BoPoMoFo

BoPoMoFo

Start Time: 9.30pm

Entrance Fee: $200

DC 'deacon' Rapier - vocals, harmonica, tenor sax, flute, slide guitar, rhythm guitar

Klaus 'Mr Fixer' Tseng - keyboards, vocals

Aki 'the Flame' Ikeda - lead guitar, vocals

Cody Byassee - drums

Mike 'Steel-fingers' Tennant - bass guitar, vocals

Blues, baby! With some classic old school R&B, Soul and soulful originals to the mix.

BoPoMoFo formed in 2005 to fill the void in the local music scene for a rockin', jumpin' Chicago-style Blues band. With minimal personnel changes, we've kept the flame burning bright and have been preaching the Gospel of the Blues to the folks on Taiwan ever since.

Our main source of inspiration is the highly-charged, electrified Delta sounds of Chicago-styles Blues played by Muddy Waters and exemplified by the Chess Records catalog but we also draw from the well-spring of other Blues styles - Jump Blues and Texas Blues, for example.

We've played all of five the international Blues music festivals hosted by the Blues Society on Taiwan as well as other festivals around the island of Taiwan, often giving the crowd their first dose of the Blues flu and always getting a wide-eyed response to the power of the Blues.

In 2007. we were the first band from Taiwan ever to join the the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge (IBC). We had the pleasure of performing two nights at BB King's Blues Club on Beale Street in Memphis, USA.

While in Memphis, we recorded the basic tracks for 10 original songs and a cover of 'I Saw Her Standing There' (a la Muddy Waters) at the legendary Sun Studio on February 5th & 6th, 2007. That CD, entitled 'Hell Froze Over' is currently being mastered and should be available sometime before hell does freeze over.

During 2007, we were the house band at the up-scale bistro, Capone's Italian Dinnerhouse, playing 3 nights a week - the first time a Blues band has ever held that coveted position in any establishment on the island. We just returned to Capone's and fans - past, present and future - are showing us the love.

In 2008,we toured Japan, playing the Miya Jazz Fest and BEAT Club in Utsenomiya where we also recorded three songs with the Shogun of the Blues Guitar, Shun Kikuta. We also had the pleasure of playing Slow Blues in Nagoya and the honorable grandfather of all Tokyo Blues clubs, Jirokichi Tokyo. Another tour of Japan is in the works and will include dates in Osaka.

Band interests

Playing music and getting folks to shake a tail-feather to jumpin', rockin', ass-kickin' Blues music, first and foremost.