Jeonju Gigs?
Posted by: mark ˑ April 30, 2008 – 1:06 pmLooks like I will be in Jeonju this weekend, for the Jeonju International Film Festival. While I am there, I thought it might be nice to check out a live show or two… unfortunately, I know nothing about the Jeonju club scene.
Anyone out there in Internet world know anything about live music in Jeonju?
One Response to “Jeonju Gigs?”
This is way too late, but may be handy for next time:
Jeonju’s live music scene is very small. Lots of bands start up and then break up within a year.
The main place was a club called Led Zeppelin (pronounced Red Jeppelin) and it was in an odd locale that I cannot quite remember. (But had a cafe at Daum, I think.)
Ages ago, there was also live music happening at a bar downtown run by a performance artist, but that stopped before I was even there.
Sometimes, in front of JeobukDae there would be live shows… mostly across the street from the main gate. Those were mostly organized by Led Zeppelin, though, and probably promoted on their site.
There was also a music studio run by a guy who might be more up to date on this stuff… Seoul Studio, he called it.
Ah, and there was a jazz club near the hospital, for a while anyway.
(I’d search this out for you but I’m still rebuilding my Linux installation and my Hangeul input is screwed at the moment. Sorry!)
But when I was playing in a band based in Jeonju (Dabang Band) we ended up, finally, playing most of our gigs in Hongdae. The Iksan/Jeonju musicians mostly complained at how lame Jeonju audiences were. That is, how totally uninterested in live music people were.
For a while, there was more going on even in Iksan when a guy by the name of Kwon was trying to organize a tour circuit in “rural Korea” and booking rock shows by groups like Delispice at his Iksan club, “Bootleg.” And there was even a huge jazz club that had occasional big-name Korean musical guests like Shin Gwan Woong.
(No idea if that place is still running — it was called “In the Mood” and run by a guy who claimed to have lived in the US for ages, and to love jazz. But refused to tune the piano and treated the regular musicians like crap, at least when I was jamming with them, and gave us all the distinct impression he was a retired gangster. Maybe not-so-retired, as the place was huge and lush and always nearly empty. The staff usually outnumbered customers 3:1 or more.)
Anyway, yeah: Jeolla in general but especially Jeonju (for the size) wasn’t a very happening place for live music, but there a few neat bands around. Ah well…
By gordsellar on Jun 8, 2008