but they don't translate in the photos.

The sand wasn't soft or pale, but it was basically quite clean. Some people even pitched tents there and set up a bonfire (presumably from last night, since this was a two day event). It was so chill.



I really like that photo above cos of that guy floating in the middle of the sea. He wasn't too far offshore, but he wasn't close to shore too. He made me feel so relaxed.

Oh and by the way, do anyone of you know what those triangular-male-genital-shaped things are called? I know what their purpose is, but I never really knew their names. *shrugs* Anyway, we ventured on to those things and BJ being the "hunter" that he claims he is, started scavenging for possible life forms. And we did find animals. Mostly carcasses though.

This is the photo I used for my cover of Riptide on Instagram

He's all: "Lookie! Look what I found!"





Yeah, we found a dead crab. Not dead exactly, more like it's shell? Do crabs grow out of their shells? Idk man. Anyway BJ decided that the crab would look really god as an accessory, as it came with natural pins (pincers) and then he proceeded to pin it on his jacket. Which lead to him absolutely destroying the pincers. As you can see in the two consecutive photos below.



I don't know if I should feel sorry for an empty shell or not.

He then continued to scavenge for stuff amongst the rocks and he found a... barnacle, I guess? He claims it's an abalone, I don't even know.


It was still alive. It's frills(???) were dancing.


Obligatory purple hair selfie. I honestly can't believe how purple my hair was. I honestly dyed it blue, but it turned purple in a few days.



Everyone questioned my choice of footwear. "Why'd you wear sneakers to the beach??" Well, first of all, everyone told me we were going to a harbor. "Harbor" means concrete. And secondly, my sparkly converses make me look damn kawaii okay. Plus it matched my hair. Shut up.

But of course, soon after that my sneakers were filled with sand.

We had nothing to do so we decided to watch the band we didn't wanna watch anyway. I honestly thing the stage is pretty cool. The decoration I mean. The six huge posters on either side of the stage are all hand-painted. It's neon, so during the evening they hit it with ultraviolet light so it just glows eerily. Super cool. I didn't take any photos during the evening cos I was lazy tired, plus my camera ran out of battery, so.




Main reason we didn't have the urge to watch this set was because we watched the exact same set during New Year's. Exact same set. So... Yeah. But they have a cute drummer tho. He plays the jazz drum and also the Djembe and I like his curls. He has a really cute smile and also a really good camera (he brings it onstage sometimes). The band members tease him a lot cos he's really young and he has lots of fans. But he just smiles shyly to the ground, melting more ladies' hearts.

Oh and towards the end of the set, the lead singer started throwing guitar picks to the audience. I was lucky enough to catch one. It's pretty cute, I suppose. What do people who don't play guitar do with their guitar picks?

Anyway it was scorching hot so we decided to do the smart thing and sit down under the sun. No really.



Xuncheng forced me to take another picture after the first one cos he didn't look good in the first one -____________-

Anyway, there was this mini market thing nearby where they sold official merchandise, food, some other albums, anti-political movements and some hipster stuff. It was refreshing, I suppose. You can learn so much. And the thing about food at music festivals are that they're so expensive? Just because we spent time to travel here doesn't mean we want pricey food, bruh. And sometimes we have absolutely no choice in this matter whatsoever because you may be isolated from civilization and the only choice is to buy food inside the festival (Mayjam). Meh.

 This aboriginal stall selling aboriginal barbecue and sausages. Quite nice lah, but expensive loh.


Body painting booth! I honestly thought this was one of the coolest booths in the whole festival. The owners were so hippie and the girl being drawn was one of the people we witnessed hitchhiking to this festival. I really like their style. They don't draw tiger faces or strawberries on your face, they draw third eyes, monsters and mythical creatures on every part of your body. I was tempted to get one until I asked the price. Why am I so penniless man.



Then we watched the performers. The crowd was surprisingly wild tbh, I never thought anyone could get wasted before 5pm. I was very wrong, of course. I guess it had something to do with the setlist. They were all punk rock bands with loud opinions. Extremely loud opinions (which includes lots and lots and lots of swearing). They swore so much my Taiwanese friends apologized on their behalf. And they kept crowdsurfing too. I don't have anything against that, but there was this one guy who surfed the crowd at least 50 times that day. Not joking.

And also they have this thing which is kinda like a mosh pit but not really (?) Usually is at the space closest to the stage and people form a conga line and run around in circles. Also they bump/bang/crash into each other as a form of self expression??? I don't know. I just stood at the side with LiangLiang and watched my seniors participate.

Windy phone picture

Instagram shot!


The band pictured above is 盪在空中 Hang In The Air, I posted their album below, I really like them and I think the bassist looks like a vampire.










This band above is called 充氣娃娃 Blowupdoll. And they only perform three times every six years. I know. The lead singer destroyed the microphone he was using and the mic stand. They're allowed to do that cos they are part of the PA people. It was a surreal and surprising experience.

Crowdsurfing time! Since there was no barricade between the stage and the audience, people were free to rush onstage and jump into the arms of the crowd. Crowdsurfing is pretty awkward, actually. Like, what if nobody wants to catch you? We don't have the obligation to. And where are we supposed to send you to? When are we supposed to drop you off? Do we dump you in the sea? I don't want to touch your butt.




That's the congo line thing. It was pretty wild. They kept spraying beer everywhere.




Oh that was the host of the day. She's BJ's crush. She's really passionate about her job and she's really local. She kept asking the starting bands to encore and as the day progressed the bands' encore started getting ridiculously long and you could see her face changing onstage. It was hilarious.

Another thing I kept doing was taking photos of people with nice hats. I really like seeing how people dress for music festivals. That place was chock full of hipsters with their colourful socks and hats. I approve.









It went on for quite a while. The bands I mean, I never heard any of them ever in my life so I was there to experience new things, but most of their style were the same so I got a little bored. Dinnertime came and we walked out of the harbor to a market nearby. I didn't take any photos of the food we ate cos we were losing light and I hate taking photos in low-light conditions.

Anyway, we had some sashimi and it was so fresh. And then we had some fried seafood and you could like, taste the seawater from them man. Also, I found out that Xuncheng has never seen fish being cut up before. Which is ridiculous. He claims it's because he's a city boy. I still think it's ridiculous. He just stood there and stared at the fishmonger slicing up fish.

Anyway the sun was setting and I wanted to take a photo but I was lazy to change lens and the photos turned out quite weird so BJ had a go at it and the photos were still weird.

My attempt

His attempt

His other attempt

We walked around the harbor, just chilling. We then sat at a corner of the harbor where we could hear the music coming from the stage, but there wasn't anybody around. We just sat there, stared at the water for a bit, stared at the moving stars for a bit, stared at the sneaky fishes for a bit, and we learned that Xuncheng couldn't swim (he says cos he doesn't have the need for it, he is so city). Is everyone from Taipei like this?




Then my camera ran out of battery and we decided to go back to the stage area.

And there was like a lot of other acts, but my favourite were two of the last performers. I forget the name of one of the bands, but it was composed of middle aged uncles and they played blues. And they were so so good. They all looked like someone's dad, and one of the guitarists actually brought his kids onstage. It was adorable. I don't think it was suitable for a child to be in such a scene but yeah, it was adorable.

The lead singer/guitarist needed a smoke break so he randomly chose a member of the audience, handed him his guitar and asked him to play. Naturally the guy was dumbfounded, but then he put on the guitar and started playing. And he wasn't too bad. The lead singer was squatting nearby him onstage, smoking and drinking beer passed onstage by the audience. When the dude finished playing a dozen bars and started taking off the guitar, the old guy was like: No no no, I'm not done, keep playing. And being the good boy he was, he kept playing. It was ridiculous.

Note to self: Start practicing scales so you'll be prepared when the lead singer randomly cues you onstage to play blues.

Anyway, we rode back to Tainan after that. It's pretty freaky riding in the dark. Especially cos there are no streetlamps further out in the countryside and the roads were really straight. The guys told me their balls were numb when we reached our uni. I am thankful I have no balls.

This band is called Hang In The Air and they sing in Taiwanese. I really like their super chill vibe. 

This one is called 88 Balaz, they were the final act and I honestly loved their energy. Taiwanese rock n' roll is awesome. Plus the lead singer poured beer all over the audience. 

I really like going to music festivals cos the indie bands in Taiwan are really out of control and I really like their style. Live music has it's magic and you really learn a lot from the performers.

I didn't expect this post to be this long but it turned out like this. Anyway, I'll work on the third one of this series straight after I post this. This is fun. I'll continue doing this.

(And I can almost taste Summer!!!!! Funny how my Summer officially starts smack on my birthday)

Thankful I Don't Have Balls Angel

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