These past few weekends I've been telling people I was planning to go to shows, and it never happened, either because I couldn't find the place, or I decided I had better things to do (omg Dragon Age). However, tonight I finally bit that bullet and not only went out, but was able to find the place I had previously been looking for, Club Heavy. It helped that this time I just took a taxi instead of obviously flawed subway directions, but seriously fuck paying six times as much to get to the same place. One day I'll figure out how to walk there. Anyways.
I get there a little late, so I catch the first band as their set ends. They're a pretty generic but adequate punk band, lots of power chords and shouted sing-along choruses. The club is mostly Korean punks/metalheads, with a sprinkling of American GIs and maybe a couple teachers. The next band comes on stage, and my goodness. I tried to get a picture, but my camera in its insolence told me its battery was exhausted, so I'll just have to describe their frontman for you. Take a 250-pound Korean, and wrap him in a black butcher's apron. Paint the apron liberally with fake blood, and give his head a giant (albeit lying-down) mohawk. Now cover his face in 2-inch steel spikes. Seriously, his lower jaw looked like Pinhead if he decided to up his gauges to compete with rivetheads. Oh, and he has a bunch of (very real-looking) scars around his left eye, and John Lennon sunglasses. If you guessed the next band played a little death metal, call yourself Mr. Champion because you just won the game. An artist's rendition:
RAWRRRR!!!
(This is what my art degree has come to)
After listening to Scariest Korean I Have Ever Seen and his more-than-adequate death growls, I have a small conversation with one of the GIs, and am then approached by a tall acid-blonde white chick I've seen hanging around. Her name is Jen, she's Canadian, and apparently I look like I'm a big part of the music scene because she starts into a speech about how she's in the next band (but not playing because of some bullshit about how her and the bassist take turns) and we should get each others' info to network and she can help my band out in Seoul or some shit. I should mention that I did buy an acoustic guitar a few days ago, and I do plan to start playing in the area once I have a few songs written, so this is definitely not unappreciated, if a little unexpected. I'll spoil the ending for you though and say I never did get her info, and later saw her getting chummy with her Korean lead singer when I went into a nearby alley to pee.
After peeing (and moving onto my 3rd or 4th beer, despite having only eaten 2 cookies all day) Canadian Jen's band is up, and they're a decent hardcore band I guess. The lead singer is wearing a Straight Edge shirt that I drunkenly wonder about its legitimacy, and mostly wait for the next band to play. I wasn't disappointed.
The final band I saw was another metal band, a little lighter than Scary Fuck's band but still very dark and heavy. They must've been pretty big in the Korean metal scene, because the crowd starts going crazy for them, especially their singer who does some antics like pour beer in his hair and head bang towards the crowd. Interestingly, he also incorporates a lot of "Oi!" chanting into their black metal, and would occasionally exchange the devil's horns for the thumbs-up sign.
Their set ends, and I go outside to pee again. On the way back I notice the lead singer hanging out outside, so I chat him up for a bit. I find out he's from Seoul, he's 35, and he says I should have a Korean girlfriend because I'm very handsome. We exchange numbers, because for the second time tonight he thinks I already have a band, and insists I call him when I have a gig. I agree, and after talking to a couple of white guys next to us who bought his album, he leaves and then comes back with some posters for us signed by all the band members. Turns out his band's name is Method, and you can check out their myspace here (the guy I was talking to is Ryu Min, if you're curious).
So blah blah blah I follow the white guys to get sandwiches and then the train station but it's the wrong one, so I walk around more, get lost, and hail a cab home. I'll take a picture of my new poster when my camera's battery is done charging, but for now just know it says "Struggling LIFE 4 METAL" in sharpe and is hanging above my bed and is awesome.
The End.
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