AROUND TOWN FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

[ MUSIC ] A-Lin makes a View to a thrill rare appearance

By David Chen Staff Reporter The Aboriginal songstress performs at Riverside Cafe tonight

ome of Taiwan’s best-known Also on the bill are polished indie-rockers indie-rock bands are part of 13 (拾參樂團), and Ah-Kai of 1976, who will a weekend festival that starts make a guest appearance with Bearbabes. by ANDREW C.C. HUANG tonight on the rooftop gardens On Sunday, Sugar Plum Ferry, one of CONTRIBUTING REPORTER of Eslite Bookstore’s flagship Taiwan’s first and longest-running post- Sstore on Xinyi Road. rock groups, headlines a program that Rooftop Live!, which Eslite started also features Orangegrass (橙草), which in 2007, was inspired by the Beatles’ mixes post-rock grooves and emo vocals, Schedule A-Lin (real name Huang Li-ling (黃麗玲), an Aboriginal R ’n’ B legendary rooftop concert in London, held and female-led indie-pop outfit Miss songstress whose anthem Lovelorn, Not Guilty (失戀無罪) inspired just before the group disbanded. Stocking (絲襪小姐). Tonight numerous tributes by TV talent show contestants, performs a rare After a hiatus last year, the event Beer and other refreshments will be Bearbabes (熊寶貝) public concert titled A-Lin September’s Happiness Party (A-Lin 【 returns with popular acts such as Tizzy on sale. The concerts will still go on in 13 (拾參樂團) 九月幸福 Party】) at Riverside Cafe (河岸留言) tonight. Bac, Sugar Plum Ferry (甜梅號) and 1976 the event of light rain, says Tsai, but Ah-kai (阿凱) of 1976 The pop siren, known for her Mariah Carey-esqe range and 萬芳 lead singer Chen Ray-kai (陳瑞凱), aka check the event’s Web site for possible poignant delivery, will tackle covers of Wan Fan ( ) and Sandy 林憶蓮 Ah-kai (阿凱). rescheduling announcements. Lam’s ( ) songs. In stark contrast to the sentimental and melancholic love Indie-rock fans will have the rare Tickets will only be available through Tomorrow (sold out) songs usually found on the Mando-pop charts, A-Lin is known chance to enjoy live performances in an 7-Eleven ibon kiosks (they can be Tizzy Bac for her empowering ballads, such as Lovelorn, Not Guilty and idyllic setting, at least compared to the booked through indievox.com), and 來吧！ Come On Baby Baby ( Before After. usual venues such as The Wall (這牆) or not at the door. For last-minute ticket- 焙焙 ) “The songwriter wrote Lovelorn, Not Guilty as a song to Underworld (地下社會). buyers, there is a 7-Eleven store in the Hola Sisters Eslite’s seventh floor rooftop gardens, basement of Eslite. encourage people who suffer from a broken heart,” A-Lin said in a which can hold more than 1,000 people telephone interview yesterday. Her views on romance shun sentimentality. “If you don’t love and offer close-up views of neighboring Event notes Sunday 東區 me, just leave me,” she said. “I don’t like to be a victim and cry Taipei 101 and the East District ( ), are Sugar Plum Ferry (甜梅號) only open to the public for the Rooftop at home.” What: Rooftop Live! A weekend of Orangegrass (橙草) Live! concerts, said Evelyn Tsai (蔡孟庭) of “I am an optimistic person. I want to encourage people to face concerts on the seventh floor outdoor Miss Stocking (絲襪小姐) the store’s PR department. life with a happier outlook,” she said. terrace at Eslite Xinyi Store (誠品信義店), This year the event is taking on a As well as singing inspirational songs, A-Lin admires 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高 space fantasy theme, with Eslite’s glass accomplished female performers. 路 號 window complex and terrace serving as 11 ) “I think Momoko Tao (陶晶瑩) is really a strong female model “Station No. 11” (named after the store’s When: Starts at 7pm tonight (doors open Clockwise from top: Miss Stocking, Bearbabes, Sugar Plum Ferry and 13 perform for all of us,” she said. “I read the Web site started by Tao about address) for the event’s “rock spaceship.” at 6pm), 5pm tomorrow and Sunday at Rooftop Live!, an annual indie rock festival held on the rooftop terrace of Eslite female issues.” Tsai says concertgoers can expect to (doors open at 4pm) Bookstore. Photos courtesy of Eslite Bookstore Performing in pubs since the age of 16, A-Lin was discovered see futuristic decor in the stage design, as On the Net: www.rooftoplive.com.tw by her current agent while singing Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful well as a few “surprises.” Admission: Tickets are NT$850 per night, at Taipei’s EZ5 live house. The modern rock from this weekend’s available at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks (no ticket A member of the Amis tribe (阿美族), A-Lin was handpicked lineup of solid bands ought to suit the sales at the door). Tomorrow’s show with by A-mei (張惠妹), also an Amis, to star in her hit 2006 musical sci-fi theme. Unsurprisingly, Tizzy Bac’s Tizzy Bac is sold out Carmen (愛上卡門) in the supporting role of Micaela. show tomorrow is already sold out. Details: As Tropical Storm Fanapi could Since her debut album Lovelorn, Not Guilty in 2006, A-Lin released Natural Diva (天生歌姬) in 2008 and Before After (以前以 Tonight’s headline act is Bearbabes (熊 affect the weather this weekend, check 後) in December last year. 寶貝), a versatile trio whose sound ranges with the venue for last-minute schedule A-Lin plans to release her next album this December, for which from slow-core rock to catchy power-pop. changes she says she’ll move into more up-tempo territory.

PERFORMANCE NOTES

WHAT: A-Lin, September’s Happiness Party (A-Lin【九月幸福 Party】) WHEN: Tonight at 9pm WHERE: Riverside Cafe (河岸留 言), B1, 2, Ln 244, Roosevelt Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市 羅斯福路三段244巷2號B1). Tel: (02) 2368-7310 ADMISSION: Tickets are NT$400, are available at www.riverside.com.tw ON THE NET: www.avex.com.tw/alin

Photo COURTESY OF Avex Taiwan Expect the unexpected

panish a capella group B in 1881. It lasts 70 minutes, so Vocal returns to Taiwan Guessing what a capella group B Vocal will come up with in if you go along you’d better go for their third visit this prepared for the long haul. On the weekend. They’re five any particular appearance is part of the attraction other hand, this symphony, in this men from Zaragoza, version, was Bruckner’s first major currently on tour in by BRADLEY WINTERTON success with the smart Viennese, Contributing Reporter Photo courtesy of New Aspect SAsia. How to categorize them is and it remains his most popular Performance notes difficult, except to say that they composition today. are very, very funny. everyone into a good mood, and The only way to find out poor old Bruckner continues to The concert begins with What: B Vocal They’re not in their first youth, there’s no limit to the events that what they have in store for puff his way laboriously along, Webern’s Sechs Stucke (“six Where: Kaohsiung Cultural Center’s Chih-teh Hall (高雄市立文化中心至 yet they perform a huge variety welcome exactly that. Taiwan this time is to go along. often at enormous length. Some pieces”) for Large Orchestra, 德堂), 67 Wufu 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City, (高雄市五福一路67號); Novel Hall of songs and other musical items. Is it possible to take a serious They’re appearing in Kaohsiung modern conductors have even also in a revised version, in (新舞台), 3-1 Songshou Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路3-1號); Chunghsing All you see is five men in black line on them? Only in as far as tonight, at Novel Hall (新舞臺) in expressed their uncertainly as to this case undertaken in 1928. Concert Hall, Taichung (台中中興堂), 291-3 Cingwu Rd, Taichung City suits with hand-held microphones, comedy always has its serious Taipei on Sunday and in Taichung whether his symphonies are really This work, though important in (台中市精武路291之3號) and indeed that’s all they are. implications. They’re certainly on Monday. worth the effort. the history of serial composition When: Tomorrow at 7:30pm (Kaohsiung), Sunday at 7:30pm (Taipei), But with their voices alone they satiric, but because they’re satiric Meanwhile, the National But the NSO is plunging into (i.e. a composition not in any Monday at 7:30pm (Taichung) impersonate famous artists past of just about everything and Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is his Fourth Symphony as if there specific key, and so sounding Admission: Tickets are NT$400 to NT$1,500 (Kaohsiung), NT$500 to and present from Elvis Presley to anything it’s hard to discern any offering altogether more weighty were no tomorrow, with conductor excessively dissonant to most NT$2,000 (Taipei), NT$400 to NT$1,600 (Taichung), available online at Robbie Williams, together with particular point of view. material in Taipei’s National Lu Shao-chia (呂紹嘉) opting for ears), will doubtless make opera singers and Renaissance Do they ever take anything at Concert Hall next weekend. We’re the work’s 1878-1880 version. many grateful for the courtly www.artsticket.com.tw or by calling (07) 226-5998 in Kaohsiung, (02) madrigalists, and in addition fill face value? Yes. They perform not giving advance notice in Bruckner, country bumpkin that he harmoniousness of Haydn’s First 3393-9888 in Taipei or (04) 2208-0128 in Taichung in any instrumental backing that’s madrigals and jazz classics, and any expectation that tickets will always thought he was, was forever Cello Concerto, which follows. appropriate (or not), all with their indeed just what they’re going to sell out — far from it. Bruckner re-writing his works in the hope of The soloist will be the charismatic What: National Symphony Orchestra, Passing On — From Modern voices alone. come up with in any particular has never appealed much to making them more attractive to his German cellist Alban Gerhardt Through Classic to Romantic (NSO維也納世代對話系列—穿梭浪漫200年) They’ve been hugely popular, appearance is always part of the Taiwanese tastes, and it’s not sophisticated city patrons. In the (also on an Asian tour). You can Where: National Concert Hall, Taipei City both in concert halls, on Spanish attraction. Comedy isn’t often far hard to see why. Long ago he was case of the Fourth Symphony, he see him and hear him playing When: Sept. 25 at 7:30pm TV, and at all kinds of receptions, away, though, with a dog barking coupled with Mahler as one of a actually wrote seven versions. The on his Web site, and also read Admission: NT$400 to NT$1,500, available at the National Concert Hall expos and festivals. They’re just and a cat howling emerging above pair of eccentric Viennese. Today one the NSO will play was the one his blog, at www.albangerhardt. box office, online at www.artsticket.com.tw or by calling (02) 3393-9880 what’s required, it seems, to get at least one Renaissance vocal line. Mahler’s stock is riding high, while performed at the work’s premiere com/english/index.html.