Seems like a win-win situation for everybody, right? For the most part, yes, but when I was recently talking to organizers at Formoz, which takes place in Taipei, there was some griping that they couldn't compete with the big won Korean organizers had to spread around and as a result lost out on some key bands. Pentaport is in is in Incheon, near a beach from the looks of their website, and if I infer correctly, they won this year's bidding war for Chemical Brothers.

Bands that are playing multiple festivals include Chemical Brothers, Muse, Damien Rice, Ash and Stevie Salas, who are all playing both Fujirock and Pentaport. Yo La Tengo is doubling up at Fujirock and Formoz, and OK GO is playing both Formoz and Pentaport. Mercury Rev is also headlining at Formoz, and I'm just too tired of scrolling through these lineups to see if they're playing at either of the other two. What I can say for sure though is that all three festivals use the same three-column schedules on their websites. Formoz also has a strong lineup of Japanese bands that aren't playing Fujirock, including all kinds of great pop, cheese, punk and visual rock: Terriyaki Boys, Ging Nang Boyz, Anna Tsuchiya, Quruli, Buffalo Daughter... and if you really care, I'll let you check out the rest, of which there are plenty.

Dave