10 | Friday, March 1, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CULTURE HK Music resenting seven gigs in seven days, spread across 7 days of indie fever seven different Dedicated solely to showcasing of homegrown musicians, Pstylistic themes — from The Week Hong Kong has been introducing new music and venues to the city, hip-hop to metal and folk writes Rob Garratt to post-punk — The Week “The Week is a good scene Hong Kong (or simply The for upcoming artistes,” says Week) has a pretty solid 21-year-old Filipino rapper claim to being the city’s Lazyboi Dri, who performs most diverse celebration of at the hip-hop night on homegrown sounds. And March 8. “Instead of bring- with performances in seven ing foreign artistes to per- di erent venues across the form at their shows, The Parallel Horizons Rain in Time The Zero Point territory, the music festival The Viscose Seasons for Change Week gives local artistes is surely Hong Kong’s most an opportunity to show the geographically egalitarian. people what they got and a Showcasing exclusively chance to build their own Hong Kong-based acts, the fan base.” third edition of the annual “The Week came in and gig series kicks o on Sun- changed things — now day at Wan Chai’s The Hub, people are open to a wide Bamboo Star with an opening concert 24Herbs range of music,” adds Kev- featuring edgy indie outfi ts Brother Plainview in Chan, bassist with The Twisterella*, Brother Plain- Black Coffee Ancient Mental, who play view and Wellsaid. Wellsaid the metal bill on March Subsequent nights will 6. “We started to see new see gigs spread from Lai faces at the shows last year, Chi Kok to Yau Tong and and that’s a good sign as Sai Ying Pun to North The Week is able to draw Chris Polanco Point. new audiences to the scene Among the top draws David Boring due to the diversity of the are smash hip-hop collec- shows.” tive 24Herbs, Cantonese DJ Blaze Henry Chung and rock stalwarts Nowhere The Spontaneous Combustion Originality rules Boys, gritty post-punk First hosted as The Gig quintet David Boring, The Ancient Mental Week in June 2017, the progressive metalcore The Priceless Boat event rebranded as The powerhouses Parallel Hori- Week Hong Kong last year. zons and breakout rapper Day 1 The festival exclusively JB (aka Jiggie Boy). A toe-dipping taster The Pafala showcases artistes playing Co-founder of The Week original music except in Paul Sedille says the pro- Billed as a snapshot of the Say Mosquito genres such as blues where scene, the now-traditional Day 2 gram deliberately pairs opening “Showcase” night Roots and herbs reinterpreting a core stan- better-known names with might suggest Hong Kong’s Lazyboi Dri and$aral dard repertoire is the norm. musicians are not the happiest upcoming acts, and also bunch: Fresh from launching Celebrated homegrown blues Just a handful of acts have spotlights genres such as a long-awaited debut album, harp veteran Henry Chung leads Day 3 appeared at more than one shimmery shoegaze scenesters The Spontaneous Combustion world music, blues and Twisterella* close after DIY through a night of Chicago- Notes on Asia edition of The Week, while folk which don’t typically garage-vibed Wellsaid and inspired grooves at the “Blues Twisterella* new venues are introduced stompy, grungey Brother & Folk” night, while more chilled Living up to the “Asia’s World Day 4 attract large audiences. Plainview. sounds come from rootsy City” tag, a platter of global each year. acoustic quartet The Pineapple grooves is on o er at “World Bring your earplugs “We want people to come Jam and Beck-ish indie singer- “I actually got into this March 3, The Hub, Wan Chai Music” night. Expect to be on to The Week to discover songwriter Tomii Chan. your feet for the lively rhythms of In Hong Kong, one genre has project because I had a hard bands and step out of their Chris Polanco and Azucar Latina. proved immune to passing trend time fi nding concerts in the March 4, Lost Stars Livehouse Earlier, the evening opens with or fi ckle fancy: Metal. Expect comfort zones a bit,” says Day 5 Bar & Eatery, Tai Kok Tsui the meditative mood-scaping of legions of faithful followers city,” says Sedille. “I thought the 28-year-old Frenchman. multi-instrumentalist Hak Gwai to turn up for this all-star bill, it shouldn’t be this hard to Hipster heaven plus contemporary South Asian starring the smart melodic “That’s also why we always sounds from The Zero Point. textures of Rain in Time and find indie music, and cre- try to mix local and expat Left-of-center highlights of the progressive instrumentals of The ating a one-stop-shop kind loosely-branded “Post-punk” night March 5, Ping Pong Gintonería, Ancient Mental, as well as shouty crowds, Hong Kong Island are irreverent noise-makers David Day 6 hardcore quintet The Priceless of event to showcase the and Kowloon venues, Eng- Boring and Say Mosquito who play Wit and rhyme Sai Ying Pun Boat and metalcore icons best of what was going on breakneck hillbilly jazz changes at Parallel Horizons lish and Cantonese, even speed-punk velocity. Gloomy noise- Traditionally one of The Week’s seemed like a great way to scapes will also be sketched by The March 6, TTN (This Town Tagalog and Hindi too.” best-attended nights, the primarily Needs), Yau Tong. address that issue. Where many gig promot- Pafala and The Viscose. Cantonese “Hip-hop” bill features a “It would be crazy to packed line-up of eight acts, including ers play to a single commu- March 7, Mom Livehouse, commercial collective 24Herbs Day 7 think we’ve ‘solved the nity, The Week’s pluralistic North Point Bakerie Crew’s Geniuz F and surprise An unironic rock out problem’, but working on summer sensation JB a.k.a. Jiggie approach attracted more Boy who scored half a million YouTube Razor-sharp local legends Nowhere the upcoming third The than 1,300 music lovers views with the tongue-in-cheek smash Boys are surely the world’s fi rst and only Week — each edition sees Cantonese “cinematic rock” band — they last year — offering a This Guy Why So Fat. top a bumper bill for the closing “Alt-rock” a new line-up and list of valuable opportunity night, alongside slick feel-good Bamboo venues — I can at least say March 8, D2 Space, Lai Chi Kok Star, skate-tinged stalwarts Seasons for local acts to con- for Change and Britpop-inspired Black we’ve managed to bring nect with domestic Co ee. Out with a bang. together that many di er- audiences. March 9, 1563 at The East, Wan Chai ent parts of the local scene.” Design Not just for star-struck fans By REBECCA LO Many felt the site, meant to AoS was a mere drop in the ice lollies and fruit tea dot- be a public space, was being whole development’s $2.6 ted along AoS encourage Hong Kong’s fi lm indus- unfairly awarded to NWD billion price tag bucket. visitors to linger. try has enjoyed better days. for renovations and opera- Naturally, Cheng spared “The project was a chal- In 2018, 29 local movies tions rather than put up no expense in getting top lenge due to its public were released compared to for tender. It was assumed names on board for his nature,” said Corner at the 104 in its heyday of 1975. that AoS would bring enor- tribute to local cinema. press conference held before New World Development mous financial returns to Manhattan-based James the reopening. “There was (NWD) capitalized on the its developers, although Corner Field Operations, no single client. However, city’s fond memories of the in reality only a handful most famous for New York Adrian recognized the vari- glory days of the industry of retailers were allowed High Line, was responsible ous stakeholders that need- with a dedicated waterfront on the promenade to help for the master plan and ed to be engaged.” promenade celebrating recoup the costs of building landscape design. London- While it seems obvious local fi lm stars in front of it anew. The entire prome- based lighting designer that AoS will continue to its New World Centre. nade had to be rebuilt from Speirs & Major designed an draw mainly Chinese tour- Originally opened in scratch as the materials innovative lamp post that ists and fi lm bu s, NWD’s 2004, Avenue of Stars used earlier turned out to does extra duty as a charg- senior project director Je (AoS) was a welcome break be substandard. In the end, ing station. Local architects Tung Jing-kong feels di er- from the relentless retail of NWD’s general manager Handprints of film stars The understated lighting design in Avenue of Stars is meant to play up the LAAB produced cool kiosks ently. “This promenade is Tsim Sha Tsui. When Chi- and executive vice-chair adorn the balustrade in visual appeal of Hong Kong’s generic skyline. for vendors along the route for everyone, not just tour- na began to relax its out- Adrian Cheng — grandson Avenue of Stars. that recall Hong Kong’s tra- ists,” Tung insists. “Yes, there bound tourist restrictions, of NWD founder Cheng ditional noodle carts and is a movie component, but many Chinese from the Yu-tung — got his dream roll-up metal shop fronts. AoS is not just for fi lm fans.” mainland fl ocked to Hong project.