Taipei, even a rock concert to celebrate the Holy Family
Taipei (AsiaNews) - A rock concert to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the largest church in all of Taiwan. The faithful of the Holy Family of Taipei celebrated the feast with different forms of entertainment, before the Mass celebrated by the Archbishop in a solemn atmosphere.
Over two thousand young people came together for a unique event. Beginning with a riff worthy of the best Led Zeppelin. the song "Say now," written by Hu Hongjia and performed by his band from the underground music world in Taipei, opened the series of live performances. The words of this song are taken from the sentences of the disciples of the Gospel, when they decide to follow Jesus, and the rhythm got the atmosphere going among the young crowd.
Everyone was on their feet, including Father John Rao, pastor of Holy Family who is in his sixties. Then came the turn of the children of the parish of St. Paul, from New Taipei, led by Weng Zhechuan, who began by saying: "I'm not a great musician; I limit myself to writing the words. But listen to them!" It was immediately clear that the drummer plays with the best pop rock singer in Taiwan. Part of the song "An example of brotherly love", was dedicated to all those who have made the Taiwanese church a united and dynamic community.
We honestly thought we would be taking part in yet another amateur concert full of setbacks and false notes, badly mixed sounds and supposed pseudo rockers, instead we were faced with an event led by industry professionals who performed for free, for the young rock fans emerging in Taipei and elsewhere in Taiwan.
But the real surprise came from Sr. Ann, 42, originally from Kerala and with an amazing voice, who gave a hard rock performance with her band of three young musicians. After performing "The best prayer", she caught her breath and confessed: "I would like to remind you that Freddie Mercury was Indian and I have always admired him, even if I liked Iron Maiden best, before entering the novitiate."
The twenty-somethings in the audience went crazy. Father John is perplexed at first, maybe he thinks that Mercury and Maiden are old Catholic missionaries in Kerala, then he sees that it has been a rousing success and joins in the euphoria.
The concert continues with more melodic songs, confirming at the same time how mush preparation has gone in to this show.
In Taiwan Korean pop singers are very popular, such as Rain and Super Junior, but this exhibition reveals that there is a whole world of youth tied to the rock tradition, which prefers more "sweaty" performances made of obsessive and dizzying rhythm guitar solos.
After eleven performances of the day, comes Msgr. Hong Shanchuan (洪山川), Archbishop of Taipei, to celebrate the Eucharist. Electric guitars give way to the acoustic guitars of the mass, and the spirit of participation in the final prayer is, if possible, even more intense thanks to the affinity created during the concert.
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