A PUNK ROCK NIGHT IN BUSAN
I first heard about a Korean punk show happening in Busan a few weeks ago from a mutual friend named
Mick. There were going to be several Korean punk bands there and Mick told me
he was friends with a few of the Korean punkers in a couple of the bands.
Since that point I
had been following up with Mick about the concert and eventually kind of
invited myself along. We got a small crew together headed to Busan to go to the
show. The crew included my next door neighbor Beka (Canadian), her friend
Lauren (Canadian) and Mick (Wisconsin).
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| Left to Right: Lauren, Beka, Mick |
We departed from the
train station in Changwon and took the train into Busan.
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| Changwon train station (outside) |
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| Changwon train station (inside) |
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| Here comes the train |
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| On the train to Busan |
We ended up back on
Haeundae beach for a little bit and hit up some familiar eats and drinks. Most
notably: Quizno’s and an American owned (from San Diego) ex-pat beach bar
called Sharky’s. At Sharky’s I enjoyed a finely-crafted, and Oregon produced,
Rogue Brewery IPA (heaven). We hung out at Sharky’s and watched the opening
ceremony of the Olympics from about the Bond sequence to the parade of nations.
We stayed until Canada and then left for the punk show.
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| Haeundae Beach |
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| Quizno's on Haeundae Beach |
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| Haeundae Beach at Sunset |
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| Sharky's |
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| Rogue!! |
We took a cab to the
university area where the club was. This is a party section of town that is
friendly to many foreigner amenities. I even saw a business selling shwarma. The
mobile cocktail bar was my favorite. They essentially mix your cocktail in a
large Carpri Sun-esque bag and give you a straw
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| Near the university - party town |
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| I got a margarita |
We got drinks outside
of the convenience store where we
met with some of the punkers Mick knew. Of them, I met Mino. Mino’s English is
decent and he has a great sense of humor. Mick told me a story about how it was
like 3AM and they were all wasted and going to order food and he says to Mick,
“What can we order to make you fat ass fatter?” They ordered fried chicken.
Mino was in a band called Stoned. We also met up with Mu, a guitarist for the
Korean Irish punk band Nachopupa (I can try to describe them, but if you’re
curious just watch this)
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| Mu in white, Mino in red |
We went into the
venue. It was hot. It was sweaty. Drinks were cheap. There were 6 bands. I met
some foreigners. Actually I met someone from Bellingham, WA who knew someone
from my high school (small world). The first 2 bands were great- including Mu’s
band Stoned. Nachopupa was raucous and awesome. There were some great punk
covers throughout the night:
Stoned covered “Redemption Song” (excellent punk cover), another group
covered Nirvana’s “Bleed” (they tore it up!) and Nachopupa did Flogging Molly’s
“Drunken Lullabies.”
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| The club |
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| Openers |
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| Openers |
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| Stoned featuring Mino |
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| Stoned- squaring off |
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| Stoned |
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| Nachopupa featuring Mu |
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| Nachopupa! Korean Irish Punk |
After the show we
went out with all the bands as one large party to a restaurant for Korean BBQ,
where we ate, chatted, drank and watched Olympics swimming on TV. We must have
got to the restaurant and 2AM and left around 4:30. Side note: at the
restaurant I just never stopped sweating due to the heat and the punk show.
This was met with a mix of fascination and pity from the Koreans. A note about
Koreans: they don’t sweat (much) at all.
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| Olympics and afterparty BBQ |
Then Mick, Beka,
Lauren and I split a cab (about $10-12 each) back to Changwon. We got into
Changwon as the sun was coming up. Mick and I went up to O’Briens for a
nightcap at about 5:30AM. I went to bed around 7AM.
