I made the mistake of not setting my alarm when I …
I made the mistake of not setting my alarm when I finally arrived home from a Friday night film shoot and fell into bed at 4:30am. The Ramblers were supposed to meet up at the Kunyang MRT station at noon, so that we could take a cab out to the Dream Community in Xizhi in time for a sound check. I woke up at 11:30 to a brilliantly sunny, hot day outside my window. I had assumed that Nam, who was going to come over to pick up my new notebook to make some adjustments, would wake me up, but he was delayed. I was told that a taxi straight from Xindian to Xizhi would be NT$200-300, so I packed up , taking the computer and leaving the baritone to save time, and caught a cab.
An hour and NT$635 later, I arrived at the Dream Community. Apparently the cabbie’s claim to competence in All Things Xizhi didn’t pan out, and we took a wrong turn or two. I was the first band member to show up, so I sat down amongst the circus people and had some free fried curry rice while I waited for the others to arrive. The rice was good, and I chatted with a woman from the circus who turned out to be a stiltwalker, though I had her pegged as an elephant trainer for some reason.
The others arrived soon after, with Conor worryingly absent as nobody could get him on his mobile. We did a sound check, during which a light crashed to the ground. The sound guy was a bass player and gave me extra oomph, which I appreciated. Eventually Thumper and wife arrived, and he, Slim and I took a walk around the neighborhood. At the end of a row of two-story houses that looked to be about 30 years old was an abandoned unit facing a field of miscellaneous vegetables. It was very nicely situated, and I wondered why it was empty and decrepit as it seemd it would make a very nice place to live. As we talked and speculated from within a cloud of mosquitoes, Conor sauntered up with his amp and harmonicas.
As dusk fell, other bands began to play, and children and adults milled around the area. A row of stands had been set up nearby, selling ceramic flutes, aboriginal bows and arrow, and goats. I’m not sure if the goats were for sale, actually, but you could smell them from anywhere in the area. We did some practicing down by a stream so polluted it left the nearby grass a slimy black color, before taking the stage. It was a good gig, eventually; it took us a while to get into the groove, and the audience took a while to get into us. My bass was pretty much spot on, but my horn playing was really off for some reason. Maybe I don’t feel as comfortable playing outside. The sound feels too dry.
There was a magic show after us, which from what I could see above the crowds’ heads consisted of people in a red tent sticking their hands out and doing balancing tricks with glass balls. I lost interest and went to get some meat pies, which were very good. They were from New Zealand, the woman serving them told me. I took another walk around the neighborhood, wishing I had my good camera to take some night shots.
The last band of the night, Soundclash, was very good, very tight and bouncy on stage. The trombone player in particular was all over the place. They’d obviously practiced a lot as the entire horn section played long passages all in unison. Sandman was particularly entranced with the band, as he’s really into Ska and Reggae stuff. I was surprised he didn’t jump on stage and start playing along. Dave encouraged me to do so, actually, but the band was so tight I felt I would just be making trouble if I did so.
Sandman and Jojo were gracious enough to give me a ride home. Xizhi’s nice enough, but Bitan, as Sandman remarked, is home. Though both places are on the edge of the city, Bitan feels a bit wilder and at the same time a bit more comforting for some reason. Perhaps things here are a bit more spread out. Perhaps it’s the geography. I don’t know, but I’m glad I settled here. Everyone else is welcome to move north, as far as I’m concerned. I’ll be ok down here.
