Mullae-dong Industrial Accident Show

I was fortunate to find out about this gig yesterday and to my surprise it was slated for today and in my area (Mullae!). This gig, 산업 재해 Industrial Accident Show in Mullae-dong 문래, was advertised with an unusual ticket deal: "This show offers a special discount for anyone missing fingers, with entry priced at 1000 won per finger." Although in the end they did not charge at the door, I asked around and found out that the theme was probably chosen because Mullae-dong is the centre of industrial accidents, so much that surgeons who specialize in reattaching fingers have moved to the area because they happen most commonly in Mullae where the metalworks are. (OUCH!)



As I walked up the stairs to Lowrise, two americans pushed past me with beer cans in hand, muttering loudly, "this is fucking shite!" It sounded promising already, and a completely listenable grinding machinery sound was emanating from within. Since I have no photos of the first act, I will describe it to you instead. I believe it was "Sato Yukie and Tyler Brown".

Sato Yukie and Tyler Brown

Inside the dark and chaotic venue (which despite appearances, was curiously clean and sweet smelling, at least in the beginning), there was an asian man (Sato Yukie) with big hair and a big fox's tail pinned to his back. He was playing his guitar with a giant metal spoon and two metal chopsticks which he jammed hard into his strings. He was hitting his guitar dramatically with the giant metal spoon. In the corner, he had another bandmate (Tyler Brown) intensely playing the guitar while facing the monitor, his bandmate almost unnoticeable as most eyes were fixed on the spectacle of man-playing-guitar-with-metal-utensils. The sound was like WEEEEOOOOOAAARGGGGGGGEEERRRGGGHHHHHHH. I could not hear the individual notes he was playing with the utensils, as it was simply one big WEEERROOOOOAAARRGGGHHHHHHHRRKKKKKRKRKKKKHH noise from start to finish. Nevertheless the man rocked hard and seemed to follow some sort of internal tempo as he played and rocked back and forth with his hair (and tail) swinging wildly. To finish off, he ran into the crowd wildly, grabbing people and using them as objects to hit his guitar to produce more noise. The crowd scattered instantly. One of them was an caucasian man who was wielding a beer can and another with a large mineral water bottle nearby. The performance culminated with the musician grabbing hold of the containers of liquids and the venue exploding with a rain of water and beer over the horrified crowd. As a performance, I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially since it seemed to be a very "metal" crowd which seemed somewhat perplexed by the noise performance.

Now this is what I call an industrial accident.

Brothers of the Hole

The second band was by all means more "conventional" in the lineup of metal bands. I believe it was "Brothers of the Hole". Their drummer was leaving the band soon so it was some sort of "last gig" for them. They were a punk/metal-type band that played what appeared to me to be a rather tight set. Some descriptions have written them as being "Vervcore". I am not sure what is Vervcore, but after listening I still do not know what is Vervcore. While listening to them, I suddenly noticed that most of the crowd was caucasian around me. I wonder how much the english teachers in korea have affected music in korea, by bringing american or european music influences over.

At this point I had to go to see another theatre performance in Mullae so I walked back to Seoul Art Space_Mullae... Which actually turned out to be even more amazing and spectacular actually. But that will be for another post...