Held at the familiar chaos-friendly grounds of Le Café des Stagiaires, the event promised an explosive lineup mixing local staples and first-time guests. Ethos Collective was there to document part of it — specifically, the guitar-driven acts, the strings and distortion that cut through all the noise.
Run the Kaos—organized by local scene pillars, Out the Run and Korea-Vietnam connection, Organized Kaos—was exactly that kind of night. Here’s how it went down.
Mayhem Interrupted, Restored, Never Stopped
Opening a night like this isn’t for the faint-hearted, but Cút Lộn never needed a warm-up lap.
Already a household name among local heavy music fans, they came out swinging — full volume, full attack. It felt like a starting pistol for the night: no time to ease in, just dive into it headfirst.
Early into the set, though, disaster struck — a broken guitar string. In any other context, this would kill the momentum, but not here. The quick fix almost felt like part of the show’s unpredictable charm. Once armed again, Cút Lộn reignited the pit into a frenzy, picking up right where they left off like nothing had happened.
Pits swirled. Beers flew. Shoes lost their owners. Business as usual. Cút Lộn once again proved why they are considered one of the local scene’s most reliable sources of cathartic chaos.
Seoul’s Wildcard, Now Running Loose in Saigon
If Cút Lộn set the fire, ADxHD tossed a can of gasoline into it.
Making their Saigon debut, ADxHD brought with them the reckless spirit of the Seoul underground. Originally formed in South Korea, the band operates on a simple but lethal formula: a drummer and a guitarist/vocalist, slamming through tracks with pure intent and zero hesitation.
Tonight was a little different, though. In celebration of their “co-hosting” role in Run the Kaos, ADxHD invited a few guest musicians onstage, expanding their sound without losing their core intensity. The result? Even more chaos. More hands hammering strings and skins. More noise, but somehow, more coherence too.
Their set was a barrage — relentless, sweaty, and beautifully imperfect. They didn’t let up for a second, riding a wave of noise, distortion, and sharp punk energy straight through their finale: a delightfully mangled version of the Ramones’ “Hey Ho”, bent through a crusty, grind-heavy lens.
If anyone walked in expecting a calm Friday night jam, ADxHD likely rearranged their expectations — and their internal organs.
The Trip Between the Storms
After two brutal, neck-snapping sets, the audience needed a breather. Rắn Cạp Đuôi provided exactly that, but not in the sense of slowing down—more like shifting dimensions.
An experimental unit blurring the lines between rock, jazz, psychedelia, and noise, Rắn Cạp Đuôi doesn’t “play songs” in the traditional sense. They create sonic environments. Each performance feels like a portal to a parallel world, and tonight was no exception.
Flowing seamlessly between textures, from smooth ambient drones to jarring rhythmic breakdowns, they painted the room in sound. No two performances by this group are ever the same — a fact that’s no doubt helped them extend their reach beyond Vietnam’s borders and into the international experimental scene.
You don’t mosh to Rắn Cạp Đuôi. You drift. You sway. You blink and lose track of time. In the middle of a night built on energy overload, their set was the strange, mesmerizing dream sequence we didn’t know we needed.
A Gloomy Crown to the Night
Closing duties fell to Pale, a post-black metal band hailing from Japan. First time in Vietnam. First time in Saigon. First time laying their soul bare for a new crowd.
And they delivered.
Pale’s set was a masterclass in contrasts: stark beauty against violent bursts of energy, mournful melodies dissolving into tidal waves of noise. Their sound—a mix of sharp black metal aggression and shimmering atmospheric textures—was haunting, but never dull.
It’s not easy to make a heavy set feel genuinely emotional, but Pale carried a heavy emotional weight without ever seeming contrived. Grief, anger, and that particular melancholy that only black metal bands seem able to summon—it was all there, stitched together in sharp guitar work, intricate effects (especially through the vocalist’s setup), and walls of sound that felt less like songs and more like weather patterns rolling through the venue.
Despite being a relatively young band, Pale performed with the kind of tightness and confidence that suggested many long nights spent grinding away in rehearsal rooms and smoke-filled practice spaces. Their attention to sonic detail, even amid heavy reverb and delay, set them apart.
Ethos Collective also had the chance to sit down with Pale for an interview, which will be up on our site very soon.
From the reckless abandon of Cút Lộn and ADxHD to the mind-bending atmospheres of Rắn Cạp Đuôi and the cathartic sonic storm of Pale, the night ran the full emotional gamut.
Sure, there were broken strings. Sure, there was feedback.
But more importantly, there was energy. There was a risk.
There was Kaos, and Kaos is exactly what we showed up for.
Here’s to the organizers, the bands, and every single person who screamed, swayed, or just stood still and soaked it all in.
See you in the pit next time.
