Sunday, August 10, 2008

Rock the Olympics: Hsu-nami

If you haven't caught the local band Hsu-nami in person, get ready to be blown away. I heard them at an outdoor festival at the Fort Lee Community Center last summer, and can honestly say I never expected this level of musicianship from a free concert. A virtuoso of the erhu (a Chinese 2-stringed violin), band frontman Jack Hsu (a Fort Lee High School graduate) is electrifying with energy and a completely unique rock sound. You can catch their music airing during the Olympics when the Beijing athletes are on screen, and a local shows throughout the fall, including a gig at Ramapo College on September 20.

Their album, Entering the Mandala, is a fine example of good old fashioned indie rock--I bought my copy from a a bored looking Asian woman manning the Hsu-nami table at the summer festival, presumably Hsu's mom, and was really pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the music. She may have no idea how talented her son is. Click below to see their video for the "Rising of the Sun."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey I actually graduated with Jack(erhu player) back at 2002 at Tenafly High school.. he told me he just moved to fort lee recently though facebook.. so.. correction there..

it looks like the Beijing olympic show on August, 29 in NYC is the big one that's going to be promoted heavily since he invited me to that event on facebook.. :)

GWBView@gmail.com said...

Thanks for the correction! We'll keep an eye out for more news on Jack's shows.