Korea Gig Guide

Midway Through Their Mission

Posted by: Shawn ˑ  March 24, 2009 – 10:11 am

By Shawn Despres

I’ve wanted to write something about Korean trio Apollo 18 for almost a month-and-a-half now, but unfortunately have been swamped with other things.

I first came across the act in early February when they played at Badabie with The Plastic Day and
Juck Juck Grunge. Sun Ho from The Plastic Day was standing outside the tiny live space when I arrived and said Apollo 18 were just starting and that maybe they would be pretty good. Talk about a huge understatement. The band were awesome and left me slack-jawed with their self-described sonic hybrid of “Hardrock + Groove + Psychedelic +…” Mixing atmospheric post-rock with bits of fast-paced, hardcore-infused rock, their fantastic set was one of the best gigs I’ve witnessed in ’09 thus far and had everyone (paying customers and fellow musicians) hollering their approval after every loud cut.

The group released their debut self-titled EP on February 12 through local imprint Estella Records. While the EP is a solid listen, if they play like they did at Badabie all the time, these guys truly need to be seen live to get the full Apollo 18 experience.

Apollo 18 have been playing concerts every weekend since February 13 as part of their Sympathy Tour to promote the EP. Although more than half of the shows are finished, dates are scheduled up until the end of April so interested parties still have several opportunities to catch them before the tour finishes. They’ll be performing on March 28 at Club FreeBird, March 29 at Ruby Salon, April 4 at FF, April 11 at Club Spot, April 18 at Live Club Ssam, and the “tour final” will take place on April 25 @ DGBD.

There’s a short “teaser” for the EP and a video for its opening track, “Pause 00,” here.

Apollo 18’s MySpace hasn’t been updated in a while, but is streaming a song that’s not on the EP and has live footage of another non-album number.