The Lo-Fi, Gloriously Tacky Band No One Can Define – The Amazing Show (Part 2) – 2024 / April Week 4 Recommended Playlist
Intro
YouTube playlist:
Spotify playlist:
Meow meow, hey everyone~ Welcome back, it’s Mydondon! Today we’re picking right back up where we left off with The Amazing Show (美秀集團)! Honestly, for me The Amazing Show has always been a band that’s really hard to recommend to friends. Most people probably like songs such as Rolling Cigarette and I Want Your Love, but as a bit of a weirdo, my favorites are still the lesser-known ones like Zombie King, Electric Fire King, and Punishment. Those tracks really do have a smaller fanbase. And even after watching a ton of interviews and reading lots of the band’s own reflections since the first week of this series, I still can’t confidently say I truly know them.
The Cyber-Taike Worldview
It’s because they’re just so hard to pin down. Every single song has a different style and always leaves you feeling refreshed, which is why I always say their style is just really “Amazing Show” (?) — taking very Taiwanese, very traditional elements and reinterpreting them in a futuristic, avant-garde way. Actually, on their second album, Bao Shan Da Wang, they already used a similar approach to interpret a lot of the songs. Whether it’s the album cover, I Want Your Love, or the art style of so many other tracks, it was all designed in what they call the “Cyber-Taike” (賽博台客) style.
“Cyber-Taike” simply means, as I mentioned earlier, taking traditional Taiwanese elements and interpreting them in a modern or avant-garde way. And this isn’t just a musical genre the band invented — in the future it even becomes a whole “worldview.” For now we can only peek at what this world looks like through a few faint cracks, but the truth is The Amazing Show has secretly dropped clues all over the place for us to go hunting for. One of the spots with the most info about this worldview is the band’s official website (yep! Bet you didn’t expect The Amazing Show to have its own official website!)
The Amazing Show’s Official Website
The homepage
There’s a lot of really special stuff to explore on this site. For example, right when you land on the homepage there’s a flashy little model you can yank around and contort into all sorts of crooked shapes.
And if you yank it enough times, the thing explodes and scatters into a pile of parts. Clicking on these parts teleports you to different pages around the site — but who knows, maybe there are some secrets hidden in there?
In the bottom-right corner there’s one of those little help assistants that were super common back in the day. Anyway, you know the kind I mean — you can click it to interact with it. That said, it seems like every path leads to the same ending, and each click takes ages, so I didn’t bother trying out every single route.
The history page
On the history page you’ll find two options: one is the real world, the other is the virtual world of Cyber-Taike. In the Cyber-Taike worldview, the premise is that Goubai’s flashy contraption was never actually meant to be a musical instrument — it was a divine artifact powerful enough to command life itself and rule the world. But Goubai, who wanted to seal the artifact away, and Xiuqi, who wanted to use it to rule the world, couldn’t agree, so they began fighting over this artifact capable of throwing the world into chaos. To keep the world from being destroyed, Goubai decided to teleport four instruments — including the “flashy contraption 3.0” — all together into a Δ world. The “flashy contraption 1.0” then landed on the island of Formosa in the early 17th century of the Δ world, triggering drastic climate change that drove the Dutch and the Spanish out of Taiwan. As for the rest of the story, I’ll leave that for you to discover yourselves!
The VIP room and one of its little easter eggs
On top of that, in the VIP room, once you log in with your personal info you can enter a tiny 3D space. In there you can interact with three different flashy contraptions — pressing them does things like play sounds. And if you click on Mr. TV, you get teleported to the recording of the “hologram concert” that The Amazing Show held a while back. Such a rare link, and it’s actually hidden right here!!!
That’s pretty much it for the website. Personally, even though the site itself isn’t designed to be super user-friendly — some of the text is so tiny it’s almost impossible to read, and it freezes and crashes really easily — the art design genuinely shows so much care. They even dressed up every member as these “Cyber-Taike” people. When I first saw it I thought it was hilarious; I even looked closely at every single image, and the more I looked, the more I had no idea what these guys were on…
In the VIP room there’s also a message left behind by Xiuqi, where he talks about why they built this website and the concept behind the new album.
Oh, and by the way — Mr. TV is actually the TV (computer?) from the song Mark Twain. The history section even mentions how Mr. TV was born, so Mr. TV isn’t just some simple little screen helper.
Why don’t they want to be defined as a “Taiwanese-flavor” band?
Alright, let’s wrap up the website tour here! In their early days, The Amazing Show was always slapped with the very “Taike” (台) label. There’s no denying that on their first album they really did have that Taiwanese flavor — like a country kid born and raised in the sticks singing their own songs. But the band themselves didn’t really like being defined that way. Just like “Oh Boy! I Mean It” (那我懂你意思了), a now-disbanded band I introduced before, they always hated being pinned with labels — as if once that label is stuck on you, every future album’s style has to follow whatever the audience wants. And I think The Amazing Show is also a band that doesn’t want to be defined. But rather than saying they refuse to be labeled, it’s more that they’re a band willing to experiment and one that gets bored of doing the same thing over and over. Like this album — listening from start to finish, you really do get that “what the heck did I just listen to” feeling. Not only is there their first-ever attempt at slow-jam with “Golden Glitter,” there’s also the Taiwanese-language rap ballad “Heartache” (心悶), not to mention Zombie King, Battle Cigarette, and Mark Twain — songs whose styles you honestly can’t even begin to define. It’s as if The Amazing Show got “lost” while searching for the songs they love — which is exactly the note Xiuqi himself put on this album: it’s an album about being lost. But even though the styles are wildly different, every single song has a way of getting you hooked before you even realize it. No matter how unusual a song is, it always manages to grab the audience’s attention and leave us wanting more. Maybe that’s just the true flavor of The Amazing Show.
Zombie King & Golden Glitter
Take this song “Zombie King” — I think it’s the most unique and most addictive track of the bunch. If I had to sum up the whole song in one word, it’d be Darwin. That’s right! This is a song about Darwin, telling the story of fighting one another over limited resources. “Just let me strip away your right to breathe / forgotten before you even exhale / whoever turns away to dodge may still be coercing / until the moment of nirvana, you realize your feet never touched the ground.” Just like how a lot of zombie anime often use the nature of zombies to hint at the dark, “man-eat-man” side of society, I feel this song carries that same vibe — everyone wants to climb up by stepping on someone else’s head, as if nothing short of reaching the very top will satisfy them.
The next song is yet another genre The Amazing Show had never tried before, and it’s also one you often hear at Taiwanese night markets: “slow-jam” (慢搖). The defining feature of slow-jam is pretty much exactly what it sounds like — like rock music but slower, while still having a strong sense of groove. This song really has that vibe of a “DJ So-and-So remix” track; every time I listen I want to shout “give me tempo, ready go” and “put your hands up, put your hands up.” Fun fact: this cheer song made specifically for Team Taiwan at the Tokyo Olympics wasn’t originally meant to be a slow-jam. Back then it was a different song, but when they handed the demo to the client, even the client felt it wasn’t quite right and replied that if that was the kind of music they wanted, there’d be no need to hire The Amazing Show. In the end it was only after a sudden “spiritual liberation,” when inspiration struck, that they wrote Golden Glitter.
Battle Cigarette and the little easter eggs in the song
Another song, “Battle Cigarette” (戰鬥菸), is also really special. Not only does the backing track incorporate percussion instruments, there are also tons of different sound effects hidden in it. The song itself is about the experience of military service. Military service is a shared memory for pretty much every guy, and although I haven’t been through it yet, just a quick browse of articles online shows that a huge chunk of the content is people complaining about all sorts of experiences during their service. This song carries a little bit of that grumbling vibe too. To make it feel even more like military life, the song is packed with little details most people would never notice — like around 3:42 there’s the sound of a mosquito, since mosquitoes were one of the most annoying things in their memories of service. In other sections there’s also the residual-pressure alarm sound used in firefighting, but I searched online for ages and still couldn’t make out exactly which part has that effect. My guess is it’s the one around 3:15, but I’m not totally sure. “Buying drinks is my biggest perk, this is my perk, this is my perk / saluting you is just my muscle memory, I am your slave, I am your slave.”
Lovers’ Group Portrait Tale and my guesses about the MV story
The last album we’ll cover is also one I really love: “Lovers’ Group Portrait Tale” (戀人群像物語). This album has just three songs — Lovers, Group Portrait, and Tale (why does saying it out loud feel like I’m stating the obvious, hahaha). It’s also an album absolutely packed with information, and since I don’t really get all of it… a lot of the time this is just my personal interpretation plus guesses from netizens. So if it differs from what The Amazing Show actually meant to convey, please bear with me! This album was also a wish Xiuqi gave himself the year he turned 27 — he wanted to finish it before turning 27, because 27 is a very special number. In case you didn’t know, there’s a “curse” in the art world: supposedly all famous artists die at 27. So Xiuqi wanted to weave this element together with different facets of love to interpret the album.
The album’s three songs represent three different facets — birth, passing, and demise — and the storytelling across these songs got special attention too. Every MV hides a lot of different plot, and the three MVs also echo one another. Personally I think the story behind it is genuinely well written, which gives this album its own character and makes it worth sharing.
You can read the plot of these three songs in reverse order. “Lovers” tells the story of a female lead who dances at a club and one day meets a guy — a guy who’s quite different from the usual ones. Compared to the men who only want her body, the male lead in Lovers is more like someone seeking a stable relationship. Unlike the guys who only chase physical pleasure, this man has a bit more romance, a bit more maturity, and a bit more charm. In the Lovers MV the male lead is a magician who can manipulate “light” — like focusing the glow of neon signs onto the word “love,” or poking holes in a cardboard box and using it to look at a glowing streetlight. And although the female lead has a great time during their dates in the MV, she secretly feels she’s let him down? Or perhaps she realizes that, already stained with worldly impurity, she ultimately isn’t worthy of the pure-hearted older guy — so in the end she returns to the same place that dragged her down and keeps on falling.
The second song, “Group Portrait,” is basically a song about doubting yourself. After leaving, the female lead constantly questions who she really is and what the meaning of her existence in this world even is. It’s as if she’s always been chasing after something, only to suddenly realize she doesn’t actually like the dream she’s been chasing. As if she’s lived so long yet it’s like she never existed at all. “Do I really have love? Do you really have love? Do you really exist? Do you really exist?” The video does a great job using the interplay between animation and reality to create that feeling of losing your direction in life.
The final song, “Tale,” is one I feel is both the beginning and the ending at once, laying out both the start and the end for the male and female leads. But I think I’ll leave the grand finale of this whole story for you to experience yourselves! Please, you absolutely have to watch this song’s MV! “Oh lover, don’t keep saying it so grudgingly / that I taught you to let go, that I made you reckless / the burn of a cigarette about to go out / swaying while lost in the moment / don’t forget to sing, don’t forget to be like / liars like us / take a leap right out the window.”
The Amazing Show’s new album and one of its lead singles – Phone, Wallet, Keys, Cigarette
This was originally meant to be the April playlist, but for various reasons it got pushed all the way back to October. As it turned out, during all that time The Amazing Show announced they were dropping a new album — and it’s already out! So I had no choice but to swap out a song at the last minute to introduce this brand-new, fresh-out-of-the-oven track. The last song we’ll cover is “Phone, Wallet, Keys, Cigarette” (手機錢包鑰匙菸). Habit is often a terrifying thing — it’s usually only when you lose the things you’re used to that it hits you the hardest, which is exactly what the saying “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” means. Although the song is hinting at a couple breaking up after dating for a long time, what I actually picture is the awkward predicament of accidentally heading out without your keys. Honestly, getting locked out without your keys when you want to go home might be even more devastating than getting dumped!? “Phone, wallet, keys, cigarette — repeat it a few times / phone, wallet, keys, cigarette — why are they gone again? / phone, wallet, keys, cigarette — repeat it a few times / phone, wallet, keys, cigarette — and I think of your face.”
The raccoon’s identity and Xiuqi’s comeback
And that’s not all! About a month ago, The Amazing Show also released a series of short videos. The gist is that Xiuqi got trapped inside a “raccoon persona,” and only by letting a guitar touch the raccoon was there a chance to awaken the “sleeping Xiuqi.” In the end they successfully woke up Xiuqi’s persona, confirming that Xiuqi — who had previously announced he was temporarily leaving the band — is officially back!
But actually, this wasn’t the first time Xiuqi appeared as a raccoon. Before this you could catch him showing up in a raccoon mask at major music festivals too. Back then, when Xiuqi announced he was stepping away from the band, it was because he was suffering deeply from his mental health, and I feel the raccoon is a form of self-healing. Online you often see public-facing celebrities scrutinized under a magnifying glass — the moment they slip up and do something wrong, the crowd tends to pile on. Sometimes, whether or not it’s a public appearance, once they get recognized they’re asked to take photos or even get followed (whether by reporters or ordinary people), as if there are several pairs of eyes watching you at all times.
On top of that, any Mai-mai (fans) who’ve seen The Amazing Show live will definitely know that the thrill of their live shows is completely different from streaming their music. A live event of this scale isn’t something you can just throw together casually — it usually takes a huge amount of effort, and you have to be on edge the whole time during the show too. That kind of life has to be incredibly stressful, so I think Xiuqi back then probably wanted to take a break because of that, on top of various other reasons, to properly repair himself before coming back to meet everyone again, you know?
The raccoon persona also gives him more chances to connect with fans, and I think that’s part of the self-healing process too. After all, the reason he chose to hold live shows in the first place is because he enjoys interacting with regular fans and giving back for the support they’ve always shown. So the raccoon can appear only when he feels like appearing, without having to be exactly like Xiuqi the person — he can just freely be himself. Anyway, I’m really glad Xiuqi has been able to heal his own body and mind, and I’m really looking forward to The Amazing Show’s next album! This is Mydondon — see you in the next recommended playlist!
And barring any surprises, I’ll spend the entire next playlist introducing The Amazing Show’s new album, so please look forward to it! Hopefully this time it won’t take too long…