The Underground

Live Review from Girls with Guitars 4:

Setlist:

1. Thoughts of a Dying Liberal

2. Salamander

3. So Tired

4. Dream in Dream

5. Sleep Out

6. Disco 2000 (Pulp cover) [Encore]

I’ve seen FAD play a few times, and their stage manner is the epitome of a restrainedly nice band; they seem happy to be on stage, but not too excited by that fact. This is usually reflected in their music – they’re calm and clean compositions, often featuring long-held notes by each instrument intertwining and creating complex textures, in the vein of The Jesus & Mary Chain, or a slightly less grungy Catherine Wheel. It’s probably not a coincidence that so many of their songs centre on dreams and sleep. The songs tend to be emotionally resonant numbers sung with great care and delicate instrumentation. Basically, the band usually has very few corners of any kind. This is why, I guess, I’ve usually found them a bit dull – always pleasant, but I don’t find them exciting.

Which is why I was very pleasantly surprised to find a completely different band playing that night – they seemed loose, relaxed and like they were actually having fun on stage. Perhaps consequently, their set that night was a little more powerful – the chords were muscled a bit more, and the keyboards seemed to flow easier than usual. Now, I don’t know just how tipsy or whatever else they were, but their attitude that night is definitely something they should consider adopting once again. They were also luckier because the mix for them was actually quite good. The result was a bit like early Audioslave (vocals not included), and they sounded exciting and were great to watch in this avatar.

Thoughts of…began with a minimalist riff, its oxymoronic nature creating the intrigue, before adopting a much harder texture that was offset by the Tom Morello-ike solos. So Tired was refreshing because there was a nice contrast between the childlike melody and the abrasive chords made it an intriguing listen (much more than usual). Sleep Out had a wonderfully heavy yet subtle bassline that was its driving force, pushing the song into an experimental, art-punk sound. They were the first band I’ve seen that seemed genuinely surprised when an encore (much-deserved) was demanded, but they settled on the Pulp song after nearly 10 minutes (I swear) of discussion. They changed the style to more of a Noughties-arty sound, which also worked, and they finished off their Midas touch-night to a huge roar from the audience.

– Shashwati

而最後一隊演出的樂隊是FAD，也是全晚最人強馬壯的樂隊。這隊5人的樂隊組合包括主唱及結他手Sky、結他的Sammy、低音結他的Carina、鍵琴及和唱的Shireen和鼓手Baller。當晚的演出他們表現出很強合作性，而看其眾多的支持者便知道他們已累積一定數量的歌迷朋友，使他們的演出充滿著開派對的氣氛。FAD的歌曲風格具有多樣性，豐有節奏感，既有活潑又有較抒情的一面，而其中最後一首歌曲的結尾，主唱及結他手Sky把結他放在地上演奏，營造出震撼的效果，令人回味無窮，留下深刻的印象。

男女待遇不均的情況在繁華的香港好像不太明顯(相對於現在還是男尊女卑的社會而言)，但這並不表示問題不存在。而The Underground從舉辦這一系列的音樂會入手，除了把好音樂帶給觀眾外，更帶來更重要的議題讓觀眾深思。

依花

Message from FAD about CD 4 Launch Party B:

Though Fad has been formed for nearly 5 years (with some people changed during the time), this is the FIRST time Fad went into a professional studio for recording, and it is really FUN! Great thanks to The Underground who gave us the chance to be in the compilation, and also great thanks to Koya San of Mark-1 studio for his patience and professional guidance for our recording of the two songs! Recording a song is very different from playing live shows, as we needed to be more accurate and exact on the notes we are playing. Koya San took quite a long time to record us and we have taken even longer time for him to help us on the mixing!! WE LOVE YOU!!

For the Underground CD#4 release party, we were soooooo excited to perform at the new Hard Rock Café at LKF, as we have heard before that the equipment there is great! And it’s TRUE! The stage is big, with a big screen at the back, and the lighting and sound is so great there!! Thank you so much to The Underground to give us the chance to perform there. Also we have to thank our friends who came to see us, and who has supported us all the way to our first CD (though not only us) born. (Starting to be like the Oscar thank you speech…)

Anyway THANK YOU everyone! We hope you enjoy our music, work hard and play harder like us!

Rock on,

Fad

Live Review from Underground 88:

Our maiden act are a five piece that play songs that are distinctively of a Brit pop variety. They work well with dynamics, starting off the set quietly with a single instrument being heard, then slowly the rest start layering riffs on top until they all join together, and introduce the band. A nice sly way of doing a quick levels check as well Yes , I read through your plan FAD. This smartly turned out act, have interesting titled songs that do well at capturing emotions. The singer would indicate before the start of a song that ‘This one will bring you down’ or ‘This is a simple, naive and happy song’ and they were exactly that. The other thing these guys do well, is the interplay between the bassist and the lead guitar. Their riffs feed and play off each other very well. I would strongly encourage the singer to do vocal warm ups before taking the stage, as there were times that the falsetto notes he were reaching for, were, well clearly being reached for. Work on it my friend. On the whole though, a good start to the evening. A good way to judge a band is to look at the audience. For a while they seemed a little disengaged but for the most they were locked on. Well done.
Tim - Hong Kong Independent Music Blog

Performances: