By William Koestiono
On May 18, 2013, AsianInNY collaborates with Taiwanese American Association of New York and Tai-Ke New York to celebrate the “Hello Taiwan USA” Concert at Drom (located at 85 Avenue A between 5th street and 6th street, NY) where the place features NY live music nightlife. Although from the name of the concert it distinctive Taiwanese style but the music that bands performed are multi-national. There were two energetic bands who traveled from Taiwan, 888Balaz and Monkey Pilot. The other three bands are the Hsu-Nami, Late Cambrian and Torpid May which all have strong fan base in New York.
Torpid May performed in the beginning of the concert. Torpid May is an alternative rock indie band from NYC, it consists of three people: Frank Chen, David Jiang, and Jackie Jack. The Band was debuted on September 2011 with their first album “Torpid May”. And right now, they are promoting their second album, which is “Weather Balloon”. Most of the songs in their album are in Mandarin. Torpid May will perform again on June 1, 2013 at Santos Party House, New York, NY.
Our Brooklyn Indie Alternative Rock Band, Late Cambrian, performed next after Torpid May. The band consists of three people: John, guitar, O, synth, and Nunzio, bass. Late Cambria has won numerous awards on Ourstage, Sonicbids, and Reverbnation and has had the music placed in the popular TV shows such as The Real World and Married To Jones. Late Cambrian’s first album, The Last Concert, was a major success and placed in 55 record stores across Japan.
Next one in line is the infamous Progressive Erhu Rock band: Hsu-Nami. Hsu-Nami is one of the best bands in the United States. The band members are Jack Hsu, Brent Berghelm, Derril Sellers, John Manna, and Dana Goldberg. Hsu-Nami has been performing since 2005. Their performances are outstanding, enjoy the combination between modern music instruments and the Chinese Erhu. They have also reached international recognition since their song “Rising of the Sun” was featured in the 2008 Summer Olympic in Beijing. Fans should grab their album in the souvenirs booth and don’t forget to take a picture after they finished performing.
Hard Rock fans should love this band, the next band performed in the concert is 88 Balaz or 八十八顆芭樂 (88 Guava Seeds), and the band was formed around 1997. Nirvana and GUNS & ROSES are the major influences of the band during their early year. This band consists of four members: Singer A-Chang, Guitarist Chen How, Guan Ling’s bass, and drummer Lin Yu. 88Balaz won the biggest rock band competition in Taiwan’s Indie award of Ho-Hai-Yan music festival at 2001. Rock and Roll guys!
It is time to wrap up the concert and our next and last band is Monkey Pilot (猴子飛行員), just got nominated as “Best Band Award” at the 24th Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan. Monkey Pilot was formed in 2006, the band has different musical backgrounds such as Hard Rock, Funk, Blues, Reggae, Metal, and Alternative. Although they have variety musical backgrounds, Rock n Roll is the most dominant genre to represent this band. Avid Taiwanese Drama fans should recognize Monkey Pilot easily because they have their music featured in Taiwanese drama soundtracks. Their last album is “Big Child” released in the summer 2012.
Overall, the performance was astonishing, “Hello Taiwan NYC!” has successfully attracted music fans from various genres not limited to rock n roll. The NYC band, especially Hsu-Nami never fails to impress the audience and the two bands from Taiwan introduced new kind of music culture to the New York people. The ambient place combined together with the energetic bands from Taiwan and NYC raised our energy and spirits together.
Stay tuned for the next “Hello Taiwan! NYC” Concert in Nov 2013!
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