Festival

I showed up in Seoul at the perfect time of year. The weather is perfect (25C pretty much every day), its not too humid yet, and Kookmin was having its annual end-of-the-year festival. This was only my second week at work (May 26-30), and while I had already met many people, the first few days of the festival allowed me to meet many more.

The spring term at Kookmin ends mid-July (they then get 2 months off before school starts again in Septembre). Every year the university has a big festival before the end of classes. Its a little like OAP, just much bigger. During the day there were many activities on campus, including a basketball tournament. Unfortunately I was in the lab all day and couldn't participate much. On Tuesday and Wednesday evening the entire campus turned into an open air pub. Each faculty had its own little areas set up outside of their respective buildings. After work, I would head outside and hang out until midnight and have a few beers with all of the engineers, all the while trying to avoid the soju as much as possible. It felt a lot like OAP except that you could actually find a place to sit and you didn't have to stand in line to get a beer, it was brought to you. It was the perfect opportunity to meet new people and use my rock star appeal. Being a foreigner really paid off as I didn't pay for any food or drinks either night as I wandered from table to table as people introduced me around. Then again, I don't think I ever saw anyone pay for drinks, I'm not quite sure how that worked.

I was particularly looking forward to Thursday evening, the night of the concert. I had seen the posters for the concert all over campus the previous week. Koreans tend to add the set list to concert posters (I've seen this for a couple of different shows) which really got me interested. The set included such classics as Come Out and Play, The Kids Aren't Alright, Tick Tick Boom, Sweet Child O' Mine, Hysteria and Stockholm Syndrome. I didn't want to miss an opportunity to see Koreans trying to cover The Offspring let alone giving Muse a go.

I left work just be for 5 and headed up to the concert. The stage was set up on the lawn in front of Bugak Hall, the main building on campus, or at least the most imposing building. I arrived just as the first band was finishing up their sound check. As I was heads and shoulders above everybody else, I got myself a nice spot in the back facing the middle of the stage. There weren't many people at the show yet so I was only about 10 meters from the stage. The first band steps up to the mic: Let the show begin!

"Sit down? Are they asking us to sit down?" I don't ever think I'll ever go to another concert where the band asks the crowd to sit down before diving in to Come Out and Play by The Offspring.

The first band had spunk, I'll give them that, but both their English and playing needed a little polish. This is their first song: Come Ourra Pway
(Not offensive because that is how they talk in movies*)

Don't worry if you didn't catch most of the words, they weren't all there. The singer only really knew the more memorable lines. The end result was more ARHGHRAHRH ARHHFHARHA ARHA ARH come out and play!

As I said before, what this group lacked in skill and elocution they made up for in spunk. This was most evident in their closing song Tick Tick Boom by the Hives. Now if you don't know who the hives are you only need to know that their lyrics move quite quickly. This was not an ideal song for these guys, but they sure got the screaming down.

The second band was much stronger then the first and only sang Korean songs. The third band was stronger again, as the quality of the show slowly improved. The third band was certainly one of the most entertaining bands as the lead singer jumped around stage, did power slides and all of the other standard rock and roll moves. His credibility did take a hit when his moves resulted in him hitting the stage unexpectedly and missing a few lines, but it was entertaining. Also, notice the sweet behind the back action of the lead guitarist and the rhythm guitarist's sick power stance. Rock On!

Two bands played Muse. The first one performed Hysteria, a rather forgettable experience which I did not record. The second band played Stockholm Syndrome and did a pretty good job of it (it takes a fair bit of talent to play a Muse song half decent). I got a big kick out of seeing these Korean guys play Muse. Few people in Canada know about them, but I've been told that they are very popular in Korea and Japan.

As the show progressed, I realised that it was just a collection of local amateur. It started to remind me of Sam-En-Scène, except with more music and more talent, plus everyone was Korean. The Sam-En-Scène comparisons really hit home after the beatboxer and hip-hop dance routines. The show also had a really good acapella group, an amazing singer who sang some Sinatra classics. Of course, a talent show wouldn't be complete with out Sweet Child O' Mine.

Just as it was starting to get dark a band came on stage and the singer asked us all to stand up! Everyone rushed the stage (I was afraid I would get trampled) and the band started playing. These guys were pretty good. I thought that they were the closing act, maybe some local professional band.

They were pretty good, the singer was a lot of fun and they crowd really got into it. It was a good end to the concert.

Wait. What's this? Another band? O.K. These guys seem to be pretty big, the girls are screaming. Hold on a sec, the guys are screaming too? These guys are best described as pretty-boy-pop-rock (though the guitarist did have a nice PRS). Here they are playing the famous Korean rock anthem: #1.

I thought for sure the show was finished when these guys left the stage, it was dark and the show had already lasted at least 3 hours. I was wrong, again. After these guys came another band, and another, and another. I can't really remember exactly how many, but they all seem to be pretty popular. One band in particular came out dressed in what I can only compare to those fluorescent coloured track suits that we used to wear in the 90's. The best way to describe their music is korean-indie-funk-pop-rock-rap-fusion. They were a lot of fun (I regret not taking any pictures or video of them) and I'm about 85% certain that their band's name was Napoleon Dynamite. I'm not 100% certain of it, because I never learned the names of any of the other groups, but they kept repeating "Napoleon Dynamite" in their set without any obvious reference to the movie, leading me to believe that that was in fact their name, which is awesome.

At various points during the concert, in between sets, an older, more professional looking guy would talk to the crowd. I can only assume that he was some kind of representative from the university, but my main problem with the guy is that every time he came on stage he would make everyone move away from the stage and spread out so that we could sit down to listen to him. This would always take a couple of minutes as there was close to 2000 people at the show, and after his 45 second talk another band would come on stage and every one would get back up and rush back to the stage. Each time this happened I found myself further from the stage and from the centre. It didn't bother me too much since I could easily see over the heads of everyone in front of me.

The older guy wasn't all bad though, he did throw out glow-sticks to almost everyone in the crowd just before my favourite act.

On doit changer de langue pour présenter mon groupe préféré de la soirée. Encore une fois j’ai de la difficulté à définir un genre pour ce group. Leur style se rapproche du rap, mais avec un style coréen. La meilleure façon de décrire ce group est qu’ils sont le fun. La raison pourquoi j’écrie en français et le moment saillant du concert se trouve ci-dessous.

Entendre la chanson des Stroumpfs à l’autre bout du monde est l’un des meilleurs moments de mon voyage. Je n’aurai jamais imaginée que la b-d de Peyo serait reconnue par des milliers de coréens.

La prochaine vidéo est le dernier numéro du groupe et le dernier numéro que j’ai assisté. Après c’est gars c’était un rapper qui a pris la scène. J’ai trouvé qu’il essayait d’être trop américain et il était tard, alors je suis retourné chez moi.

Friday night was the last night of the festival. The open air pub was only on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were concert nights. I had enjoyed the concert the previous night but the Friday night concert was headlined by a famous Korean rapper. Most of the people I talked to were very excited that DJ Doc was coming. I saw a few of his videos on YouTube and decided to pass on the concert.

In the end my opinion of DJ Doc would be inconsequential when Kwan Woo, another student from Han's lab on the first floor, told me that we were going out to dinner and then to a bar with his cousin that night. I was supposed to meet Kwan's cousin the previous Saturday but all the new Korean germs decided to have a field day with my western immune system.

We met Kwan's cousin, Jin, at Daehango and then had supper at Bennigan's. We had a really, really good steak and even though it was a western restaurant, we ordered once for the whole group. By one order I mean that there was 1 salad, 1 plate of fries and 1 steak and we all ate off of the same plate. It was very interesting. I wasn't about to complain though, the steak gave a much needed boost to my struggling taste buds (more on Korean food at a later date).

Jin and I both had a beer with dinner, but Kwan only had a lemonade. I was beginning to get suspicious of Kwan's motives. Finally I asked Kwan why he didn't have a beer and he told me that he had to go back to work after dinner (it's almost 8pm on a Friday night). After dinner we wandered around looking for a bar and I was able to convince Kwan to come in for one beer. After his second beer, we left the bar and Kwan bid us adieu as he had to return to the lab (these people would keep working through a nuclear holocaust).

"Feels a lot like a blind date eh?" Jin asked me after Kwan had left. "I think so." I replied. (Jin didn't actually say "eh?", but I have no idea how else to finish that sentence.) We wandered down the street to find another bar, and that was when I discovered one of the strangest things I have ever seen.

The picture you see here is an alcohol kiosk. A little stand on the sidewalk which sells mixed drinks in plastic bags. I know. So you walk up to this place and ask for, say, a Bailey's and milk, the guy mixes it for you, sticks a straw in it, seals the bag and then you're set to stroll the streets with your drink. I know. You can drink anywhere in Seoul. You can buy a beer at a corner store and then sit at the tables out front and drink it (just don't even think about bringing back to rez though). You can wander the streets with a drink if you so please. I had a huge smile on my face as I walked through Seoul with my Bailey's and milk wondering what would happen if I did this in Montréal. Jin told me that they also set up bars on the sidewalk at night. I thought she meant that the bars had patios, but in fact these places are little tents that are set up on the sidewalk which serve food, beer and soju.

We spent the rest of the night in a proper bar with walls and a roof. We had a great time. Jin has traveled all over Europe and Germany in particular so we spent a lot of time talking about Europe and other countries and cultures. She also described her musical preferences as jazz, bossa nova and the blues, more fodder for conversation. And as always I was back in my room by midnight.

You can check out the rest of my pictures from the festival here.

*A quote from The Office, thus not offensive...again.