臺灣傳統週訪演團演唱會
Amazing Taiwan , Music Festival – Taiwan Heritage Week Concert

Location/地點:	St. Paul Student Center Theater, University of Minnesota, 2017 Buford Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55108
Tickets/購票:	FREE but required. Available Online Only 免費 網路定票

Featuring: The Chairman （董事長樂團）(Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chairman.taiwan)

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The Chairman（董事長） were formed in 1997 by a group of five friends, but two of them, lead singer Wu Yung-ji (吳永吉), or A-chi, and bass player Du Wen-Xiang (杜文祥), or Xiao-bai, had started their first band years earlier in 1989. Xiao-bai grew up in Keelong（基隆） and A-chi was from not too far away in Rui-fang, a mountain valley village where his father worked as a miner. His parents still live there and technically so does A-chi, but these days, “if I’ve been drinking, I’ll stay in Taipei.”

As teens, the pair would ride a 50cc scooter more than an hour to Taipei. “In Keelung there was nothing going on,” said A-chi. But in Taipei, there were two, count ‘em, two, rock pubs in the Taida（台大） area. Fun House, which they say was Taiwan’s earliest, put most mostly pop cover bands on stage and closed “in 1989 or 1990. I don’t really remember,” said Lin Da-jun (林大鈞), another founding member. “At the time, there weren’t even ten bands in the scene.” The other place was Wooden Top, Taipei’s first “underground” joint for live music. There, Ach-i remembers, “All the bands were covering Megadeath or Metallica.”

In the years surrounding the removal of Taiwan’s martial law in 1988, liberalization was increasing its pace both economically and socially, and that included growing quantities of imported western rock CDs. So they were listening to Guns ‘n Roses, Skid Row, Motley Crue, Metallica, and Da-jun makes no bones about it, “we still love Metallica.”

The hard rock and heavy metal of the 80′s became a sort of template for Taiwanese rock’s second (or possibly third) generation (it depends on whether you make a break between Wu Bai’s（五百） early 90′s stuff and mid- to late-90′s bands like The Chairman and Assassin). Power chords, the screaming Axl Rose vocals, flames and skulls, black t-shirts, long hair. The information kids had to go on was scant. “When we were buying CDs, we’d just pick the one with the most wicked cover,” said A-chi.

Social attitudes were still conservative. “If you had long hair and a cop saw you driving around, he’d pull you over just for that,” said Da-jun.

“In 1995,” he continued, “there was no underground culture, so we wanted to create underground culture. Other bands were only playing covers, and we were playing originals. At first, only a few people listened. It went from there.”

They chose their band’s name, because “it was our own product and we were the bosses,” said Da-jun.

Early on, lyrics were all about typical rock stuff – girls, being a frustrated teen, good times – and all in Hoklo (Taiwanese). “Wu Bai was a little before us and he’d put out albums in Taiwanese, so we knew we could do it too,” said A-chi, who writes the lyrics. Since then, they have bounced back and forth between Hoklo and mandarin, and on the new album, the ratio is 7:3 in favor of the latter. But in A-chi’s view, “the important thing is not language but that the melody sounds good.”

Now, eight years since The Chairman were formed, there are three remaining founding members – A-chi, Da-jun, and Xiao-bai – and they’re all 35. A-chi is married and a new father. A former drummer has gone over to another 2nd/3rd generation rock band, Back Quarter (四分衛), and another former member died of leukemia in 2000. So they’ve picked up two new members, Guo Ren-hao (郭人豪), or How, and Lin Jun-min (林俊民), or Micky.

The Chairman’s style has changed somewhat with the times, but it’s also had a certain consistency. Even though they’ve brought in some loops and electronic effects and collaborate with a DJ from time to time, the core is still rock powered by two guitars, primary and secondary vocals, bass and drums.

Their mark on the local scene is also beginning to manifest. Their first CD of 2000, Li Mm Liao Gai (你不了解 – You Don’t Understand), sold around 50,000 copies. Now that power-rock influence is coming through in younger bands that are not so directly influenced by the west, including some that might not admit it like Hi Her (亥兒) and at least one in Pingdong County that does, says Da-jun. “They imitate a lot of what we do, especially the vocal style, even the name – we are ‘The Chairmen,’ they are just ‘The Man.’”

They’re still together as a band for a very simple reason. “It’s what we do,” said Xiao-bai. “We need to do this. We’re not trying to get anything out of this.”