A-yue and his band, Free 9, will be holding a major concert in Taipei on August 23rd (ticketing here). For A-yue, performing in Taiwan means he can sing all of his songs for a change (his catalog is heavily censored on the mainland, and some songs are also censored in Singapore and Malaysia), as well as invite MC Hotdog and Patty Hou to sing with him. The concert will then be broadcast on the MTV program, “MTV Live.” The plan is to broadcast it in Asia, Europe and North America (so, you know, watch your television listings…). A-yue has explained that the concert won’t feature flashy costumes or elaborate sets, just him and the band giving it everything they’ve got.
After the televised concert, he takes off on a ten city tour of the mainland, visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi’an, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Shenyang, Dalian, and Chongqing.
The theme of the show and name of the tour is “Work N Play,” coincidentally the name of the clothing label he and a friend started in Hong Kong in January (there’s an English-language site here, but I have to say it took me a long time to figure out that A-yue’s new label was not a music label. That whole thing about working with other artists and crossovers and so forth threw me for a loop). When asked about his GMA loss of the “best lyrics” award to Vincent Fang, A-yue said it didn’t matter – that his lyrics have never been as good as Vincent’s anyway. I’d actually argue with him here: there are times when that heartfelt clarity of A-yue is better than the occasionally overly literary Vincent. I’m still somewhat irrationally hoping for a new album from A-yue sometime soon, though he hasn’t mentioned one beyond saying last year that he had more songs ready than he put on OK. Depending on how long this tour takes, however, it could be next year or later before we see him back on the charts.