Zach Hill at Theater Zero, 9/18/2010

For my first live show here in Korea, I was incredibly excited to find out that drummer Zach Hill, whom I was familiar from his work with Hella, was going to make a stop off in Seoul during his Asia tour.  While technically my first live musical event was a performance by the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, it honestly wasn't particularly noteworthy.  The featured performer of the evening, cellist Alban Gerhardt, seemed to be a really big fan of himself.  I'm not going to pretend to know much about classical music, but is it customary to exit and reemerge on the stage 4-5 times to bow after each selection?  While he was certainly impressing to watch, I was much more interested hearing the force of the full orchestra, which unfortunately too often took a backseat to his showboating.  Although the weather prohibited much outdoor enjoyment, I did get to see a bit of the massive Seoul Arts Center, where the concert was held.  Once inside we had to walk another 5 minutes through a massive outdoor plaza, passing several other performance halls on the way.  The auditorium we were in was absolutely beautiful but I unfortunately was not allowed to take any pictures.

While I am much more interested in experiencing local music, I considered myself quite lucky to be able to get an early foothold in the music scene here through an American artist.  Theater Zero, along with the vast majority of other indie venues in the city, is located in the Hongdae neighborhood, about 25 minutes west by subway from my guesthouse in central Seoul.  This was also my first visit to the neighborhood which, despite being similar to my own neighborhood of Pil-dong in that the majority of businesses cater to college students, has a much more vibrant and lively feel to it.  Spreading out in all directions from its heart at Hongik University, the area consists of many small byways lined with clubs, bars, clothing shops, and restaurants.  There is constantly something going on and on weekend nights the party often spills out on to the street, with performances of various sizes springing up in parks and along the sidewalk.  More on that later...

After stubbornly wandering around for roughly 25 minutes trying to find the place on my own, I finally stepped into a Cheap Monday store and had the guy working there direct me back to a building I had probably passed at least 5 times.  After following some other foreigners down a flight of stairs, I finally arrived at Theater Zero.

While encompassing only a small basement area, the owners of the place really did some cool stuff with the space available.  Cardboard cutouts rotate around the ceiling, sheets hang with projections of several artists' works-in-progress cast on to them, various paintings adorn the walls, and the bands play right on the floor among the crowd.  Couldn't really ask for more in my opinion.

 

While there were several openers, only the final two really deserve mention.  The first of these, Bamseom Pirates, just completely blew me away.  After enduring some silly Euro synth-pop and two indie rock bands, the Pirates came screaming on to the stage with a blend of hardcore, grind, sludge, and rock.  Take a look:

The drummer was just phenomenal, and the bassist mixed speedy fingerwork with some thick, heavy riffs.  This video definitely captures the hardcore/grind side a little more, but a lot of their stuff recalls Man Is the Bastard for me.  I heard from the member of another Korean band later that they are "a bunch of assholes," and I definitely think their sarcastic banter during the show about hamburgers, North Korea, and America being #1 definitely could have rubbed people the wrong way.  I think I only fell in love with them more.  Luckily, the recordings I made of they're set were some of the only recordings I made that night that came across nicely.  I'm going to put together a little live "e.p." to post along with a link to get your hands on one of their albums proper.

 

The second opener of note, Sighborg (officially Ssighborggggg), put on a surprisingly enjoyable set themselves.  Consisting of two expats from an undisclosed location, the duo dawned homemade masks (so maybe they're from Providence?) and played synth-heavy improve (at least what appeared to be) backed by drums and the occasional guitar.  Blogger won't let me upload audio files directly so I made a quick little video to accompany the audio recording.  Take a listen:

 

 

 

 

And finally, the one and only Zach Hill.  The short video I took of him and his guitar accompaniment Carson McWhirter (formally of Hella and bassist for a band I just discovered, The Advantage, who apparently specialize in doing covers of old NES games) doesn't quite do the set justice.  The man demolished his drum set for 30 minutes straight, playing at speeds beyond any I thought humans were capable of.  As far as McWhirter's contribution to it all, the guitar sound was completely overblown and muddled which unfortunately detracted from an otherwise solid set.  Once in a while his meddling would shine through and bring the duo together as they were intended to be heard, but for the most part Theater Zero dropped the ball on the mixing.  Hill ultimately made up for any shortcomings however and somehow managed to make the manically improvised set seem carefully structured.  As a result of the overblown sound, however, I wasn't able to salvage any of the recording I made.  Hopefully my skills with the audio and video will improve as I get used to my equipment.  Anyway, make sure to see the man if he comes through your town.

Arrival

Here we go…

Prior to leaving for Korea I had some very lofty ideas for this project. The internet is so over-saturated with blogs, particularly the “American abroad” blog, that I really wanted to approach this with some sort of unique angle. Of course your friends and family will stop in once and a while based on a sense of obligation, but for this thing to really mean something simply relegating Korea to a “land of contrasts, old and new, East and West,” is not enough. I really hoped make this a medium for presenting the country, both Seoul and beyond, through photographs, audio recordings, and textual interpretations of my daily experiences. Of course, this is not to say that these things won’t happen. I did, however, hope to begin documenting this coming year more immediately. There is certainly merit to sitting down and carefully piecing together every post for the sake of presentation. Arguably, my first two weeks here without internet, camera, or basic appliances in my new home offered me the perfect opportunity to begin doing this. Yet there is also an importance in an experience like this to conveying uninhibited first impressions. There isn’t time to consider how your writing might sound later; there is only a pure expression of those first thoughts of “Shit, this is some pretty crazy shit I’ve embarked on. Why the hell do my hosts think that giving me pizza with potatoes and shrimp is going to make me feel more at home?” And in that sense, I felt very restricted by the fact that I did not have internet or a camera to begin documenting these feelings.

As far as the camera goes, I only have my procrastination to blame. I wouldn’t, however, change anything about my last few days and nights in Oak Park. Thank you everyone for the company, beer, etc.! Contrary to this commercial, the beer here is limited to three brands that really aren’t that cool/tasty/refreshing but more along the lines of the Bud Lite/Keystone/horse piss variety.

(I’ve been trying to locate one of those rockin’ spiked masks that the kid in the black and white shirt is wearing, but have yet to be successful…)

The lack of internet on the other hand was just one of many surprises I met upon my arrival here.  Now, I don’t mean to present this situation as if it were the end of my privileged little world.  I do, however, think that when certain things are highlighted in your orientation pamphlet, such as South Korea being one of the most developed nations in the world for internet access, having some basic expectations is not that outrageous.  I also naively assumed that amenities such as hot water, though not listed in the pamphlet, would be provided.  Actually, save for a bed (unwrapped from its plastic and without sheets/blanket), the guest house I would be staying in for at least the next 6 months was completely unfurnished.  I think it may go without saying that the first couple of days here were a little stressful.  Combined with my apprehensions about leaving home to a completely foreign place for a year, I definitely questioned whether or not I had made the right decision.  Despite this, I soon found out I was surrounded by individuals who were just as nervous, excited, and hopeful about what it means to commit yourself to such a journey.

Some of my companions:

Gabi and Vlastimil, a wonderful couple from the Czech Republic…

Natsuki, from Japan…

And my school assigned “buddy”, Seung-taek, who has turned out now only to be completely indispensable in getting set-up here but also a really stand-up guy.  It is these and other people who really made the transition to life here in Korea possible.

As of posting time, we have pretty much received all the furnishings that would be expected of a college guest house.  Quite possibly due to my e-mail to the student exchange coordinator at UIC we also got some unexpected things, like a little Korean grandmother who comes every couple days around 8 a.m. to clean up and take out the garbage.  Pictures of the dorm and Korean grandmother coming soon!  Since it has taken so long to get this thing up and running, I have quite a few stories, loads of pictures, and a select few video and audio recordings (several have been lost due to my lack of proficiency with the recording devices…) sitting on my computer.  Hopefully to make the posts a little more accessible and engaging, I will break them up in to shorter and more specific entries.  So to wet your palette for what’s in store…

Colorful dancing!

Panoramic views!

Ancient architecture!

Rock n’ Roll!

Cute Asian things!

Delicious food and drink! (There were hot dogs, Spam, AND hamburger in that.  I’m making a triumphant return to meat eating.)

And sometimes too much drink…

Stay tuned.