By Jon Dunbar
Chadburger, Korea’s most ferocious hardcore punk band active from 2007 to 2012, is reuniting this weekend.
Made up of members from Korea, Australia and the U.K., their bassist Aaron Burger is back from Australia for a personal visit, and he and his bandmates were eager to schedule a reunion show.
Burger previously worked in Korea as an English teacher, founding Chadburger in 2007 with his Korean friends Hong Gu on drums, Hyun-dong on guitar and Byung-hee on vocals. After Byung-hee left for law school, he was replaced by Tel, a gravity-defying, barefoot Welshman who turns into a wild beast on stage.
“Chadburger was the first full band that I ever had the chance to play in, something that I’d always dreamed of doing when I was a high-school kid with no punk friends,” lead vocalist Tel told The Korea Times. “So for it to happen, and then lead to eight years and counting of sporadically performing is indescribably awesome.”
Chadburger had its first show shortly after Tel came to Korea, and he considered them instant favorites before joining.
“At the time, nobody else was playing that kind of faster, stripped-down hardcore punk,” he said. “These days, there’s quite a few bands playing faster or noisier kinds of hardcore and punk, but most of the time that we existed I think that people kinda felt like we were something of a novelty ... that sloppy, thrashy band with the dude who jumps around a lot.”
After Burger left Korea in 2012, the other members stayed together, rebranding themselves as Misawa.
“Chadburger never really broke up. We sort of transitioned into being Misawa when Aaron went back to Australia,” said Tel. “Aaron was a founding member of Chadburger, and was responsible for naming the band, so it felt wrong to continue as Chadburger without him.”
Burger, back in Australia, said he’s been “living a quiet, boring but awesome life in Australia,” working in community service and staying musically fulfilled with his new D-beat band Terania.
The Saturday show will also see the release of a split 7” record by Misawa and Terania.
It will be at GBN Live House in Mullae-dong, southwestern Seoul, Saturday. The show starts at 5 p.m. and costs 10,000 won.
Other bands include touring French electropunk duo MYCIAA, plus local acts Find the Spot, Geeks, Gukdo, Dead Chunks, Tokki Jot, Tear Gas, Scumraid and Tel’s additional band KJP47. Look up facebook.com/chadburgerSK for more information.
“The guys in Chadburger are some of my favorite people in the world,” said Burger. “I hope that any time we are all in the same place, a reunion is possible.”