Taiwanese psych-out

Sometimes you get to see the show you needed to see.

Sometimes you just need to see a show. And sometimes the Universe ensures you get to see the show you needed to see.

When Eddie Izzard was announced to perform at Kingston’s lovely UPAC on Saturday October 5, I almost bought a ticket or two. I don’t need to justify why that would have been a good idea.

When I saw that Mdou Moctar was playing at the Bearsville Theater on Saturday October 5, I really wanted to buy a ticket. I have friends who have seen more live shows than even I have, and who rate Mdou Moctar as the best. Not even Best Gig of the 21^st Century, but Best.  I have missed Mdou every time he has come through the area, which has been frequently. I did not want to miss another.

But by that point, I already had a gig  in my calendar for Saturday October 5. Our Rock Academy Best of Season show. This is where we bring all five casts together, all five shows, five songs from each, a not-quite random setlist posed by the Boss only after soundcheck. After an especially hard season directing a young cast on an advanced show of music by The Who, I was really looking forward to the cast performing my five-song selection at such a lovely venue, and for all the families and guests who had not attended two weeks earlier at High Meadow to see how hard these kids had worked – and how much they had dressed up.

And then last Friday morning, October 4, Cory from Tubby’s, our wonderfully intimate bar-back-room club venue in Kingston, belatedly sent out his “October at Tubby’s Part 1” e-mail. Almost at the top of the list, on Saturday night, Oct 5: Mong Tong.

I had never heard of Mong Tong before, let alone heard them… Until barely 24 hours earlier, when I had woken up to find Flow State, whose thrice-weekly recommendations of interesting non-vocal music I can work to is an absolute Godsend, recommending them. And because I trust Flow State, and was intrigued by the notion of “a Taiwanese psychedelic rock band based in Taipei,” I had played their brand new new album Mongkok Duel, “a series of collaborative jam sessions with Beijing’s Gong Gong Gong,” almost immediately. (Actually Mong Tong are a duo, not a band, and Gong Gong Gong are from Hong Kong, not Beijing. But hey.) I loved it.

Psych-rock doesn’t really do it justice. It’s more experimental than that, more like ambient Space Rock electronica with a fair dash of dub. I took a quick dive back to their individual, preceding album, Mao Tao, released only last year. This one is truly captivating stuff – especially ‘Hanoi,’ with its use of historic GI-intended Vietcong propaganda interwoven with suitably ominous sounds of guitar, bass, synths and all manner of electronic effects.  Check it out.

I dropped Cory a line. What time were Mong Tong going on? He wrote back. 9:00pm. 60 Minute set. $15 at the door.

Best of Season finished at 9:10pm. In Woodstock. I had keyboards to pack up and take home with me. I wasn’t going to make it.

But I really wanted to see a show. One I wasn’t working at. One where I could relax into the music. And damn it if we didn’t have two good international choices in the area, except… they were both under way already.

I turned right out of the venue, headed to the Bearsville to catch what I could of Mdou Moctar, knowing he and his band would only just have started out on what I guessed would be at least a 90-minute set.

After half a mile, I pulled over. Thought some more. Mdou Moctar was possibly sold out, going to cost me $40 or so if not, and would leave me with a 30-minute drive home. Then again, I could trust my keyboards in the back of the car at the Bearsville – it’s hippy Woodstock. If I headed straight to Tubby’s, in the heart of midtown Kingston, I couldn’t. Or maybe I could, if I got a parking spot right outside the venue, on Broadway, which now has a cycling lane on the inside of these parking spots, offering an added layer of protection on what is a well-policed street. I would possibly have missed half the show, but I had a feeling that the 9pm stage time was ambitious. Besides, it would only be a 10-minute drive back from there, only $15 at stake, and at least I would have tried. I turned the car around, decided to risk it. I got to midtown Kingston around 9:35pm.

Result 1: A parking spot, on Broadway, one down from Tubby’s. Right opposite UPAC. The UPAC with Eddie Izzard performing (next time, Eddie!), bright lighting under the marquee, two security guys outside and a police car parked nearby. This one time – and believe me, I’m not going to make a habit of it – my equipment would surely be safe.

Result 2: Mong Tong had gone on just four minutes earlier.

Result 3: The show. There’s an old cliché about a picture being worth its weight in a thousand unnecessary words, so I will save you those words.

There is not yet a cliché about a phone video being sometimes the best way to review a show, but there should be. This is Mong Tong. I watched from the tiny elevated sill on the edge of the dance floor.

The duo did not use that microphone – unless they had said “hello” before I got there - until the end of the night, when the final track included some intoned voice sounds, and the bass-playing “singer” thanked the audience in perfect English as he and his unnamed partner removed their blindfolds (yes, their blindfolds, though I suspect they can see through them), bowed graciously, and invited us all to go talk with them at the merch table.

Despite my  generally social nature, I did not accept that invite. After 3+ hours of live music – and a soundcheck – I was shattered. I needed to get my ears home to bed. (Yes, the tinnitus is still there; yes, I wear my custom-molded earbuds at shows.) I trusted that the duo would have plenty other takers: there were enough people in the venue,  either already familiar with their music or suitably intrigued by Cory’s e-mail, to have constituted a decent back-room audience.

Still, I left the show with two questions:

• 1)      What kind of conversation did they have when they came through US Customs? Like, at what point did the Customs officer conclude that this ridiculous array of equipment was probably not intended to cause damage or contravene any international customs treaties, but heck if he could make head or tail of it?

• 2)      And why was fantastic-but-little old Tubby’s treated to a show that even Cory stated in writing he had no idea of what to expect?

I can’t answer the first, but as to the second, they came to the USA to play the Desert Daze and Levitation festivals. The East Coast got lucky, some excellent booker (the same one who keeps bringing Mdou Moctar to the area?) booking Mong Tong from Brooklyn to Kingston to Catskill to Burlington, back to Brooklyn (ouch!) and then to the west coast. The West Coast may or may not have got lucky: Desert Daze was abruptly canceled at the last moment – read the explanation here – but the duo appears to have filled in with still-upcoming gigs in LA, Sacramento, San Fran, Portland, and Vancouver. I don’t know if I have many readers in any of those cities, but if so, this is Mong Tong’s linktree.

From an internationalist standpoint, Mong Kong’s advanced technology and craftwork doesn’t surprise me. I haven’t been to Taiwan, China, or Hong Kong, but having been to Thailand and Malaysia, I don’t need any convincing that the western world lags behind Asia in so many ways. I wonder/suspect/would love to know if the music of Mong Tong represents merely the tip of a spear, or perhaps represent the entire spear. Either way, their output to date is tremendous – and the number of other collaboration in the back catalogue suggests that the spear is mighty, MIDI long. Here’s a short video they commissioned for one of their numbers:

As for Mdou Moctar, I still haven’t got to see him perform in the flesh. But neither did anyone last Saturday night. Turns out the guy came down with malaria. His band played without him. I had made the right call when I pulled over, thought it through, turned round and turned left.

Sometimes you get to see the show you needed to see. Thank you Universe.

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Wordsmith posts twice-weekly. I do my best to keep the Midweek posts short-ish. I can’t promise the same with the weekend posts, which are intended to be savo(u)red over brunch/coffee/a beer/on the couch, and ideally not on your phone. I can only keep going with your support. Please do what you can.

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