to fulong
But see ,I did this today. So even though it wasn't on my list I did accomplish something. Perhaps I should add it to my list so I can cross it off and feel better about what I've achieved...
I started at about 2:00. Went into Keelung and caught the train to Badu where I had to switch to the other line to get to Fulong. I got to Fulong a little more than 2 hours later (possibly around 3 hours), but lost my ticket...so I had to pay for a 2nd one. oops.
I've never been to Fulong before, but it's a really popular beach in northern taiwan and I can tell why. It's quite beautiful and just a little sheltered so you're actually able to swim (not that I did) and not be overwhelmed by gi-normous waves. I followed the large crowd and found a small stage with a band playing. Was this it? It didn't look like the pictures Jacob (from Mutaker) had sent me. hmm...I stopped and listened a bit and contemplated where I might need to go to find the main stage. Eventually found another crowd and followed them. Over a giant bridge. The beach is a sand bar! Like a little island. so cool!
In this pic you can see: the bridge I crossed, the small bit of town, the awesome sand sculpture and a girl posing very oddly for a pic
I crossed the bridge and then walked through the sand. I could the stage rising up from the sand like a mirage. There was a ton of stands set up selling food and other junk. I wandered through them searching for a dinner, but couldn't find anything not seafood, corndogs, ice cream, or beer. [I didn't eat very much today...] I headed toward the stage. The second band was already on. After navigating through the maze of people I found my own place to sit. Kind of interestingly a lot of people had dug out seats into the sand. It reminded me of WWI and the trenches (not that I'm that old, but I've read books, seen movies, and been to my fair share of museums).
Originally I was planning to detail you about the bands. But I think the important part of today's story is the creeper friend I made. You see, since I've come to Taiwan I've made it kind of my basic rule to be nice and open to new things. So when people randomly come up and talk to me, I chat back. I've made some friends and had mostly good experiences with this policy. So when the kid ('kid' as in not creepy old, but for sure older than me) came up and said hi and did the usual where are you from, i happily chatted with him. Then he invited me to go get some food. As explained previously, I hadn't eaten yet, so I was all for this. Perhaps he could find me some vegetarian yumminess. So I got up and we headed back towards the stands. And he kept trying to hold my hand. And then later creep his arm around my waist. He'd make a move and I would just quietly extricate myself from his grip and continue moving. At one point he even asked me if he could come and see my apartment! I was like, "umm...not today! I just met you!" (umm. hello. Just because I'm a foreigner doesn't mean I'm easy.). And in the end we didn't find any food and he followed me BACK to the concert.
I was a little freaked out as he kept trying to touch me. [This is my bubble and I've known you for an hour now. You're NOT allowed inside my bubble. You're not even allowed to touch my bubble.] So I was sitting there kind of ignoring him, hoping he'd get the idea. He didn't. At one point he even attempted to angle my head for a kiss!!!! At this point I was thoroughly freaked out, so I told him, "There's a line. I just met you, don't cross it. I came to enjoy this band, so I'm going to go into the crowd now." I stood up to go and he stood up to follow me and I attempted to give him a very strong NO look. I'm far too nice and it didn't work. He asked me for my number, so I gave him one. Not actually mine. Then turned and disappeared into the crowd as best as I could, even changing my clothes by taking off my top shirt and adding my hat.
CREEPY.
Well. Anyway. Besides the creeper. . .
The korean band (The Melody) was kind of not-so-good. The actual music was good, but the singer was a girl. And I just don't do girl singers unless they're incredible and she wasn't incredible.
The chinese band was awesome. They played the one song I had been able to find from them before hand and it was far more beautiful in person because it lacked the fuzzy recording sound. And then their other songs were actually hard! It seems this one song was just a single ballad from a really heavy rock band, not really an example of their usual style. The guitarist was quite hot and dressed very well.
The one 'band' from Taiwan playing today was actually an old aboriginal man who played piano. He was pretty amazing. He's the soundtrack for this ad:
(it was during this dude that I managed to escape the creeper's grubby hands)
THEN.
SuG. Who were fun. So much fun that after they were literally kicked off the stage in the middle of a song due to the time constraints were allowed an encore because everyone in the crowd was yelling so strongly for more.
(this is the hardest song I can find by them...and therefore my favorite. )
and edited (9/12/10) To add the official vid of SuG
Okay, so I don't listen to SuG on purpose, ever. But VK lives here are just amazing. The whole idea of VK is that there's more to a performance than just music. The band really performs. The entertain with every freakin' pore in their bodies. And it's awesome. And so, so very different than the normal indie band (often part of the genre also referred to as shoegaze rock because they stare at the shoes and play--'it's all about the music dude.') that most of the ho hai yan rock festival features. Plus, they brought the vk kids out. So we all did our hand things and our special headbanging (you know what I mean? the girls at the front are practically launching themselves over the guardrail and everyone behind is follow that empty space so it's like head banging from the waist) and the rest of the crowd was the like "WTF? How do they all know to do these at the same time?" (but by the last song 3/4s had joined us!! They know a good thing when they see it. haha!).
Despite being a PSC band I was even able to take some pics of them, but they all turned out fuzzy (sad). Here's one of the guitarist (yuji, I think?):
I found their blog, so I'll check it tomorrow for pictures...but they didn't take any in the obvious way other bands have.
I was thinking about this, but the reason VK concerts are so much fun is the amount of participation. It really makes you feel like you're part of something. And sitting on the train home I overheard several conversations from bewildered people talking about SuG (raving about them...in a good way). And all I could think was: once you go VK you never go back. -haha-
I started at about 2:00. Went into Keelung and caught the train to Badu where I had to switch to the other line to get to Fulong. I got to Fulong a little more than 2 hours later (possibly around 3 hours), but lost my ticket...so I had to pay for a 2nd one. oops.
I've never been to Fulong before, but it's a really popular beach in northern taiwan and I can tell why. It's quite beautiful and just a little sheltered so you're actually able to swim (not that I did) and not be overwhelmed by gi-normous waves. I followed the large crowd and found a small stage with a band playing. Was this it? It didn't look like the pictures Jacob (from Mutaker) had sent me. hmm...I stopped and listened a bit and contemplated where I might need to go to find the main stage. Eventually found another crowd and followed them. Over a giant bridge. The beach is a sand bar! Like a little island. so cool!
In this pic you can see: the bridge I crossed, the small bit of town, the awesome sand sculpture and a girl posing very oddly for a pic
I crossed the bridge and then walked through the sand. I could the stage rising up from the sand like a mirage. There was a ton of stands set up selling food and other junk. I wandered through them searching for a dinner, but couldn't find anything not seafood, corndogs, ice cream, or beer. [I didn't eat very much today...] I headed toward the stage. The second band was already on. After navigating through the maze of people I found my own place to sit. Kind of interestingly a lot of people had dug out seats into the sand. It reminded me of WWI and the trenches (not that I'm that old, but I've read books, seen movies, and been to my fair share of museums).
Originally I was planning to detail you about the bands. But I think the important part of today's story is the creeper friend I made. You see, since I've come to Taiwan I've made it kind of my basic rule to be nice and open to new things. So when people randomly come up and talk to me, I chat back. I've made some friends and had mostly good experiences with this policy. So when the kid ('kid' as in not creepy old, but for sure older than me) came up and said hi and did the usual where are you from, i happily chatted with him. Then he invited me to go get some food. As explained previously, I hadn't eaten yet, so I was all for this. Perhaps he could find me some vegetarian yumminess. So I got up and we headed back towards the stands. And he kept trying to hold my hand. And then later creep his arm around my waist. He'd make a move and I would just quietly extricate myself from his grip and continue moving. At one point he even asked me if he could come and see my apartment! I was like, "umm...not today! I just met you!" (umm. hello. Just because I'm a foreigner doesn't mean I'm easy.). And in the end we didn't find any food and he followed me BACK to the concert.
I was a little freaked out as he kept trying to touch me. [This is my bubble and I've known you for an hour now. You're NOT allowed inside my bubble. You're not even allowed to touch my bubble.] So I was sitting there kind of ignoring him, hoping he'd get the idea. He didn't. At one point he even attempted to angle my head for a kiss!!!! At this point I was thoroughly freaked out, so I told him, "There's a line. I just met you, don't cross it. I came to enjoy this band, so I'm going to go into the crowd now." I stood up to go and he stood up to follow me and I attempted to give him a very strong NO look. I'm far too nice and it didn't work. He asked me for my number, so I gave him one. Not actually mine. Then turned and disappeared into the crowd as best as I could, even changing my clothes by taking off my top shirt and adding my hat.
CREEPY.
Well. Anyway. Besides the creeper. . .
The korean band (The Melody) was kind of not-so-good. The actual music was good, but the singer was a girl. And I just don't do girl singers unless they're incredible and she wasn't incredible.
The chinese band was awesome. They played the one song I had been able to find from them before hand and it was far more beautiful in person because it lacked the fuzzy recording sound. And then their other songs were actually hard! It seems this one song was just a single ballad from a really heavy rock band, not really an example of their usual style. The guitarist was quite hot and dressed very well.
The one 'band' from Taiwan playing today was actually an old aboriginal man who played piano. He was pretty amazing. He's the soundtrack for this ad:
Click to view(it was during this dude that I managed to escape the creeper's grubby hands)
THEN.
SuG. Who were fun. So much fun that after they were literally kicked off the stage in the middle of a song due to the time constraints were allowed an encore because everyone in the crowd was yelling so strongly for more.
(this is the hardest song I can find by them...and therefore my favorite. )
and edited (9/12/10) To add the official vid of SuG
Okay, so I don't listen to SuG on purpose, ever. But VK lives here are just amazing. The whole idea of VK is that there's more to a performance than just music. The band really performs. The entertain with every freakin' pore in their bodies. And it's awesome. And so, so very different than the normal indie band (often part of the genre also referred to as shoegaze rock because they stare at the shoes and play--'it's all about the music dude.') that most of the ho hai yan rock festival features. Plus, they brought the vk kids out. So we all did our hand things and our special headbanging (you know what I mean? the girls at the front are practically launching themselves over the guardrail and everyone behind is follow that empty space so it's like head banging from the waist) and the rest of the crowd was the like "WTF? How do they all know to do these at the same time?" (but by the last song 3/4s had joined us!! They know a good thing when they see it. haha!).
Despite being a PSC band I was even able to take some pics of them, but they all turned out fuzzy (sad). Here's one of the guitarist (yuji, I think?):
I found their blog, so I'll check it tomorrow for pictures...but they didn't take any in the obvious way other bands have.
I was thinking about this, but the reason VK concerts are so much fun is the amount of participation. It really makes you feel like you're part of something. And sitting on the train home I overheard several conversations from bewildered people talking about SuG (raving about them...in a good way). And all I could think was: once you go VK you never go back. -haha-