The sun was setting on the rooftop of NEO-, 393/7 Hai Bà Trưng in Saigon’s District 3, when the beginnings of a crowd were first appearing for a May 1 Labor Day live music show capping off the end of a long holiday weekend.
Audience members settled in sipping the venue’s signature beers from DEME brewery ahead of a three-act live music showcase soon to take place on the rooftop. Attendees crowded in front of the vacant stage as well as above it: NEO- ‘s ruin-style layout features an open mezzanine design with rooftop seating above the bar.
A crowd of about fifty gathered at the venue for the local music showcase.
NEO-’s Labor Day concert was packed with young locals.
“We want to showcase local art,” Tùng Nguyễn said, NEO- and Deme Brewing’s owner, explaining a broader shift in his company’s focus from just craft beer to arts and community events.
New beer and new products are resource intensive, so he’s planning on cooking up excitement through moments rather than products, Tùng explained.
First up was the Labor Day show.
Bedroom pop played to good vibes on NEO-’s rooftop
The first band to play was Con Lười Lươn Lẹo (@slippery.sloth), a rock band with a bit of a Tim Burton-slash-Halloween flavor.
It’s old, weirdly seductive, and dark all at the same time. The waltz and the jazz-style, off-time tempos are a favorite of this band that likes slow moments and crooning. Dusk on NEO-’s rooftop was a perfect setting to hear such a thing.
Up next was Chuột Sấm Sét (Electric Mouse). The name itself is the musical moniker of Lê Võ Đình Tuần and the indie pop outfit he has fronted for four years. The sounds you’d hear at one of their shows are intimate — spacey, sprawling guitars, light percussion at a relaxed pace, and an arrangement that really puts the lead singer’s tender, soothing sound at the forefront. It’s not quite Mac Ayers, but the vibes are similar. Think Joji but without all the darkness. Pure sugar.
“It’s like bedroom pop,” he explained after leaving the stage to make way for the following act. He wants the listener to “just enjoy and feel the mood.”
“When you listen to this, I just want you to think, ‘I’m so relaxed [sic] bro,’” Lê added.
Two strangers found each other for close musical collaboration
The two men of Gần Đây were just two strangers playing separately at Yoko Cafe before a friend had proposed the two collaborate.
“He said, ‘Hey, I think you should both play together,’” guitarist Gia Huy recounted.
He plays lead guitar to Duy Tân’s heavily effected rhythm guitar and together they’re Gần Đây (@bannhac_ganday), a crunchy, rollicking band that sometimes effects a Grateful Dead vibe or John Denver, depending on the song.
Tan’s Vietnamese lyrics wrap nicely around an ornate musical world of plucking and strumming that’s lush and full as well as playful.
About the name of the band? The two men were trying to think of what to name their project and were having a hard time of it because they’d just met recently. Since then, “Gần Đây” meaning “close” or “recently” in Vietnamese, has become their band name.
An architectural discovery from Saigon’s past
NEO-’s 2nd level is a large heritage room suitable for all types of artistic events.
Despite how well everything played out, Tùng describes NEO- as “just an accident.”
He fell in love with the location’s modernist architecture when he first saw it about four years ago, triggering memories of a childhood in the alleys of District 5 where Tùng spent exploring Chợ Lớn.
Built in 1955, the modernist structure belonged to a politician representing the American-aligned southern Vietnamese government. The name NEO- itself is an acknowledgment of the site as both an important historical anchor and a modern, living, current place.
NEO-’s multi-purpose space for community events
The weekend after the concert, a conceptual gallery on NEO-’s 2nd level, Travelin’ Man, in collaboration with Timothy Williams (@optimistwilliams), was a combination of indoor graffiti and black and white photo prints depicting his “visual biography”, street photography in multiple countries, and his father’s photographic work gathered through a timespan of more than three decades.
Known for photorealistic acrylic paintings often rendered on found objects, Williams’ Travelin’ Man is inspired by air travel memorabilia such as airline tickets and baggage claim tags which he interprets as “two-dimensional representations of time”. With the aid of NEO-’s studio art space, the “expendability and impermanence of graffiti” as a visual medium is thus no longer a limitation of artistic expression, allowing for “high concept and longevity of work [sic]”.
“Pre-pandemic, we took travel for granted,” Williams explained, elaborating on how staying connected was as easy as hopping on a plane and pressing a button within a moment’s notice.
At the same time, the showcase also pays tribute to Williams’ deep friendship with Tùng who is also a graffiti artist. Visiting Vietnam in 2014 for the first time, Williams’ countless trips exploring the country with Tùng’s companionship left a deep impression.
“Every tag is a validation of lived experiences in far-flung places with fast friends,” Williams added.
A variety of events coming weekly at NEO-’s heritage venue
The occasion also saw a photobook by Optimist Williams for sale — a good example of what Tùng plans to occur “here roughly weekly, cuz events bring customers and finding people to join will push me out of my office at NEO- [sic],” he explained.
Future events are going to fall into one of four categories — art & design, food & drink-centered fetes with visiting chefs and pop-up kitchens, music in both the live and recorded versions, and external events for marketing and networking outside of NEO-.
The programming is generally planned in two six-month phases. The first is for entertainment and lifestyle events, and the next phase is for food and beverage-centered events.
“Currently, we are still focusing on building and perfecting the ideas that have been built from the beginning and gradually making them better,” he said.
