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20260911

Leenalchi at Togul

The opening night for Block Party featured just one lineup at Togul, and of the acts playing, Leenalchi stood out the most for me. I'd seen them a couple Block Parties before, but I still wanted to see them again.

Due to the exclusivity of tickets for this night, the venue wasn't as full as I remembered from previous years, or how it would be a day or two later.

20260912

Bongcheon Nori Madang at Dialogue

I showed up on Day 2 with plans to be there when Little Boys start, but a I suspected, Bongcheon Nori Madang was parading through the street. I followed along with them and got some pretty good photos. When I followed them inside, I saw them performing a Korean maskdance that was done in English, involving what I think I heard was a yeongno, a monster that eats yangbans. This event was put on by my friend Tasha, and it looks like I escaped her clutches.

This gallery also has photos from when I met up with Sarah, who was campaigning for the restoration of the kimchi pots at the entrance to HBC. That situation is stupid and should be reversed, but was covered by our rivals so I won't link it here.

Little Boys at Sub Riot

Little Boys started a bit late, by maybe 10 or 15 minutes, which gave me more of a chance to see the maskdance in the street.

They were a pretty good band, but photographically there wasn't much I could do. There was one point where they got really close to each other, but I was in the wrong place to photograph that. They were otherwise an exciting band, just not that challenging to photograph.

I made sure we gave them an article, partly because they were very proactive/cooperative about press, and also in recognition of their very extensive tour of Korea.

Palecistus at Sub Riot

Palecistus is one of the younger bands in the punk/hardcore scene, though not among the youngest. There seems like there's been a generational change, with a lot of people in their early 20s and even teens -- the age I was when I got into it -- showing up and starting bands.

These guys are a screamo/post-hardcore band that will probably get sick of comparisons to Hollow Jan (who I tried but failed to see later).

They also had what looked like the most violent crowd of the whole festival. I saw one girl who had to be removed after getting hit, but she seems like she took it like a champ. There was an incident a month or two earlier where someone actually tried to file a lawsuit due to a mosh pit mishap. In that case, the mosher was an Indonesian migrant worker, and it presented a real threat to him. There was a benefit show for him, which I decided against covering, because sometimes the attention I can bring isn't guaranteed to be positive.
Komagens at Sub Riot

After a bunch of punk/hardcore/etc bands, and before a bunch of other punk/hardcore/etc bands, Komagens came into Sub Riot and did a reggae set.

The frontman of the band is Sugar Sukyul, former frontman of Kingston Rudieska, which appears to be on hiatus now, and also one of the main performers of Uheeska, the collaboration between Kingston and pungmul group Yeonhui Company. In comparison to those groups, Komagens looks like it's probably a lot more relaxing to perform with.

Skasucks at Pet Sounds

I ran across the valley over to Gyeongnidan, where Skasucks had a set at Pet Sounds. Actually I tried to make it for the very end of Taiwanese band BB Bomb, but they ended before I arrived. Anyway, that meant I was early to see Skasucks -- it was a crime Jamie committed by scheduling them the same time as 18Fevers, but it had been longer since I'd seen Skasucks.

Skasucks seems to have been active recently, already playing a few other shows, but this was my first chance seeing them since probably last decade.

Debaser had a good article on them, although it appears Jinsuk doesn't quite remember how he got the band to open for the Slackers in 2007. I planned not to involve them, because the Slackers aren't fans of ska-punk, and the name Skasucks was especially grating. Jinsuk argued with me until he wore me down and I agreed to let them open for one of the shows. Them covering a Slackers song had nothing to do with it; I recall one member of the Slackers caught them performing that cover, and he said "That's how we would play it if we were a punk band." He used very carefully coded language to show his approval, while also not accepting them as a ska band.

Looking back, I can't believe I would have considered not working with Skasucks, because Jinsuk has turned it into one of the cornerstone bands of the scene, especially during the 2010s when the New Generation of Ska festivals were happening. He's done a lot of community-building for the scene, both as a musician, a venue owner, a festival organiser, and a tattooist, and I was being stupid by considering holding him back.

Honey Jam Sam at Dialogue

On my way back to HBC, I stopped in Dialogue very quickly to hear a song by Honey Jam Sam and take a few quick photos. They appeared as a five-piece, and I knew everyone in the band except the drummer. Rob still has his white cowboy hat from his recent US trip, and I have interviewed him about it.

They're releasing a new album soon, and it's excellent.

18Fevers at Sub Riot

It's been a while since I saw 18Fevers last. This was my first time seeing them with Jenn from Lucy Valentine in the band, and it was her last show. I also think they may have played two Rebellion Fests since last time I saw them, but I might be forgetting something.

I arrived after coming from Skasucks, and making a very brief stop at Dialogue, and I arrived partway through the second-last song. This was possibly the first of their shows where I didn't witness any wardrobe malfunctions.

I arrived right when Matt did his usual wander into the audience, and followed through the gap he created to get closer to the front.

Hard-Ons at Sub Riot

This was one of the acts I was most looking forward to during this year's Block Party, and it was the last event I was forcing myself to stay out for on Day 2.

I interviewed the band's Korean Australian bassist Ray Ahn last year, which was printed in Broke 40, and using that material, I had enough to do two different articles, one for Debaser about punk, and another for the paper looking more at his Korean heritage.

20260913

Windy City at the Coca-Cola Outdoor Stage

I showed up early for work, did as much as I could, then left right before 3 in order to see just a bit of Windy City performing at the outdoor stage.

Korea has had a handful of reggae bands over the past couple decades, but Windy City is the one that keeps coming back. It's the flagship reggae band of Korea, although I used to complain that at a reggae concert with five bands, three of them would have the same lead (or co-lead) singer, Kim Ban-jang of Windy City.

I didn't stay long, but I had work to do.

Yangbans at the Coca-Cola Outdoor Stage

After the first edition was put to bed, I rushed back, in time to see the last couple songs of the Yangbans, also at the Coca-Cola Outdoor Stage.

These were probably my best photos of the whole festival.

Lavelies at Uplift

I hurried to Uplift, where I just missed Xen Sapphire's performance, and was able to see the Lavelies. This was especially a good idea, after the band member RYNO gave me a Block Party shirt that didn't fit him the previous day.

They sounded fine, but the stage conditions weren't really good for photography, and the crowd wasn't the type where you could just shove your way to the front without worrying.

Lucy Valentine at Togul

After the Lavelies, I stopped by Togul to see Lucy Valentine perform.

I can't remember the last time I saw this band actually performing live, and it may have just been Jenn performing a solo acoustic set at Skunk Itaewon.

The lighting kind of worked for them, although less purple would have been better.

OBSG at Togul

I returned after work ended in time to see a handful of songs by OBSG. This band is another spinoff of SsingSsing, and I ended up liking them more than Leenalchi for two main reasons:

1. Only one sorikkun. I think Leenalchi's use of, what, four singers is overkill. Pansori is not a choir genre.

2. The music was a lot more based on reggae, and I found it easier to listen to. Leenalchi's music is a bit too frenetic, to match the energy I guess of having too many sorikkuns.

I noticed that the band included on bongos Smiley, who had previously been a member of NST & the Soul Sauce, and before that I and I Djangdan. He is on his own a great singer, so I would have liked to see him fronting his own band.

After the show, the bassist walked up to me and said hi, and I completely hadn't noticed that he was NST himself. He looked...younger than I remembered.

After

After OBSG, I went out to the CU, where members of bands that I had missed wandered by, and I saw a lot of friends I hadn't seen in a while. That included a lot of bands I missed, probably most notably Cha-Cha and the Cousins, which features the original singer of No Brain, as well as members from various other bands I had never really linked together. They also had members of Crying Nut butt in on this performance, I'm told.

I ended up at the afterparty at Uplift, but didn't take that many photos there. And that was my Block Party done.