Live Review from Underground 80:
I must admit they first time I saw them may be two or three years ago they were probably still young, less impressive.
A Partyolk review could be relatively long. The first interesting fact of the evening was that Partyolk was actually the only Chinese band, the other four acts being all gweilos. Let’s start. First, at seven members, the small stage at California was not going to allow them all squeezed in, so the DJ was standard completely outside the stage, while bass player and singer jumped in the dance hall. Second, they were able to merge as much music style together as they liked. However, mostly, they were hardcore DJ rap alternative rock. I think that’s enough … did I leave out something? And then of course, as a hardcore band, they were not going to let you have the free time of not getting hyped up. The band rapped well, jumped well, grooved well, axed well, and scratched well. What more could you ask for? But I did compare earlier on, didn’t I? It probably was not easy to put all these elements together in a convincing manner, and so I had a less than burning sensation when I first saw them. Time sure does its job and now I have not a doubt Partyolk is practically uniquely Hong Kong, like the third song which is actually a half-Canto-pop half hard rock with scratching. It’s nothing you should just judge by words in a review. I don’t think I was alone in this, I saw Ferdie, drummer of Audiotraffic dancing in the crowd. Did I just name drop? Well, the other bands got a name dropped somewhere, too.
Bun Ng
Performances:
