My Little Airport
Seeing them live
Songwriting amplifies a sense of longing in the songs of MLA.
I’ve loved the band since I was 12. Their music is badly recorded and all have similar structures and chords, but I like them not for the music production but for the stories they tell. They are honest, sometimes too honest. Because of that, they are able to capture not just their own, but the sentiments of a generation of angsty teens like me.
After twenty years and 11 albums, they are still kicking it strong. They probably struggled a lot throughout the years but they are now probably the best-selling indie band there is in Hong Kong. I am not sure when they became recognised as a steeple but it just kinda happened. It is inspiring to see a band that wrote songs about the unbearable weight of growing up in Hong Kong is doing well. It is a kind of comfort to me, to see them still performing.
Besides sharing the pain of a generation, they showed me the solace of literature. A lot of their songs looking back, introduced me to authors such as Sartre, Milan, 西西, and Greek mythologies. They understand the power of words and invited me to be understood by literature, when the world doesn’t.
It was raining, and the concert was outdoor, but no one seemed to mind a bit. These uptight Hong Kong people who unanimously hate dirt and mud, cheered as they warmed up to being in a concert. We cherish what little has left of our popular culture as political pressure grew to an entirely insane level, and people showed their support by buying out all three shows in minutes and packing out the park.
I don’t share much with the rest of Hong Kong. I don’t like the same things as most people, but MLA is a collective memory of teenage years.
We’ve all grown so much from then, and it is good to have a reminder of how far we’ve come. Not nostalgia, just remembering.