Hush

A good friend of mine used to run a bar in Zhuhai. It was about the only place I could find that played live music in the area, and even then it was little more than karaoke with a live band for the most part. I would wait around until almost midnight to be able to get up and play three or four songs, beofre the drunk crowds would demand more karaoke, and I would hang around until three when David and I would hammer out a few songs until he was too hammered to continue.

One of those nights, one of those 3AM's, we got into one of those depressed conversations about the state of rock music in the area. It was, we both agreed, a wasteland... an area bereft of the musical blood that flowed through our veins. For a short time, that word wasteland was to become the name for the band we never managed to form.

I started going to Zhuhai because, for a year, I had been unable to find live music in Macau. It was a year after that I finally found live rock music and formed my first band in these parts. It was a year after that the band fell apart and it would be a fourth year before I could find another band, only to see it split again.

When I first started playing in Macau, live original music was a bit of a misnomer. Shows were twice a year, put on for free by the one or two institutions that took even the smallest interest in rock music. Having to wait so long, every band wanted to play, and so nobody had any time to play. Each band played two songs, both covers, then quietly got off stage while the next band took almost as much time to set up as the last band took to play.

System Kick, my second band, split up right in time to watch the first big rock concert in Macau, Hush 2006. It was a hit and miss affair, with perhaps the most notable event being the performance of hardcore Hong Kong legends King Lychee. Their performance has since been erased from official records after their set was cut short after a single song - the mosh pit scared the organisers into cutting the plugs.

It should be noted that by this stage, local music had progressed. Local bands played a 15 minute set, but several of them had a good 30 minute set ready to go.

One day someone will right the definitive history of Macau rock music, and they will devote a hefty section to Hush and how it promoted the local talent to a wider audience, and as a new band in Hush this year I can't disagree with that. It is the biggest audience my band will have a chance to perform to.

Having said that, Hush also highlights the big struggle for a local rock scene. To perform on a stage the size of Hush, a band must establish themselves as credible talents. The problem is, where can a local band establish themselves?

The other day, in the press event for this year's Hush, I was asked why I think I can stand on the same stage as the other bands. I'm not sure if this was just poorly worded, or if this was meant to be a challenge to me in how I would handle the question, but it really did get me thinking - how does a band get "good enough" if there are not venues to earn your credibility.

And this is my conflict with Hush. It is promoted as an event to help build the local music scene, but in a way it is a threshing machine. Once a year every band in Macau puts together an application, with a demo and bio and whatever else they can muster, and posts it into the Cultural Center. CCM then weeds through and decides on which bands to include, and for their own sanity they make sure they give preference to bands they know can handle the big show.

And so every year, Blademark, Scamper, LAVY, Crossline, Forget the G and Music: Boxx get added first, a couple of bands from previous shows come back (say, Cactus, Black Sheep) and there are a couple of spots for the most promising new comers. This year it was us and Roof, and bare in mind that Roof has musicians that have been in the local music scene since at least 1991.

It's the eternal question of quality or quantity, and ideally to get the first, you need the second. If a band doesn't get regular chances to play in front of a live audience, how the hell will they ever be good enough to play the big stage?

This is not to take away from a great event. It is the biggest audience I've ever played for... well, if you discount that show where I played right outside the Gongbei immigration, but that's an entirely different matter.

I'm sure as hell going to enjoy this show, but I have wonder how we are going to bridge that gap. How do we build the training ground that rock bands need to hone their craft?