It was a tricky one last night. There was too much going on. Underground HK had to come first, not least out of loyalty to the organisers, led by Chris Bowers, who has probably done more to promote the grass-roots rock scene in Hong Kong than anybody – even Edison Chen.

Six bands were playing there, and three more round the corner at the Fringe.

We were hit first by visitors from another continent. They brought strange and esoteric beats and rhythms. They brought Asian folk instruments from Canada to Hong Kong. We are more used to screaming guitars and singers that rattle and bark like angry monsters of the deep.

Yet we were mesmerised by the haunting melody Heidi Chan blew through what looked like a bamboo flute, while her collaborator Gein Wong waxed poetical about the apocalypse, or something.

No disrespect to Gein, but no matter how good the mix is, it is very difficult to catch lyrics in these small venues, something that always bothers me because I’ve got a crackingly good song calling for a pink-dolphin cull and I want to get the message across.

Later Audiotraffic climbed on to stage, cranked up their amps and cruised into their slick F1 formula. They are a lesson in controlled overdrive and tight-knit guitar arrangements, and hats off to them for showing us what it takes with their cool professionalism. We piled out and climbed the steep steps to the Fringe. I should write a song calling for more escalators in this town.

From the moment they stormed the stage, El Destroyo were a towering inferno of sheer passion and rock-ability. They showed us how to play guitar, bass and drums, and how to entertain a crowd. Their formula: music that enthralls with delivery that compels.

Billy Dean Cochrane’s searing guitar licks had brought us from running with the wolves in ethnic Canada-Asia, via the cosmopolitan cruise drive of Audiotraffic, to the very roots of rock’n’roll in all its raw, sweaty glory. All in the space of one night in Hong Kong.

“There’s a good variation of styles here,” one punter understated to me earlier in the evening. I had to agree.

El Destroyo play at the Fringe Club on May 2 with Bone Table and Transnoodle.
The next Underground is also on May 2, at Club Cixi.