The idea was great and fueled by love for the music, a two-day festival. Long Tranh Hổ Đấu had been booked, promoted, and shaped up as one of the bigger heavy-music weekends of the year, and Ethos Collective signed on as a media partner. That partnership ran deep from the start, because we were also the team flying Infernal Chaos in from Taiwan for their first-ever Vietnam show. Then Friday happened. Set times kept shifting, soundcheck windows missed, agreements with the venue and local authorities started to wobble, and by end of the day the picture was painfully clear. The festival was not going to take shape as planned.
So we did what we tend to do when problems arise. Scramble, engage with the scene, keep the show alive. By Saturday morning, we had pulled Infernal Chaos and four locally-loved acts (KINH, CÚT LỘN, ElbowDrop, and 9xacly) out of the festival schedule and into an emergency show at Um Ba La. The deal with the fest organizers was simple. Anyone holding a Long Tranh Hổ Đấu ticket could walk in. The catch was capacity. Um Ba La caps at 150. Word traveled fast, doors opened early, and by the time the first band stepped on the stage, the room was already locked. People who arrived later were turned away, and the festival agreed to refund those tickets. We’re extremely sorry that it has come to this. But within the time frame and given the lack of live music venues in the city, even this was, to quote Borat, “Great success!“
ELBOWDROP: A SHORT, CRUSHING SET TO OPEN A FULL ROOM
ElbowDrop drew the opening slot, and the four-piece walked into a room that was already at the legal brim. The hardcore beatdown crew is known for an unapologetic style and a straightforward force that doesn’t need a long runway, which was lucky, because their vocalist had been ill for days leading up to the show. They trimmed the setlist back a notch, but the stripped-down length made zero difference once the riffs landed. Slow, crushing breakdowns hit a tightly packed floor, the room responded, and the night had its tone within the first three minutes.
9XACLY: A BLACKOUT, AN UNPLUGGED CHORUS, AND ABSOLUTE DEDICATION
9xacly are city favorites for very obvious reasons, and the show carried extra weight because the band is back to its original lineup and lining up dates again. We have heard that new material is in the works as a follow-up to the debut EP “CHÍNH XÁC LY,” which is closing in on its third birthday. Their X factor is the energy, and the crowd has always reflected it right back. Mid-set, the venue dropped into a full blackout. Power cut, monitors dead, lights gone. The drummer kept going. The crowd picked up the vocal line, and the rest of the band rolled into an unplugged version of the song without missing a beat. When the electricity returned, they simply finished the track as if nothing had interrupted. That is a level of in-the-pocket commitment most bands rarely have to prove. The power kept cutting in and out across the night, but those small blackouts ended up working as natural breathing room between sets. We are very much looking forward to whatever the band drops next.
CÚT LỘN: CLOSE QUARTERS, EU TOUR PREP, AND A ROOM TURNING TO SAUNA
CÚT LỘN arrived with one of the most dedicated followings in the city and a sound that keeps stretching in new directions. They have grown into bigger stages, but this room, this close-quarters setting, suits them best. The band feeds off proximity. Riffs bounce between members and into the crowd, and the small footprint at Um Ba La pulled them right into the front rows. Their first EU tour is just over a month out, and every show right now is sharpening edges that will need to hold up across a different continent. They took their time with the set, leaned into it, and by the time they wrapped, the room had moved past warm and into actual sauna territory.
INFERNAL CHAOS: TAIWANESE NWOAHM VETERANS LAND IN VIETNAM
Infernal Chaos came in from Taiwan on Thursday before, and Saturday night was their first-ever set on Vietnamese soil after more than two decades as a band. Rooted in NWOAHM, the group is tight, heavy, melodic, and chaotic in roughly equal proportion. Most of their recent runs have been across far larger stages back home and in Japan, and we were curious how the shift to a 150-cap room would land. The answer was very good. The band leaned into the closeness, dropped any kind of arena posturing, and connected with the crowd from the first beat. Blistering solos, group sing-alongs on the choruses, and the kind of stage chemistry only twenty-plus years of playing together can really produce. This will not be their last visit to Vietnam, and the next one cannot come soon enough.
KINH: DEATH METAL MACHINERY CLOSES THE NIGHT
KINH closed out the night, and the Saigon death metal trio sounded like a band that gets a little tighter every time we catch them. Their debut album is still fresh out of the oven, an Asian run is on the horizon to push it, and every local set right now is functional preparation. Not that they need it. The three of them work like machinery. They took the full closing slot and stretched it across a wide dynamic range, from technical sprints to heavier, slower groove territory and crushing breakdowns. The room was sweat-soaked, the lights kept flickering, and the floor stayed locked in until the last note. A perfect finish for a night that almost didn’t happen.
There is an honest critique to offer here, but there’s no need to spread negativity. Yes, there were some communication gaps, the timeline shuffles, and the unresolved venue and authority pieces; none of that needed to happen the way it did, but at the end of the day, the hope is that the lessons carry forward into the next attempt rather than scaring anyone off the idea entirely. Vietnam can absolutely host a heavy-music festival of this scale. The planning just needs to match the ambition.
What Saturday at Um Ba La proved, again, is how fast this scene can move when it has to. Bands cleared their schedules, the venue opened its doors on short notice, fans showed up early to get through the door, and the night actually delivered. We are not pretending this was a clean substitute for a two-day festival. It was not. But the room was full, every band gave a full set, and Infernal Chaos got the Vietnam debut they deserved. That is a win. Keep the bands playing, keep the fans showing up, keep the doors open. The rest tends to figure itself out.
