Former Hong Kong indie music venue TTN is back giving local rock and metal fans the live shows they want – just not at their own space
- This Town Needs (TTN) is now a show organiser rather than venue host, arranging live rock and metal concerts in Hong Kong at places like Kitec
- At its upcoming show on March 23 in Mong Kok, experimental alt-rock band Amazing Show will headline, supported by Hong Kong’s Nan Yang Pai Dui (NYPD)
From 2017 to 2020, This Town Needs (TTN) was a popular and much-respected live music venue for metal and alternative rock fans in Hong Kong.
Then the coronavirus pandemic hit and, just like many small Hong Kong businesses, the industrial space in Yau Tong was forced to close down.
“It had always been difficult to find a venue that truly accommodated our need of putting on high-quality, well-rounded shows,” says TTN co-founder Steveo Hui. “Money, of course, was a real issue as well.”
“There were a lot of things on the technical side that we had to deal with,” adds fellow co-founder Joshua Chan. “Cost, laws, licences … our resources were limited [as an independent operation].”
As borders reopen after three years, TTN (formerly known as Hidden Agenda) can finally return to what it did best – only this time, in the role of show organiser rather than venue host.
Now, it organises live concerts for rock enthusiasts – a relatively niche genre in the Hong Kong music market, but important nonetheless for a diverse local indie music scene.
It invited the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem to play on February 4 at the Kowloon Bay International Trade & Exhibition Centre (Kitec)’s E-Max Music Zone. The first big metal show since the reopening of Hong Kong, the turnout was impressive, with queues snaking around the hallways. The joy among fans, who had been starved of live gigs for three years, was palpable.
“During Covid, many bands had to cancel their plans to come to Hong Kong, while others just plainly gave up on the idea,” Hui says. “The pandemic definitely made things a lot harder and grimmer for the local scene.
“To be honest though, the scene has always been small to begin with. It’s not like it was ever thriving in a mainstream way,” he adds with a sarcastic laugh.
TTN’s biggest challenge now, he says, is to recover from “leftover financial issues, among the many aftermaths of Covid”.
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Even during the pandemic, the co-founders never gave up and were preparing for the city to open its borders again.
“From running a venue, initially, to now organising and collaborating with more different parties to put on concerts, our way of operation definitely became more fluid,” Hui says. “The change was something that came quite naturally.”
But that is not to say TTN does not want to have its own physical space again.
“We still want to host concerts at other venues [for the sake of versatility], but yes – we’ve actually been asked a lot about whether we would ever find ourselves another venue,” Hui says.
He adds that Hong Kong seems to lack diversity when it comes to live music venues that can accommodate different audiences.
One of TTN’s upcoming shows will play on March 23 at the MacPherson Stadium in Mong Kok. Experimental alt-rock band Amazing Show from Taiwan will headline, supported by Hong Kong’s own indie darlings Nan Yang Pai Dui (NYPD).
“We would love to be able to call a space our own again one day, if it’s possible, and if the opportunity presented itself. But the first and foremost thing is that it has to be a truly suitable space for what we want to do – be it a bar, a live music venue, or an exhibition space,” Hui says.
“In a city like Hong Kong, sometimes the price tag simply doesn’t make sense.”
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Chan says that the bottom line is for them to make sure what they do is financially viable.
“We have to be able to support what we do – it’s always been our main concern, and it’s never been an easy task,” he says.
