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By
John Chang Translated by Uvia Chang
I
walked into The Pig in Tianmu looking for a little
English spirit, afraid of old musty ties hanging
about the bar. What I got was some thumping rock
and roll greeting my ear. Singing in near perfect
mimicry, the words "somebody turned around
and shouted play that funky music white boy...." was
DNA, the Thursday night band at The Pig.
DNA was in full swing. The dance floor was full
of grooving, sweaty bodies, twisting, shaking,
fist pumping, and singing along. "Is this
normal, for a Taiwanese cover band?" I asked
my foreign friends. "Most of the bands here
are of this good quality. Especially the weekend
bands are pretty good," replied Randy Maguire.
The Pig, oakey, dark and smokey comes alive at
9:30 pm every night of the week with live music.
Sundays is Jazz, Latin and Bossanova with the "Taipei
Jazz Express" in the afternoon and "No
Pressure" taking the stage at night. Monday
through Wednesday "Jack's Band," the
house band, rocks with pop, '80s and blues; Thursday,
it's a bit funky with "DNA,"; on Friday "Rock
City" brings the roof down with hard rock
and pop classics; Saturday sees more writhing bodies
to the cool dance tunes performed by "Replay."
Backed by the rocking music, dart tournaments are
being played out and the sport of the day is broadcast
on the big screen. The ales are reasonably priced,
the fish and chips are excellent, the crowd is
cheery, and DNA is working on an album of original
rock and roll songs in Chinese that they expect
to release early next year. "We are getting
ready to rock the mainland," said Jeff the
lead vocalist. Well, if their performance tonight
is any indication of the other bands on this beat,
then The Pig is looking to be fattened up for a
Christmas feast. Oh, and before I forget to tell
you…the moldy ties are gone. |
