YesterMorrow

1 YesterMorrow

-- HongCho SanUlRim Gig, 98-01-25

1.1 Must See a Concert!

I visited again Seoul at the end of 1997. I was dying to go to a live music event there. What I really wanted was going to the Lee, Eun Mee because I saw on one of the web newspapers that she will be having a concert at the end of 1997. But, you know what? I missed it because of my stupidity. I felt like bangning my head against the wall. I missed it because I thought the concert would continue till the last day of 1997.

So, I was very disappointed. But I can't stop here. So, I looked around for another good one. And what a luck!!! I found out that SanUlRim was going to have a one-day concert on the New Year's Eve. One really cool thing about it was that it's going to be from 8 p.m. till 1 a.m., into the New Year!!!

Okay, one more thing I missed. I should have brought a camera! Possibly a digital one! As a consequence, I don't have any pictures from the concert. I am sorry. (Even if you didn't care, I still feel sorry for myself. :b)

I wasn't sure if I would be able to get the ticket since the concert was about 4 days away. I asked my cousin, Ilho, who's just passed the Korean Medical Association exam (which means he has a medical doctor license), to see if he can get two. Surprisingly there were still tickets available. Hmm... Is it a bad sign?

1.2 To Namsan!

Okay, so this concert was at a convention hall at Hilton, Seoul. I don't understand why so many live concerts have to be held at a hotel. I guess it's because it's kind of cold at this time of the year (and Koreans aren't so used to those picnic-like outdoor concerts) and because usually, the crowds aren't big enough to fill up a sports stadium. Oh, well. We climbed up a hill to get to the place after we emerged from the underground (subway, that is). We got there early even though the seats were already assigned. Actually, I didn't expect to see that many people there since we were able to get the tickets so easily. The hall was rather large and it seemed that there were about 3,000 seats available. But the surprising thing was that these seats were all occupied by the time the show had started.

Also, there was a group of fan who's been helping out with the event and all, called GaeGuJangI, who sat on the floor right in front of the stage. So, it was a big crowd. Cool.

The stage had two sets of multiscreen displays. These were essential, not because of the tapes they played in-betweens, but because the hall's depth was so great that people in the back wouldn't have been able to see what was going on on the stage. I believe it was football-field long, at least.

The show didn't start until 9 p.m., unfortunately. There was some confusion as to the seating. People arrived late and some people were taking up the floor seatings that were reserved for the volunteer group.

1.3 The Opening!

The opening performers were JaURim, LeeSoRa, YunDoHyeon Band, and HwangSinHyeBand. Also, a mime named NaGeungHo entertained the audience after the first break. The unfortunate consequence of the confusion at the beginning and the late start was that the time given to the opening bands were cut short. They were only able to put in, at most, two songs. Too bad. I mean the crowd was in a very good mood. They, the bands, would have liked it too.

JaURim sang MilLapCheonSa and one of the old SanUlRim number (I forget). Personally, I wanted to see them do an hour's worth of playing, but alas, they had to cut short. Incidentally, I really do think that they are fabulous.

LeeSoRa's performance was disappointing. She came out and sang one song (I think it was GiEokHae Jwo) with the pre-recorded accompaniment. She sang okay, but I didn't think she was right for the job. On the side note: she looked she lost weight a lot. I don't know, maybe it's because it's been a while since I saw her in person, but she definitely shed quite a bit. Amazing.

Next came YunDoHyeon Band. According to the original program, they were supposed to come out after the first break. I guess they changed the plan since the lead vocal, YunDoHyeon had a cold with a very severe soar throat and the show was running late. He had to stop a couple of times during his second number. However, he showed the spirit and the crowd showed their appreciation.

And the next team.... This was really something to behold. I've never seen them play before, but I loved their music. You say who? I say HwangSinHyeBand. They were cool. The bass player (JoYunSeok, I think) wore a balloon suit and a hat made with a rubber doll. So, cool. They played two songs from their album, MunJeonBakDae and MuNeoJinDa. A surprising thing was that a lot of the crowd knew them. I guess the people there had a similar taste in pop music. :)

1.4 Old Men Rocking!

Then, came out the three old men... :) Well, they are not as old as RollingStones, but since this concert was for celebrating their 20 years of providing us fun, pure fun, with their music, I guess I can safely say that they are not a new generation. :) They came out and started playing their old rock'n roll numbers (sorry I can't remember the titles). Really funny thing was Kim, ChangWan had a very funny hair-style. He looked a lot like "Doc" from Back to the Future. :) A very cool hair-do. Kim, ChangHun was playing bass guitar like he was doing an adlib on a lead guitar. Cool. The youngest of the three, Kim, ChangIk, the video-generation drummer, was putting down the beats while making funny expressions on his face (I really don't know if he intends to do this or not. :)).

1.5 Session I - Rock'n Roll All the Way

In the first part of the night's acts, they played their older rock'n roll numbers. The songs that I recognized were Mun Jom YeolEoJwo, Nae MaEumE JuDanEul GgalGo, and HwangMuJi. The crowd loved them. A lady in 40s was sitting next to us, and you should've seen her go crazy. She was shouting, clapping, and singing along as if she were a teenage school girl in the 60s going crazy at Beatles in the EdSullivan Show. :) It was something to behold. It also reminded me how deep and wide the level of the SanUlRim's fan base is.

One frustrating thing was that I wasn't able to stand up and shout because nobody was doing it. The place was too large and they set up the chairs in such a way to make it more of a movie-theater like settings. If it were a small, more claustrophobic place, it could have been much better.

Another thing I noticed was that their skills gotten a lot better over the years. I mean, I've listened to SanUlRim's earliest songs and some of them had really bad performance. It could have been just the recording problems, but they had sounded more like amateurs than professionals. But, as far as I can hear at the concert, they were really rocking it well. I was impressed. :)

1.6 Session II - Quieting Down

After blowing the audience with the rock'n roll, they took a rest and gave us a 15-minute break (or gave it themselves). After the break, the mime came up on the stage and did his best although not many were paying much attention to him. He was quite good, but I thought the mime is getting old for this time and age. Then before the band came back onto the stage, they played a couple of animations several members of the fan club, GaeGuJangI made. Also, they played a video tape that showed the chronology of the band.

For this section, they played slower, more melodic numbers that KimChangWan made. Some of them that I can remember were AnNyeong, GgoMaYa, EoMeoNiWa GoDeungEo, NaeGe SaRangEun NeoMu Sseo, and ChangMun NeoMeo EoRyeomPutSi YetSaengGakI NaGetJiYo. Also, he played the song he recorded on the DoSiRok TeukGongDae. It was very cool.

They were obviously waiting for the midnight. ChangWan was keep asking for the time and even said that he was itching to play rock instead of the mellow tunes. :) I guessed the plan was to keep to the slower numbers before the midnight and burst into the rock.

1.7 And the plan worked. Midnight Madness!

So, when the time has finally came, the two large multi-screen displays began to count down from 60 seconds. At the count of ten, everyone began to count it down out loud. Sib, Gu, Pal, Chil, Yug, O, Sa, Sam, I, Il... Then came the burst of GiTaRo OToBaIl TaJa from the band. And came the inevitable... Everyone jumped up from their seats (including those people sitting on the floor) and literally went crazy. Of course I did too. It was just what I've been waiting for. :) I was shouting out loud, raised my arms and rocked them, banged my head a little, jumped up and down... You name it. I think the guy who was sitting next to me was a little surprised at what I was doing at first, but I think he realized what was possible and kind of joined in. :)

SanUlRim played other memorable numbers such as ANiBeolSseo, GaJiMaO, GaeGuJangI... But they seemed to prefer to play GiTaRo OToBaIl TaJa a lot. They played the song several times.

There was one funny episode. Right after we went crazy at midnight, a TV crew came up on the stage and was getting ready for an interview. It was like for a show that was going to talk about the things that happened at the New Year's parties. The interviewer or the producer wanted us to recreate a particular situation, I think. We booed a lot because they were interrupting our fun, but ChangWan managed us to cool off for a few seconds enough for him to finish the short interview.

We continued to go crazy until 40 minutes into the new year. By that time, it was obvious that the band members were getting tired. It seemed the crowd would have stayed there for the whole night and kept up the spirit, but you can't do anything about the stamina. :)

1.8 Back Home!!

They finally called it the night about 10 minutes to one. I was very pumped up and my voice was all gone (I am still having problem with the voice). I throughly enjoyed the show. I think the rock'n roll audience atmosphere is definitely getting better in Korea. It was fun and I would recommend this to everyone. I wanted to stay longer just for these concert happenings. As I've mentioned this before somewhere, this club/live performance thing is what I would like to do in the future. That is, I want to own and run a live music club. This experience has reminded me once again what I really want to be doing. So, besides my friends, this music experience has become something that I dearly miss about Korea.

So, I sit here, far away from Korea, and reminisce about that warm and fuzzy feeling, and dream about the day I will become the part of it.