Hey chatterers, Syd Matters matter!

C’est le French May again. It’s a bit disappointing that there’s no mini-festival-like band show like last year. It was fun, though I was not really fond of any of the bands on the bill. The best memory was probably going out to have snacks during the 3 intermissions. And the best thing about the whole thing is the reasonable ticket price!

The concert ticket prices in recent years are outrageously high. It’s not for the poor anymore. HKD480, 580, 680…? Business and greed is in the air. The number 80 easily betrays the intention of the dealers. To me few performers really worth that much. (Speaking of the number 8, it is everywhere in HK. It just shows how money and fortune still weigh heavy on people’s mindset. Don’t blame people being too mercenary here. They are bombarded with these the twisted 8 everywhere.)

Thank God, at least the ticket price for the Syd Matters concert had nothing to do with that lucky number 8. Though there were only two bands on the bill in the show at the Grappa’s Cellars, Syd Matters’ music and performance was better than the bunch of last year’s French May band show, there the Teenagers were the headliner. (The Teenagers had their charm. But after a few songs, it felt flat. Didn’t those melody lines sound blatantly familiar? We had already heard of them in the Eighties. The ever-high energy level of songs and the repetitive strong rhythm were only numbing. Still the audience easily got high. I wondered if they hadn’t seen better things in their lives, and so were easily satisfied by some second-rate or third-rate stuffs.)

First came the one-man band Chapelier Fou. I didn’t know about this musician. After watching his clips briefly on YouTube, I thought this guy played music that sounded cute, which I likely like. But I was wrong. This guy was quirky, really a bit of a fou. He’s the skinny type that dressed in an all-black loose-fit attire (and with a black cap) with gestures and looks that reminded me more of the late Cantonese-Opera guru 新馬師曾than a jeune homme francais. With an electric guitar, a violin, a computer, a keyboard, and some unknown electronic gadgets, his hectic-eclectic multitasking performance seemed as virtual as it is real. He played the violin with an overly-exalted expression like he’s having sex with it. He played his gadgets with some computerized preset robotic gesture that seemed like he’s thunderstruck. He is simply too busy playing with his multiple instruments. The sight of his playing the violin while carrying a guitar was reminiscent of a circus act. Isn’t it a bit tiring? Relax! It’s like when I was cooking at the kitchen. That said, his music wasn’t bad. It just had nothing to do with my cutie-toy-music imagination. Rather, it looked and sounded a bit like bands like the Orb in the nineties (though I haven’t really listened to the Orb and the likes). With hi-energy and looping and overlapping of sounds, it could resemble disco and clubbing, with artistic pretense at times. Not my cup of tea, but at least a song nearing the end was powerful and well-blended. And surely the audience seemed well-pleased. Could people not get high these days? Especially when you have paid so much for a concert, it’s better to feel good about it. Worth it, that’s Positive!

Syd Matters reminded me what a good indie gig was like. They were hardly inhibited by the tiny stage, which instead condensed their powerful performance. Unlike the ubiquitous ever high-energy bands of nowadays that embraced by many but bored me, they were good at contrasting softness and strength, and were patient at building up tension in their songs. Nuance matters! Added to the usual rock band instruments set of drums-keyboard-guitars was the second drum, which did build up the tension impressively. The band played and jammed their instruments well and could vary their soundscapes without the aid of computer or some strange gadgets. The vocal is folksy and warm. If the melody lines were more varied and interesting then it would be even better.

Unfortunately there were some social so and so’s chatting too loudly while they performed. It’s the first time I went to Grappa’s Cellars to see a gig (and so I have missed the likes of Andrew Bird…). I am not sure if it’s the normal atmosphere of the venue, and at times I wished I could have kicked them out. Syd Matters did come back for an encore, but just for one song. The singer had hissed at the noise at one point and I suspected if it had not been for the chatting noise, we could have been rewarded with one or two more songs. And there’s another bunch who would blatantly take photo of themselves in front of the band, as if they were tourists in front of a sight. Blame it on some fb symptoms.

(Having not been to music festivals for ages, I remember seeing footages of audience waving their national flags high at the music fests a few years ago. It’s not the Olympics, stupid! And it blocked the view of the stage. That’s how the audience behaves now? It’s more about having fun and embracing themselves, rather then embracing the music.)