The Club Heavy Round Robin!
Which was actually 5 bands, and which I actually mentioned about a year ago. Remember when I woke up in an abandoned apartment, with no recollection of how I got there? That was last November, and this was earlier in the night! Fun! So basically a round robin is where bands set up all around a room, with the audience in the center. Each band plays a song, then the audience turns to watch the next band. And here are the bands:
Korean Kanye West was actually called Yamagata Tweakster, and he did kind of a weird looping synth/vocals act that was not entirely unpleasant, mostly due to his insane stage presence. You can't look at him and not smile. If you can, you are either Yamagata Tweakster himself, or a serial killer.
This was Sssiggghhhborrrggg (and yes this is the proper spelling), who you've probably seen here before. They are excellent, and would put on new masks between songs which was fun.
This guy's act was called Spookfish, and I don't remember it being very excellent at all, mostly because I don't remember him at all. Moving on.
Remember Axcutor? Yeah he played. Hardcore death metal was an interesting contrast to all the quirky experimental indie keyboard acts.
This was Zentaffy, who you can't really see, but I like 'em. The drummer sings and is the frontman. A year later I actually talked to him and I can tell you that he is a good guy.
So that was the Round Robin of November '09. One last thing:
He's so happy to be wearing a bowtie! But now:
Big-Ass Punk/Hardcore Show In Seoul!
This show was in January '10, and when I say it was a big-ass show, that's no lie:
We actually got there late so we missed the crossed-out acts, but still. That's a lot of bands. So let's get started:
Some band I don't remember. And another one:
Yup don't remember them. But look here:
Sssiggghhhborrrggg! You guys are just everywhere, and that's great. And you have a cat mask.
Then there was this band, who I remember being kind of a generic skate-punk band, but in Korea you take what you can get.
And these guys wore suits, and had a pretty good punk/hardcore set if I remember correctly. Which I probably don't, because around this time, despite me already being drunk, the coworker I was with keeps buying new drinks. And when they run out of mixers, he suggests we drink Mokkoli (a Korean rice porridge/wine drink) with grenadine. This is a terrible idea, and I do not remember the rest of the night. Apparently I puked in a cab, and in a karaoke room. Did I mention I also went to this show with an innocent Christian girl who had never been to a show before, ever? Terrible.
Some Korean Emo Band I Don't Remember!
Oh yeah, this one's got video:
So....that is something. Do not remember their name, or when that happened. But my Batman detective skills tell me it was definitely at Club Heavy.
The Advantage!
The Advantage is a rad band that plays covers of old 8-bit video game themes. Maybe 16-bit too. I don't know, I'm not in the band. They wouldn't let me.
But this one actually has video too, and I can tell you not only the band's name, but that they played in October '10. Also, the bassist was the guitarist playing with Zach Hill. Now, video game music:
What's that you say? It was pretty good, but you wished it had a little more shredding, preferably finger-tapped and crazily intricate?
Well, that's a weird list of demands, but luckily I am an Internet Psychic:
Juiceboxxx!
Juiceboxxx was a white rapper who was pretty okay. He was definitely passionate, which helps. He basically said he was from Milwaukee about a million times, climbed the amps, crawled around on the floor a little bit, and finally left the club dramatically at the end of his set.
He also played drums a little bit at the end. He was pretty good.
Alright, and now for the last band. A big one. A goddamn expensive one. For the low, low price of 100 dollars plus transportation to Seoul plus a hostel plus food plus booze:
The Flaming Lips! Whaaaaaaaaaaat
Where to begin. This show was on November 20th 2010, the week before I left, and it was on a Saturday. It was getting pretty iffy there for awhile, but in the end a friend and I got the day off from work so we could get to Seoul on time. This was the only Saturday I didn't have to work the entire time I was there, except for my vacation. So what we did was we went up the Friday before, stayed at a friend's place, and the next day went out bright and early to Everland! The amusement park that all my Korean students told me had the best rollercoasters.
Unfortunately, because Seoul is a terrible, cruel place, it takes a hundred fucking hours to get anywhere in the city, so even though we left Everland around 5 o'clock, we were an hour and a half late to the show, which started at 8. Luckily, The Flaming Lips were starting into their hour-long encore, so getting there at 9:30 turned out to be not so much of a problem. More like, an amazing fucking show.
With equally amazing amounts of confetti flying around. Also bubbles, balloons, all sorts of shit. And this:
That ring of blue lights is a gong that would light up every time Wayne hit it, which was always and awesome.
And sometimes the show would get very intense and eyeball-heavy.
So I missed "She Don't Use Jelly" and "Yoshimi", but I was there for this: their crazy-long super encore version of "Do You Realize??" complete with confetti cannons blowing up:
So that was fantastic, but what's this?! Super secret actual last show I went to?! 2 hours before I had to catch the bus to the airport, and I wasn't even done packing?!
Das Racist!
But I didn't get any pictures or video of them, because I didn't have my camera. But their first song was "Who's That? Broooown" which hit all the perfect notes and beats, and one guy from the band shook my hand for about a minute, which was kind of awkward. Then they ended with the "Combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell" song, which they clearly kind of hated performing. And then I left Korea.
Next giant amalgamation post: Korean amusement parks! Woobang Land! Everland! The steepest wooden rollercoaster in the world! Whoo!
