The Iceberg

Just as our man-in-the-field Niels reported yesterday, the official 2008 Pentaport website is now open for business.

And - as it turns out - Niels was actually 2-for-2 (when was the last time that ever happened?) because Hard-Fi, Scottish British band Travis, and others are part of the first line-up.

To celebrate, I give you Hard-Fi’s “Suburban Knights”

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and Travis’ “Selfish Jean”

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Searcy, Arkansas, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon-based rock band Gossip has been added to the 2008 Pentaport line-up.

The lead singer’s got a nice Mama Cass thing going on. Mama Gossip?

Here is the band’s song “Standing in the Way of Control” from the album of the same name.

Gossip

You can officially scratch Metallica off the list of potential performers at Pentaport. I just visited their official website and - unless they plan on squeezing a show in Korea between their July 25 date in Sofia, Bulgaria and July 27 date in Istanbul, Turkey - they’re not coming.

According to their official websites, British band The Go! Team and American rapper Princess Superstar have signed on to perform at the 2008 Pentaport Rock Festival.

Here is The Go! Team’s “Grip Like a Vice”

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And here is Princess Superstar’s “Coochie Coo”

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British electronic band Underworld and Welsh rock band Feeder will be performing this summer at the 2008 Pentaport Rock Festival in Incheon.

Lots of talk on Korean blogs that Metallica, Radiohead, Maroon 5, My Chemical Romance, and the Foo Fighters might also sign on, but for now it appears to be only that - talk.

UPDATE: There’s no way in hell that the Foo Fighters are playing at Pentaport - unless they plan to hop on a plane to Korea following their July 26 show in Pittsburgh and then head right back for their July 29 show in Rutherford, NJ.

UPDATE 2: Scratch Maroon 5 off the list as well. They are booked in the States throughout July and August.

Here is Underworld’s signature tune “Born Slippy” from the Trainspotting OST.

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Next is Feeder’s “Miss You”. If you like it, you can download it for free from the official Feeder website.

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Or 내귀에 도청장치 in Korean.

I’d been meaning to write about this band for months, but never got around to it until now.

I first stumbled across Wiretap at Pentaport 2007. They performed late Friday afternoon (day one) on the second stage. I had never heard of them and probably still wouldn’t know who they are were it not for a little luck. I ran into one of my former hagwon students and her friend and they were big fans of the band. They insisted that I watch the show with them and the rest was history.

The four members of Wiretap performed while wrapped in faux-bloody bandages. That alone was worth seeing. But the band had more than a visual gimmick. They had a good sound and a loyal group of enthusiastic fans, which made for a great show and a fun time. And vocalist Lee Hyuk (이혁) - whose stage presence evokes the spirit of Ziggy Stardust - can carry a tune. Here is a very brief excerpt of their performance at Pentaport 2007:

I decided that I wanted to see Wiretap perform again and finally had the chance last December at the Hero Rock Festival. They didn’t disappoint - except for the fact that the guitarist ripped off Slash’s hat. That wasn’t good. But forgivable. I put together some snippets of their performance. Note that I recorded the show using my digital camera with its little digital camera microphone, so the sound is not as good as it could be.

Here’s hoping that Wiretap in My Ear plays again at Pentaport 2008 - and this time gets a slot on the main stage.

Unfortunately she didn’t sing.

I’ve never been able to understand why Korean audiences are willing to accept that the majority of their “above ground” performers don’t sing at a live concert. I mean, sure, it was nice to see Ivy shake her thang on stage, but c’mon! she’s supposed to be a singer! On the other hand, the concert was free. And the choreography was better than anything Britney Spears has done recently.

At any rate, she does have one of the nicest bodies in the lip-synching business. Have a look for yourself.

Much to my dismay, she didn’t wear a skirt for last night’s performance, but she looked good anyway. Here is some video that I shot. Don’t be put off by the ballad (or the jacket) at the beginning. It gets better.

This year’s Pentaport Rock Festival didn’t quite live up to 2006, but it was a great time nonetheless. Some of the improvements over last year were:

• Much better weather. As opposed to last year’s torrential downpour on the first day, leading to a three-day mudfest (not that that was entirely bad), this year’s weather was mainly overcast with only a few brief showers. In short, nearly perfect.
• A wider selection in food. The food last year, while quite tasty, was mainly limited to pizza and barbequed chicken (or Korean food…primarily stews…which doesn’t exactly go well with beer). This year, in addition to the pizza and chicken, vendors sold burritos, cheesesteaks, bangers and mash, and an assortment of other goodies.
• More scantily-clad models and narrator models. A likely result of the better weather.

The only thing that didn’t come close to last year was the line-up of bands. Unfortunately, this was a very big thing.

On Friday night you had OK Go, who were actually pretty good. They were followed by The Chemical Brothers, who were fun to watch but, while certainly among the best at what they do, are a poor choice to headline at a LIVE music festival. Give me guitars, drums, and vocalists, thank you very much. Save the canned music for the clubs (or full-moon festivals).

Saturday night was even worse. First up was Ocean Colour Scene who, despite somewhat high expectations based on positive reviews of their music from festival-goers, failed horribly to impress. They were fine if you are sitting at a table having a beer, but to watch live…ugh. No stage presence whatsoever. They were followed by Japanese glam band L’arc en Ciel who were okay but - c’mon! - we are talking about the HEADLINE ACT here. Compare this to last year’s Saturday night line-up of the Black Eyed Peas and Placebo. Sorry, you can’t.

Sunday night’s line-up of Crying Nut and Muse was good, though it would have been better had it been Northern Irish band Ash (who performed one act earlier) rather than Crying Nut. I know Crying Nut has a huge following in Korea, but their accordion-influenced rock sound comes across as too much schtick. One could even argue that Muse’s show, which was brilliant, couldn’t quite measure up in terms of fun to the party atmosphere created by last year’s final act Franz Ferdinand.

In spite of my complaints, the festival was still worth the price of admission, which was 165,000 won for a three-day pass.

Part of the fun of attending a festival like Pentaport is discovering some of the local talent. For every shit band you have the displeasure to be exposed to (ie. Vassline), you come across two or three pretty good ones. The bands I was most impressed by were glam-rock band 내귀에 도청장치 (Nae Gwee-ay Do Chung Jang Chi - Wiretap in My Ear) - clad in faux bloody bandages - and rock band Sugar Donut, who were a fill-in for Hellogoodbye. Both bands deserve a main stage slot next year (in place of, say, Vassline). Another group that has potential is The Melody. They need a bit of refinement, however. The lead singer, though occassionally off pitch, has a good voice and is as cute as a button.

Here is the first of many videos taken at the festival. I’m producing them chronologically as I shot them, so the first three acts are Korean bands Diablo, 사랑 과 평화 (Sarang Gwa Pyunghwa - Love and Peace), and 내귀에 도청장치 (Wiretap in My Ear). Please forgive my camera’s crappy mic.

Next up is Ok Go (and a couple of hot cigarette-selling girls).

Here we have some partying “missy” ajummas, fireworks, some screaming/dancing girls, The Chemical Brothers, and, oh yes, a dancing chicken.

Moving on to Saturday, the next video contains the events of the entire day, including long-legged models, cutie tv hosts, whirlpooling rockers (including that chicken again), girls getting their hair done, a Swiss rock band called 69 Chambers (featuring a Paris Hilton-lookalike lead singer), Ocean Colour Scene, and the Japanese band L’Arc en Ciel.

The highlights of the next video were shot early Sunday afternoon. They include The Melody (including the sweetie singer) and Sugar Donut.

Part six includes the group Asian Kung-fu Generation, people in the midst of a variety of activities, some very short shorts, a helicopter, an extremely off-key singer, the band Ash, a girl who I was fortunate enough to get to know a bit, a guy whose pants nearly fell down, and finally, Crying Nut kicking off the evening session.

The final act of the festival was Muse, and this video is devoted to them. I must admit I was getting mildly pissed off waiting for the concert to begin. Finally, about an hour after the scheduled start time, the band started playing Knights of Cydonia and all was well. Muse puts on a fantastic show and Matthew Bellamy is a guitar virtuoso. Definitely worth checking out if you ever get a chance. In the meantime, ignore the shit mic and enjoy the video.

See you next year. I’m guessing August 1-3.

In massive quantities.  Not a bad combination.  That’s what’s in store for this weekend as the Pentaport Rock/Music Festival kicks off today and runs through Sunday.  Tonight’s main act: The Chemical Brothers.

At the time of this posting, however, the Pentaport website is down.  An ominous sign, perhaps?

The rock band Muse is paying a second visit to Korea this summer for the Pentaport 2007 festival.  A few of the other performers thus far slated to appear are The Chemical Brothers, Damien Rice, and guitarist Stevie Salas, though it’s still early and there will likely be more bands added later.  Last year’s festival featured Franz Ferdinand, the Black Eyed Peas, Placebo, the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Snow Patrol, and more.  The festival runs from July 27-29.  You can find out more information here.