HK Live! 2.0
Two years of great music and Hong Kong’s best bands at our monthly live show. Cheerful backslapping by Natasha Stokes
HK Magazine’s very own monthly gig HK Live! celebrates its second anniversary in January. And despite the laughable audacity of us going apeshit over some show we throw ourselves every month - dammit, it’s a great party, great event and a hell of a live show.
From relatively humble (albeit extremely well-attended) beginnings, the gig has grown to a multimedia event that has partnerships with regional music platform and online community AMP by Channel V, and title sponsor Heineken.
“HK Live! is a pro event – artists are respected and crucially, paid their fair share; it’s got great media support, and the audience comes in hordes because the acts are well selected,” says AMP project manager Justin Sweeting. It may be tired but it’s true - bands getting paid, and paid enough, is one of the key factors in the development of Hong Kong’s indie scene, but many promoters still do not compensate their musicians.
“The event has been successful partly because we’re not promoters as much as we are magazine publishers,” says HK Live! organizer Clare Morin. The show is organized from the marketing department of Asia City Publishing, which publishes magazines such as yours truly, who, incidentally, is credited with some of HK Live!’s success. “It means we can advertise the hell out of the event – something that is usually a huge cost for promoters and which has been one reason for the success of HK Live!,” Morin says.
And partnering with big brands who want to reach the same demographic doesn’t hurt either. While corporate investment in music isn’t the most ringing endorsement, it does mean the money that is needed ends up circulating within the scene.
It all started with Macanese pop-rock duo Soler, eclectic rockers SiQ and original Hong Kong punk band Hardpack. The opening night queue snaked all the way around the Fringe Club and down Wyndham Street. And since then, the whole point of the night has been the same – to showcase the best of local and regional talent while rocking out as hard as the amps will go.