Anyone else planning on going to Formoz this year?
I can’t wait - Dirty Pretty Things (Carl Barat’s new band) and Super Furry Animals are playing. It’s unususal to get one half-decent band in Taipei, never mind too.
Should be a good weekend! 
When is it?
July 28/29/30 Friday - Sunday at that shitty amusement park place near Yuanshan
Tickets are $1500 in advance for the weekend.
I love that venue. That was the most fun event of last year for me. It’s cool to run around between the different stages checking out the cool bands, sweating your ass off, and running into somebody you know every two seconds.
Infernal Chaos’ show last year was super nice, with a great mosh on the hard concrete. I like the metal/hard stage, and spent most of my time going between that, the punk stage, The Wall’s beer bar, and that monkey cave. I didn’t even get around to seeing Moby as there was a cooler band at the hardcore stage at the time.
I can’t wait!
just to clear up any confusion…
fugazi are not playing. it is only the documentary about them, ‘the instument’ that will be shown. same with with Dead on Arrival (DOA). it’s only the title of a not so bad doc.
also it’s not Sonic Youth that’s playing. you get Sorry Youth instead
i was set to call in sick friday till i found out fugazi wouldn’t actually be there.
I just bought my tickets today, and I’ll probably be hanging out at the Rock stage all weekend. I’ve got a bunch of friends who are going to play, and there are some cool Japanese bands playing too.
What else should I go check out?
Who else will be doing the circuit…maybe we should all wear Forumosa shirts. Muahahaha!
Anyone else going besides twonavals?
Here’s the official schedule.
The Super Furry Animals are playing tonight, and Dirty Pretty Things on Sunday night.
I might make it out Sunday, but tonight is highly doubtful.
Last night was amazing! We checked out Vista, from Taiwan…really cool gothrock sound. And then we went over to Infernal Chaos…great show as always. We checked out the Furries for about 10 minutes, but they weren’t really my scene, so we spent the rest of the time at the Elektronics stage. Snoblind is very cool.
The atmosphere at the festival is fun, laid-back hyper as always. Be sure to check tonight and tomorrow night. 
Super Furries were pretty good, despite having their set cut short because of incompetence.
It’s been great so far, but why must the bands do the soundchecks before they get on stage? We waited 30 minutes for a band last night while they did their soundchecks (we’d heard all their songs before they started).
Looking forward to the dirty pretty things tonight, hopefully carl will get the crowd up for it a bit. it’s kinda weird being at a gig when everyone is sitting or standing very politely.
I think i’ll probably bleed taiwan beer on monday
The Wind stage is just not much fun because it’s so crowded, and most of the bands have been pretty mellow. If you go to the Rock and Fire stages you’ll see some serious dancing, but then I guess metal is not everybody’s thing. We had some moshing at the front at Cthonic’s show on Wind last night. The Radiohead cover was a cool surprise, even though we lost a bit of sound on the voice there. My friend talked to Freddy on the phone just before he got on stage, completely by accident.
Friday night was much more of a high for me, though, although I’m looking forward to Clione-index and Grim Force tonight. I haven’t really decided where to go for the last slot yet…maybe Bhelliom on Rock.
The highlight of the whole fest was running into Tetsuo! Have fun tonight, Josefus and Mugatu!
I went last night for the first time (by myself!), and had a great time going from stage to stage checking out the bands, even though I had previously only heard of two acts there - 張懸 and Tizzy Bac. I enjoyed 張懸’s cover of Coldplay - Yellow at the end of her show at Mountain King’s Peak, probably my favourite stage thanks to the great views and the cool breeze which gave us some relief.
There was also more space for the spectators than at the Wind stage, which felt a bit boxed in. I lost patience waiting for Tizzy Bac who took ages on their soundchecks, but made it back for their last couple of songs, which sounded great live after I’d heard a couple from one of their albums.
Liked the concept of the Back Woods stage, which was basically a small clearing on a hill with a nice view of the sun setting behind Guanyinshan, and featured niche, acoustic-type bands. Little Polar Bear and 小宇宙 (“Small Universe”) were OK, even though they also took a while with their soundchecks, was a nice place to chill out with a beer.
The 1000NT ticket price for a one-day pass was worth it in the end. Ran pretty smoothly, most venues easy to find, decent food and drink options, “laid-back hyper” (spot on twonavels!) atmosphere. The fold-out map and timetable attached to a lanyard was a great idea, pity the ‘timetable’ was more like a guideline. 
Have to mention the Forumosa ads that were running on the big screens at the Mountain and Wind stages in between acts. Well done! Is this the first major venue where they’ve been shown? Would be very surprised if there is an English-speaking foreigner on this island who hasn’t heard of Forumosa after the ads have been running for a while.
I went on Sunday. Twonavels description of the rock stage was right. Grim Force and punk girl band Akaikane caused a crowd reaction I’ve never witnessed before in Taiwan. Clione-index and Dirty Pretty Things weren’t bad either.
You should go to more of the Metal gigs at The Wall. Moshing and the Wall of Death happens more often than you thing (check out the videolinks that I put up for Infernal Chaos under fav Taiwan bands…they show a gig in The Wall, and you can see me in action in the Wall of Death too).
Bhelliom from Singapore was pretty cool too…too bad they were in the same slot as the Dirty Pretty Things on Wind stage.
Damn! How can Formoz be over! I want my Formoz!
Did anybody else spot the future president and Freddy and their entourage too?
[quote=“twonavels”]…Damn! How can Formoz be over! I want my Formoz!
Did anybody else spot the future president and Freddy and their entourage too?[/quote]
I saw Mayor Ma and entourage filing past the Mountain Stage, and judging from the grimace on Ma’s face, I think he must have been in the audience at the Wind Stage about half an hour before that when Joy Topper (豬頭皮) was making scathing comments about Ma and the KMT. (Trying to get his bassist to lay down a “sad” bassline, Joy Topper said, “no that’s not sad enough… think of the saddest thing you can… think about how the KMT may never return the national assets they stole, think about Ma Ying Jeou’s face…” The crowd ate it up. 
)