Lu! Lu! Luuk-Sem-Buh-Ga! to Ah! Ah! Ah-Le-Hen-Ti-Na!
I’ve been meaning to post something about this for a while now. It probably speaks volumes about the band that I can still remember so much, especially considering the drinks were free at Funky Funky that night.
Crying Nut, kind of like the Pixies of Korea, except pop-punk, and actually nothing at all like the Pixies, puts on a hell of a live show. Somewhere in between Green Day, Flogging Molly, and the Dead Kennedy’s (at least some of the vocals to my ear), the line-up featured the (totally non-ironically) accordion stylings of Kim In-soo, and a whole lot of crowd interaction.
The band holds the distinction of being probably the only punk outfit in history to break up and get back together again… because of military service. That’s right, because Korea has compulsory service for all males at any time of their choosing after they turn 18 (you know, that whole still-technically-at-war-with-North-Korea thing). Little did our quintet know that they’d become the most successful independent artists in Korean history, selling 100,000 albums on their first record. One supposes they decided that being aging rockers was a better option than being aging soldiers, and bit the bullet (not literally) so they could get back to merrymaking ASAP.
Of course, I didn’t know any of this when I went to the show, as we just kind of stumbled into Funky Funky due the promise of costless alcohol. However, this may be one of my top 5 most memorable concerts of bands I’d never heard of before attending the show (that list includes Arcade Fire opening for the Unicorns back in 2003, Sons and Daugthers opening for Clinic in 2004, and this toothless guy that plays bluegrass back in Carrollton).
My favorite part was this, at the time, unintelligible chant that I tried anyways and then later realized was just the Konglish versions of a few random countries. Can you guess which ones? (Hint: title)
Inexplicably, this show was followed by a bizarre Japanese transvestite (the best I could tell) burlesque act. Perplexed at the costumes and the strange choice of bad surf music, my party and I left, never to return… until the next free drink night.
Did I mention, free drinks? Because the drinks were free. Free drinks. ..-.’ .-.’ .’ .’ Free.
Leave a Reply