Spring Scream (春吶) is an annual music festival with mostly underground bands and some mainstream ones held in Kending (墾丁), the southernmost point in Taiwan. I was itching to hear some Taiwanese indie music and there could not been a better introduction. The festival grounds were beautiful and open and all seven stages were uncrowded; you could stand upfront without any pushing or shoving. It felt like a dream... great music, relaxing atmosphere, cheap food and booze... This is what all music festivals should be like. Although, I heard the festival was not as packed this year because of the economy, so perhaps I just got lucky. Whatever. It rocked.

This pic is of Joanna, an ABC who grew up in Los Angeles. She sings jazzy/folky songs with a voice that reminds me a little of Norah Jones (sorta). I swooned a bit. She sings mostly in English and talks to the crowd in pretty good Chinese but intermittently injects words in English like "legitimate".

"Sun Rays of Morning". Dreamy, arena rock power ballads, reminded me of some Smashing Pumpkins material. The lead singer talked to the crowd before their last song about how it's tough making a living as a musician in Taiwan and asked them to support the music community as much as possible. During their last song, the lead singer suddenly started tearing up on stage. It sounds cheesy, but it worked on me, bought myself an EP for all of 50NT. ($1.25)



lighthouse(!) on the fair grounds.

can't think of a better venue for a music festival.

BEACH! the rainy weather cleared up long enough for a pretty enjoyable day at 白沙彎. The water was unbelievably warm. Probably because Spring Scream was going on, Kenting during this time turned into Spring Break Taiwan style. The beach (not this one, tho) was HOPPING at 4am on the last night. That was definitely a sight to see. All in all, a good time had by all.