going merry

Korea is the most homogeneous place I have ever been. Aside from being one of the most genetically homogeneous places on Earth, it is also extremely culturally homogeneous. This means every one dresses the same, acts the same, generally just fits into the flow of things. If you're a dude over 20, you constantly have a cigarette hanging out of your mouth. If you're a lady, you are constantly decked out in the latest fashion trends. There is a saying that goes "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down". Apparently so, because I've seen very few nails sticking up, especially in Daejeon.

Imagine our excitement, then, when we stumbled upon a freshly minted punk club called "Going Merry" last November. We immediately went in to see what was going on, but it turned out they weren't open yet. The dudes we talked to invited us to their opening show the following Saturday. Of course we would be there, if for no other reason to see what exactly Korean punk looks like.

As it turned out, we were at "Santa Claus", a popular western bar about a block from Going Merry the next Saturday, and we tromped down around 11:00 pm to check out the show. What we found was a long table of Koreans eating dinner and listening to Meatloaf. It was slightly awkward. This was not a show. Luckily, one of the guys was Korean-American, and explained to us that shows in Korea start around 7:30, and that we had missed the action. We stayed for a beer anyway.

My third journey into Going Merry came about three weeks ago when Taylor and I had dinner at a restaurant down the street. After a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, the NOFX blaring out of the speakers on the street convinced us that we should step in for a beer or two. We were disappointed that Punk in Drublic was not playing inside, and the bar was almost completely empty. The only other party there was a middle aged businessman and his date sitting at table littered in Heineken bottles. We got a couple of beers, and the guy working asked us if there was anything we wanted to hear. Naturally, soon he had some nice NOFX blaring for us. Soon we couldn't help noticing that the businessman's date was passed out on the table while he was having a heated discussion with someone on his cell phone. This lasted for at least 20 minutes before they took off. On our way out, we ascertained two pieces of information: 1) NOFX is playing in Seoul in April; 2) there was a show at Going Merry the next Saturday at 7:30 sharp. We would be there on time.

We got to Going Merry about 8:24, and there was an all girl band raging on stage. Their main aspect going for them was sex appeal, not quality sound or song-writing. They were brash and strong in performance, as you would suspect, but off stage, they were as shy as the stereotypical young Korean woman. The next band was a standard punk band. The final band was definitely the best of the night. They were from Seoul (as I think all the bands we saw were), and interestingly enough, had one dude who was American. About half the songs and banter were in Korean, and the other half were in English. This was actually a pretty fair ratio, considering the audience was about 60-40 foreigners (which I didn't like at first, but learned to deal with).

At the end of the show, the American guy shouted "I don't drink anymore, who's got the chronic?" He was bummed that they were heading back to Seoul immediately so we couldn't bring him back to the apartment later for a little snack. But seriously, if you are lucky enough to sniff out any dope in this country, who's going to bring it out with them?