Concert «Microwave Live at OTA»

   Hội An is known for lanterns, quiet riverside terraces and unhurried acoustic sets. This autumn the town gains a stage with a very different volume: a new room opens with a full rock night, and the band playing it is one whose songs a whole Vietnamese generation learned by heart in the 2000s. If you have been missing loud guitars on this stretch of coast, this is your evening.

   Microwave formed in Ho Chi Minh City in July 2001 and moved from the student band circuit into the front rank of Vietnamese rock. The breakthrough came with the album «Lối thoát» (2005) and the song «Tìm lại»: by the summer of 2007 it was all over Vietnamese radio and led the Xone FM playlists. «Thời gian» (2009) traded nu metal for modern rock and brought the band the Bài hát Việt and Mai Vàng awards, plus the Album Vàng prize in January 2010. The third record, titled simply «10» (2015), marked ten years since their debut. MTV Việt Nam placed them third in its «Top 10 famous Vietnamese rock bands» list.

   Đinh Tuấn Khanh fronts the band on vocals, with Cao Minh Trung, one of its founders from 2001, behind the drum kit.

   The night is built for anyone who grew up on Vietnamese rock of the 2000s, and just as much for visitors who otherwise hear only soft acoustic music in the old town cafés. The room is a bar, so the distance between stage and audience stays short: no far rows, no big screens, just lights, a beer or a cocktail in hand and guitars at close range.

   Two things make this evening worth the trip. OTA Playhouse is opening its doors for the first time and chose rock over a polite launch party, which for Hội An is a statement about the kind of programme it means to run. For Microwave it is a rare return to central Vietnam: in December 2014 the band played ten songs to 10,000 people in Đà Nẵng at Rock Storm 7.

   Rock rarely gets this loud in Hội An, and a venue opens only once. If Vietnamese rock means anything to you, this one is worth staying an extra night in town for.