Asian Rockabilly Festival brings rockers together for 2nd 'Rumble in Seoul'

Japanese rockabilly band the Biscats are returning to Korea to perform at Asian Rockabilly Festival this weekend. Courtesy of the Biscats

The Asian Rockabilly Festival is back for its second year, bringing together bands and DJs representing Korea, Japan, the U.S. and the Netherlands.

Japanese bands the Biscats and the Stompin' Riffraffs are joining five local music acts for the two-night festival. Chief among the Korean acts is Streetguns, the cornerstone of the local rockabilly scene. They're joined by the Hoppers, punk-folk singer-songwriter Jinu Konda, country-rock band Texas Karaoke and ska-punk band Lazybone.

Rockabilly is a subgenre of rock 'n' roll, which dates back to the 1950s and originated in the American South. It's characterized by a retro sensibility and style.

"To me, rockabilly is rock 'n' roll in its most undiluted form, amped up with teenage hormones — the flash of light off a switchblade, or the bright red lipstick on the kissing lips of a pin-up chick," said Brian Offenther, or DJ BO, one of the four DJs set to perform at the festival. "Picture delinquent kids in the mid-1950s taking blues and country material and putting it to the propulsive whack of a stand-up bass. Equally as important to the sound is the atmospherics it evokes — greased back hair, rickety honky-tonks with blistering loud amplifiers and the sleaziness of the previous generation's pin-up and burlesque culture."

Streetguns perform at Strange Fruit in western Seoul, Oct. 25, 2024, during last year's Asian Rockabilly Festival. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

The genre has a significant presence in Japan's music scene, with a history stretching back decades, but it is significantly more obscure across the rest of Asia. That holds true in Korea.

"However, there are diehards like me active on the road, spreading the word," Offenther told The Korea Times.

He pointed out the bright side of rockabilly's relative obscurity.

"It being less established means that it is primed to flower with freshness," he said. "Barring limited scenes in Japan and the Philippines, much of Asia didn't have a fair crack of rockabilly when it first popped. Now, while acknowledging its origins, it isn't hampered by the same shackles of tradition or the weight of comparison, and is free to move in new and exciting directions."

Currently living in Shanghai, Offenther is an American evangelist of rockabilly.

"I didn't choose this life, it chose me," he said. "As a DJ, I see it as my mission to help share and present good quality art. To me, it's just about the quality of the stuff, although it also fits under the theme of presenting 'new' things to people, even if it originated long ago."

This mission has taken him for quite a wild ride. After getting into the genre in high school, it was while living in the countryside of Mongolia as a Peace Corps Volunteer that the journey began. There, he produced the country's first-ever Elvis tribute artist.

He has since DJed in 30 countries, shared the stage with the continent's top rockabilly artists, produced mainland China's first Elvis festivals and helped Asian rockabilly bands seek worldwide exposure, including getting Korea's RockTigers on an international compilation.

During a layover on his way out of Mongolia in December 2009, Offenther managed to catch a performance of the RockTigers, an earlier incarnation of Streetguns, who coined the term "kimchibilly" to promote rockabilly in Korea. Back then, they held "Kimchibilly Nights," a regular event that often invited overseas rockabilly bands to perform in Seoul.

"'Kimchibilly,' besides being a great RockTigers song, is such a whirlybird of a term — a postmodern portmanteau, bridging eras and locales, sounds and taste," Offenther said. "Then again, maybe it is completely logical? Like a cabbage from the hinterland, rockabilly has been slathered with some local flavor and preserved for later, delicious use. Genius, like Charles Mingus."

After that first meeting, he invited the RockTigers to perform at mainland China's first rockabilly festival. Offenther has since been back to Korea around 10 times, during which he has seen other parts of the country and participated in music events across several genres.

DJ BO performs at Vinyl House in Xi'an, China. Courtesy of Zachary C. Bako

He expanded his reach much further across the Korean Peninsula in 2013, when he performed at what is widely believed to be North Korea's first DJ night.

For that performance, held at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel, he had been warned not to play any music from South Korea.

"I've been in many environments where by cultural mores or strict law I get a stern talking to on what I am forbidden to spin in my sets," he said. "Well, I smudged that a bit by playing The RockTigers. Thankfully, the audience was enthralled by its quality, so no one asked the origin. For one night, at least, kimchibilly extended to both sides of Korea."

Japanese rock 'n' roll band the Stompin' Riffraffs perform at Boogie Woogie in central Seoul, Sept. 2, 2016. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

The Asian Rockabilly Festival will kick off Friday at 7 p.m. with an opening party at Cuba Wang, close to western Seoul's Hongik University. The main event begins at 4 p.m. Saturday at Freebird. Visit fb.com/RumbleinSeoul2025 for more information.

DJ BO will also have a few other engagements in Seoul this week before performing on both days of the festival. He will be a guest DJ for Russian post-rock band Elements of Dust's show at Baby Doll on Wednesday, and a summer closing event at MixMix in Seongsu-dong on Thursday. On Sunday, he will join a mini-album release for Korean reggae artist Tehiun at roots reggae bar One Love Seoul. Follow DJ BO at @djborderbreaks on Instagram.