Sunday Sounds: Suuns, Protomartyr wow Hongdae audience
Suuns perform at Hana Tour V-Hall on June 17. Courtesy of Highjinx
By Jon Stein
Lead singer of Canadian art-rock band Suuns Ben Shemie previously told The Korea Times all he wanted from the crowd at his band's first-ever Seoul performance was for people to show up.
“As long as there are people in the room, I feel confident we can put on a good show,” he said.
Shemie got his wish. The evening of Sunday, June 17, saw a respectable number of people turn up at the HanaTour V-Hall near Hongik University, where the show took place. The audience consisted of a roughly 50-50 mix of Koreans and foreigners, and there was a palpable air of excitement in the air as opening act 3rd Line Butterfly, a longtime fixture on the Korean rock music scene, took to the stage.
They started the evening off in fine style, their sound a blend of classic rock and grunge. Lead singer Nam Sang-Ah showcased a truly impressive vocal range, moving effortlessly between piercing wails and hushed emotional ballads, while quick-fingered bassist Kim Nam-Yoon got the crowd moving with his muscular, funky grooves. The only slight downside to their performance were a few technical hiccups with the sound system, which lead to the lead guitar sounding overwhelmingly loud in relation to the rest of the band, drowning them out somewhat.
These technical issues had fortunately been rectified by the time Protomartyr came on stage, armed with several tall cans of beer which they steadily drank their way through over their set. The Detroit band wasted no time getting started, plunging straight into their distinctive style of raw, abrasive post-punk.
There was little in the way of pauses or audience engagement between songs; instead, the band barrelled from one tune straight into the next, punctuated by cheers and whoops from the crowd. Frontman Joe Casey deserves special mention. It's easy to see why he's become a legendary figure in underground punk circles. Clad in one of his trademark tight-fitting blazer and buttoned-up shirt combos, the 40-year old had a kind of energy and intensity to him that would put many younger performers to shame.
Protomartyr perform at Hana Tour V-Hall on June 17. / Courtesy of Highjinx
After their set, there was a brief interval, long enough for everyone to rush upstairs and quickly buy and finish a drink at the convenience store up the street. One of the biggest drawbacks of the venue was the fact there was no bar, and no drinks were allowed inside. Then it was time for headline act Suuns to begin.
From the offset, it was clear Suuns was a very different band from the two that preceded them. They took their time building up an atmosphere, presenting the audience with a dense soundscape of synthesizers, guitar, drums, whispered vocals and, at one point, a pair of triangles.
As the set progressed they moved onto more danceable fair, playing a wide selection of songs from across their discography, but their performance still maintained a strong experimental edge. Particularly prominent was the band's use of synthesizers, which blurred the lines between rock and electronic music to the point where sections of the set felt more like a live techno or house performance than it did a rock show in the traditional sense.
It was a far cry from the more straightforward rock and post-punk of the first two bands, but the change in pace seemed to work well ― it got a lot of people dancing.
Each of the three bands that played on Sunday night had a different style and approach to their music, but every band was strong in their own way ― the diversity of the bands involved added to, rather than detracted from, the show. Hopefully the event was successful enough financially speaking to encourage more international rock and indie acts to play in Seoul in the future ― as the crowd at V-Hall showed, there's certainly enough of an audience here for them.
Jon Stein posts about the Seoul music scene at Seoultronic.