Just a weather update the rain came down in buckets during the night and early morning. Everything was wet by 8am and it made the morning pretty eventful laying everything out and wringing out the rest. It brought me back to the days of camping with my extended family and the unforgettable memories we share ("Did you say pass the porn!?").
The bluegrass Korean band was awesome. While they played we just threw the Frisbee around in ear shot and had a couple drinks. Then we floated over to Romantic Punch. I had no clue what to expect but the band was awesome. The lead singer dressed like Steven Tyler and had collagen lips like Mick Jagger. His stage persona was not Korean he acted like a party animal. The band had everything, crazy dancing lead singer, hottie on the bass, cool instrumentalists, long hair and some solid solos mixed in. Yellowcard was the last band I wanted to see in the afternoon and they played a great show. These guys rode the fame of Ocean Avenue (an album that's been out for 10 years, makes you feel old now doesn't it?) and some of the guys haven't really worked out in a while. The lead guitarist recorded the verse and chorus after playing it one time and then stepped to the side (still in plain site though) and toweled himself down. The oddest instrumentalist of my teen years, Yellowcard's electronic violinist, tried to say something in Korea but failed miserably. That tiny mistake was treated with laughs and was the only dip in their show. It was a really cool to hear songs that were around when MuchMusic played music videos before Video on Trial. After we grabbed some food we went into the evening to see some great, great shows.
Steve Vai - This guy just shreds and that's all he did. The road had aged him a little bit but he had these really silly faces while he played. Not John Mayer silly but a surprised face thinking "Wow I can't believe that worked."
FUN - This band lived on the echo from the audience and did maybe 5 "Oh Oh Oh"s in a hour set. Their album was on the plane to Korea and I listened to it twice because it's just great. Surprisingly I still knew a lot of the words to their songs and it hit me that I've been here for almost a year, the fact washed over me when they played "Carry on." The band was so, for lack of a better word, fun to watch they had an unreal amount of energy and the crowd was bumping almost as much as Skrillex. They covered the Stones "You can't always get what you want" with a horn in it and it was amazing.
Coheed and Cambria - I have to make a special shout out to Rock Band for introducing me to this band. C&C is a band I will see live every chance I get. The lead singer is such a spark plug he could play on an empty stage for an hour and you wouldn't be bored. He does runs with his guitar like a cartoon across the front of the stage and its the one guitar move I want to master now before I die. They closed with "Welcome Home" and it was so much better than the version I played with my friends.
Foals - I had never heard of this band and two people were in a debate about what two bands combined would exemplify the Foals. I listened to the band intently for the 75-minute set and tried to think of my own and the descriptions just sound awfully awkward (mellow Avenged Sevenfold?). They were very guitar dominant band and the sound was really clean. I enjoyed listening but like The Cure I'd just buy the album because they don't have much of a stage presence.
NIN - The opening was amazing and so was the rest of what I saw. Our bus left at midnight so we started leaving at 11:30 to get to the meeting place. Trent Reznor has proven his music prowess to me, and his stage presence is unbelievable for such a stout little guy. The band put on a wicked rocking set. A buddy told me that when he heard about the Nine Inch Nails he thought they'd be too heavy, I said the same and then I got into Eminem. Now, standing there in the presence of 90's rock gods I felt very stupid.
Overall this weekend is Top Ten lifetime for me. I don't know what number one would be but Ansan is really up there. I'm going again without a doubt unless the Cure is coming back and I can rope the same core of people too along with other cool, awesome people. While we were leaving they set off some really cheap fireworks.Cheap in the sense that the casing shot everywhere too, there were pieces of singed cardboard bigger than a smart phone flying in the air. I guess that's their strategy for clearing out the crowds. There were few disappointments and loads of surprises in this little isle of paradise.
Is it July 2014 yet?
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