Foreign Line

Still Alive in Hongdae

The best Halloween-themed punk show in Korea happens 10 p.m. this Saturday at DGBD near Hongik University in western Seoul. Entry is only 5,000 won for people with costumes. A costume contest has prizes from small businesses including Newsboy Burger Pub, Moderment Clothing and SHARP Ink.

When co-promoter Jeff Moses first came to Hongdae for Halloween in 2008, he was disappointed by the lack of celebration. “All the clubs had Halloween-themed flyers, but when I got to the shows, they were just normal shows. Nothing to do with Halloween at all,” he said. “People in Korea didn't care about Halloween, so I said we needed to change that.”

Bands include …Whatever That Means, Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, 57, A'Z Bus, Rudy Guns and Andersen. Visit fb.com/wdikorea for more information.

Korea's extreme metal lecture

U.S. expats Ian Henderson and Michael O'Dwyer spent a couple years making “K-Pop Killers,” a feature-length documentary film on Korea's metal scene. Henderson will discuss the “quixotic quest of these musical miscreants” in a lecture for the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch (RASKB).

“The saga of heavy metal in Korea is a strange one: starting as an illegal import under military dictatorship, to the rock explosion of the 1980s and 1990s, through its downfall in the wake of the K-pop juggernaut,” Henderson says in the lecture intro.

The lecture is Oct. 30 at the second-floor lounge of Somerset Palace in downtown Seoul. All are welcome. Non-members pay 10,000 won and students pay 5,000 won. Visit raskb.com for more information.