Modern Children

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Live Review from Underground 59:
Modern Children are a band of five young people, Hin on Drums (that’s the easy part), Sai Ho on violin, programming and rainbow bells, and then three guys Chih, Kenneth and Jimmy on all the guitars and other stuff. Their live show will guarantee to catch your attention. First, each guitarist plays the bass guitar role in at least one song, so you can’t define a bass guitarist in this band. Second, on changing instruments they also switch positions, or hit a xylophone. Finally, Sai Ho, who is the violinist (no two guys play the violin, thank God), who also handles a Mac, occasionally runs over to the Rainbow bells. They would have a problem with a smaller stage.
But their songs are well crafted, and they are not just there to play with a lot of musical instruments for your entertainment. Songs are long and tight, and since I just mentioned there are a variety of instruments on the stage (did I mention the accordion?) they would have the gusto to fill any part of a song with any sound. Obviously, the sound does not have to be synthesized (but then they also have the mother of all synthesizers: a computer, which from time to time pumps out rhythm tracks). As such, melodic songs are layered with very textured violin and percussions (no shortage of that), and bass runs would not necessarily be simple because the bass player has the mentality of a guitarist. Along the same vein, I heard one of the most satisfying rhythm guitar playing from a local band, the kind that goes on and on and on and you just doesn’t mind if it never ends.
This was their debut gig, and their bios described them as playing different kinds of music, including post-rock, psychedelic, electronic, indie pop, post-punk. But I think that’s a bit too ambitious. In a way, I believe Modern Children is strictly indie-pop. The songs do not really go so rock that you would start wishing they swing their hair (no long hair in this troup). Essentially, each song has a sort of pop lining to make its complexity less of an obstacle to mainstream success.
In fact, one of my first remarks from the evening is that, “This is a young band looking for a grand sound (or maybe with a grand sound), a sound that definitely need a full scale light show.” Secretly, I think they would sound and look better in a stadium.
Bun Ng

“We really like The Underground, that they spend lots of effort to support the indie band scene. Their passion can be shown by the frequency of the band shows they organized. Moreover, the band shows are really with different kinds of music, from jazz to hardcore”quote from Modern Children

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Performances by Modern Children: