Punk Day 4
Club Nevermind, save the giant poll in the middle of the club, is a place you’ve got to check out a show at. Recently it played host to the 4th Gwangju Punk Day, an event that I’ve started to look forward to each month, almost as much as my sweet, sweet pay check. What Bu-jik has in atmosphere, Club Nevermind makes up for in sound. Also, they boast a keg with 천원 brew which is hard to beat.
On Saturday, Monkey Pee Quartet opened up the night with their self-branded pop-punk. Monkey Pee Quartet stands as one of Gwangju’s older indie bands. They have a well-defined sound and they sing mostly in English. While mostly pop-punk, they verge more into indie-rock territory than the other bands.
They were followed by Match Point. Since the last punk day, Match Point has really rounded out their live show. They are the newest band on the Gwangju scene and it is worth going to see the direction the music is headed. Not to mention, the bass player closed the set with a seriously impressive foray into English with a resounding, r-rolled, “Saturday is terrible” preacher moment. Otherwise, Match Point sings mostly in Korean, but the lyrical content seems to revolve around girlfriends and cigarettes. But, then again, I only can pick out a handful of words.
To finish off the “made-in-Gwangju” block, Betty Ass came on to rock a fast and harder set of skate-punk then I’ve heard from them in the past. They have a really great collection of their old-songs recorded from the past few years, but lately they have been moving more into a faster punk sound. They were the band that really kicked off the night for me.
The rest of the night was devoted to Busan and Burning Hepburn’s Korean-ska out of Daejeon. The band of the night on Saturday was Sidecar, a skate-punk trio that very much resemble a Dookie-era Green Day. A punk cover of Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver is never a bad thing, unless it’s in the movie Armageddon. Along with Sidecar, possibly the only old-school punk band in Korea, Stoned came to Gwangju. Complete with bomber jackets and boots, Stoned brought some oi into the room and played as raunchily as possible. The guitar tone was downright disgusting, like a rusty chain-saw meeting human flesh. With that in mind, imagine a Bob Marley cover of Redemption Songs. Busan is so laid back!
Ending the night was a taste of Korean-ska with Burning Hepburn. The bigger venue and better sound-system really fit the six-piece ska band much better than Bu-jik, however some last minute organ trouble rendered them a five piece. In perhaps the best moment of the night, the lead singer/guitarist sacrificed his guitar for the last two songs to let the organ player get some time to be heard. It was one of those moments where everything felt right in the universe.
Be sure to catch the next Punk Day on December 15th. The concert will be held at the Bu-jik Club in Chonnam Back Gate. Keep an eye out on facebook for directions or find details from the Betty Ass page. Don’t miss it, it’s local music doing what local music does best; whatever that is.