Thanks so much to everyone who came along to watch this show on a Monday night. We were all certainly lucky to catch Dada Ante Portas on their final stop on their China tour. These boys know how to pop rock! Thanks also to Pleasure Garden and Tacit Closet for supporting Dada Ante Portas! Hope you guys come back to Hong Kong again!
Chris B x
Tacit Closet
Having never seen this band before, I was curious to the fans of them who claimed they are ‘better than Placebo’. Hmm starting off with a Blur cover was not something Placebo would do but they did it well although the messy tuning up and down of the guitarist’s guitar, was that necessary? Perhaps the cool looking girl bassist could have said something? Then after that cover, the rest of the songs were their own and they were pretty good! The vocalist has a nasal quality to his voice that I found pleasing and I liked the arrangement of their songs. Yes Placebo and Blur are quite obviously big influences with this band but they add some of their own interesting hooks. As a three piece they had a full sound and although a new band in Hong Kong, lots of potential, so my recommendation is check them out live.
Ollday Jess
Pleasure Garden
For some reason I kept calling them “Pleasant Garden” all evening and pleasant could certainly be used as a word to describe this band. The lead vocalist is attractive and exudes friendliness, but she seems to need to work on her lung capacity as she was often drowned out by the guitars in the band. Pleasant canto pop with a Faye Wong cover thrown in for good measure. Indeed a pleasant way to spend a Monday evening.
Ollday Jess
Dada Ante Portas (Switzerland 瑞士)
Wow. And again “WOW”. I’ve been to Rockschool a couple of times but I’ve never heard a band sound so good here. Dada Ante Portas are clearly professionals yet managed to come across as down to Earth and very approachable. (They signed CDs after their set, in fact the CDs were free and the bassist chatted with me for a long time after their set). I had enjoyed the songs on their myspace page and they played all of them including that catchy pop anthem “Taking Your Love”. There was lots of harmonies, audience singalongs and jumping. A thoroughly enjoyable set of 1 hour and 15 minutes. If only it hadn’t been a Monday night, as the 60 odd people in the audience couldn’t stop dancing, I can understand how these lads entertain crowds of 20,000+ in Switzerland. Power to the Swiss.
Ollday Jess
photos © Copyright 2009 by Chris B
Poster by ANGUS LEUNG
