Miaoju JianThe years from 2000 to 2005 represented a glorious time for Underworld. The business was
flourishing, with live gigs regularly presented every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. During this
period all kinds of bands, whether senior or junior, were performing at Underworld, present-
ing diverse music styles, such as punk, entertaining, post-punk, acid, electro, experimental, etc.,
as well as DJ music parties of various interesting themes. For most new bands, Underworld was
the most challenging venue. The female lead vocal of the band, Peppermint, said:
It wasn’t easy to get the chance to perform in Underworld ... The shareholders are
senior music devotees who listened to rock music for over 20 years ... The audiences
were also senior rock fans, including band members, professional critics, foreigners and
artists. These people formed Underworld’s own unique atmosphere, it was not the kind
of place that any band could easily take charge.
(Lin 2014)Many musicians had the same experience of hanging out late in Underworld as an audience,
drinking alcohol until sunrise, and then one day, finding themselves forming their own bands.
The unique ambiance of Underworld was called “the Underworld tone,” and the people on and
off its stage were called “the Underworld gang” (地社掛) (Ho 2015). The sense of belonging
that these people had towards Underworld came from their exceptional feelings, experiences,
and values they shared with each other in this particular scene. Participants accumulated a wealth
of fond memories during this period of time.
Underworld crashed by the upper class
After the mid-2000s, Taipei and the ‘upper-class’ environment were experiencing dramatic
changes. As local bands flourished in the music market, the Taipei City Government started to
throw free New Year’s Eve countdown parties. Rock bands soon became regular performers
due to their excellent performance skills, and thereby faded away from their original sub-
cultural scene. Meanwhile, a few small live venues in Taipei started to rename themselves as
“Live Houses,” which is a term borrowed from Japan, with the meaning of “vending live shows
rather than alcohol.” Underworld, Witch House, Riverside, and The Wall, became the big four
live houses in Taipei, and going to a live house had become a new fashionable entertainment
option that was generally approved by the middle class.
However, the values of the middle class added new restrictions to these live houses.
In 2007, the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) was passed, prohibiting smoking
in most indoor areas and public places in Taiwan. Additionally, pushed by public opinion,
the National Police Agency also began to enforce strict regulations curbing drunk driving.
These new regulations had a pronounced impact on all the music pubs, as cigarettes and
alcohol were commonly consumed in pubs and live houses. In the meantime, the Taipei City
Urban Regeneration Office was set up in 2004, which took charge of the city’s regeneration,
industry revival, and community construction. The Shida night market area, which included
Underworld, was originally an educational zone formed of numerous lanes, alleys, and old
apartments. In 2011, the area became a place not only where most of the city regeneration
cases were targeted, but also a place with the highest housing prices in Taipei. Therefore, urban
public spaces were continuously being turned into private properties (Huang 2012). Not only
did new residents surge in, the number of stores and shops also increased substantially. Within
three to four years, the number of stores had increased from 200 to 700, with housing prices
and rents rising unceasingly. The middle-class residents refused to bear their deteriorating