yesterday after work i went to the formoz music fest. if i'd known ymck and the aprils weren't playing until around 9 pm, i probably wouldn't have gone so early. when i got there i bought my ticket and walked in. walking around it seemed a bit empty. i asked someone where i could get a scheldule and they said at the front. when i went back to the ticket table, they told me i had to take my ticket outside to another table where i would get a braclet and then go stand in line for the doors to officially open. once inside i'd be given the scheldule. it would have been nice if they had told me that right away. when i finally did get in(again - funny that no one bothered to stop me when i went in early) there was no one i could see giving out scheldules, finally after asking around i found they were at the ticket table. sheesh, why couldn't they have just given that to me when i bought my ticket?

i had about 3 hours to kill before the bands i wanted to see went on. so i spent it wandering around to the various stages to see if there were any interesting bands playing. needless to say there were some boring bands playing but i did catch part of some local doom metal band with cookie monster vocals(as my sister would say). they were sort of like a heavy metal band meets skinny puppy. i'm not sure if they were meant to be taken seriously, i found them rather amusing. i also caught another local band who's name i don't know. they were sort of heavy rock mixed with electronica. i only heard one song but it was interesting enough. the last local band i saw was tizzy bac. i'd heard some of their stuff on a listening station, but live they were much more interesting. the band had 9 or 10 people on stage, including two percussionists, two back up singers and a small string section. the singer kept reminding me of berlin for some reason, maybe it was the hairnet.

finally, it was time for ymck. this time i knew every song they did, and there were definately people here just to see them. the lead male singer even did some announcements in chinese. one drawback to their show was that there was an elevated drum kit on the stage that blocked some of the video screen. but regardless, it was great to see their show again. and they did two of my favourite songs tetrominon ~from russia with blocks~ and yellow magenta cyan and black. i don't know what it is about them, but seeing them live always makes me super happy and they affect me emotionally in a way you wouldn't expect from music that sounds like it should be used in old video games.

next up was the aprils. they also seemed to have a larger following than last year. after they had gotten set up - a heavy rock guitar solo wafted in from one of the other stages, and one of the band members played some hilarious air guitar. when they were ready they all put on 3-d glasses and then threw a bunch of them out to the audience so we could all put them on. the first part of their show had 3-d video projections. cool. during one part of the show they had some problem and had to stop mid-song. one of the lead singers said "sorry...rehearsal! this time..." (stopped to think how to say it) "...real live!". they were a lot of fun, despite the sound that seemed to come drifting in from some of the other stages(this seemed to be more of a problem during ymck's set as their music isn't as loud). the audience was really really into them, and we even got an encore from the band(time after time(not the cyndi lauper song)). like ymck they spoke some chinese, it was so terrible that it ended up being hilarious. but no one seemed to mind. their set seemed a bit on the short side(minus the encore), and they seemed to have a few more technical glitches than last year. they also said they'd be back next year. it can't be soon enough for me.

the aprils video for time after time(thanks to christina for pointing this out to me in a comment):

also according to a flyer i picked up at the fest, dolly's pillbox is doing a summer tour and will be doing a bunch of unplugged shows at eslite bookstores across taiwan. they'll be at the tunhua store here in taipei on the 11th of august at 9 pm.