Garage Concert

I’ve seen my fair share of concerts over the years. There has been a wide variety of different approaches to musical entertainment and how it has been presented.

I’ve seen small community centre shows with local bands. I’ve seen top-billed stars of the industry in stadiums.

This past weekend I saw a marriage of both of these ideas: The YB Garage Concert.

So Sunny and I head out to this obscure industrial park. Every street was filled with both functioning and abandoned factories. We even stopped by a little café for a light dinner that, while not in an actual factory, was factory themed.

Most concerts I’ve been to have huge parking lot and staff to guide the ridiculous amounts of traffic going in, then out again like ten people trying to get through the same door at once. There was no parking lot; the building manager just said to park anywhere close by and it wouldn’t be a problem.

After the hip and trendy meal, we walked down the street (lined with piles of trash as it was industrial waste pick up day). As we got closer, we saw more and more people sitting on the side of the road drinking single translucent cups of beer. This was a mighty trail of breadcrumbs to follow.

The cups were coming from, and moving back towards this run-down factory. It had to be the place. The giant banner stating that it was the place was also a big hint.

Sunny had a soft beverage and I went for the only awesome drink I could have and legally drive after, energy drink (BURRRRNNN!!!). The crowd was herded into the processing floor like cattle. Seriously, anything could have happened in that sketchy room and we would have walked right into it.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a killing floor, but a tightly pack, very small, very intimate stage set up. It was one of the smallest stages I’ve seen a big name band play on, but it took up about have of the room.

The show began with a striptease… a male strip tease. It was a beefed up Asian version of Magic Mike. Sunny enjoyed it. When the Korean Chippendales finished their schtick, the band came out to a very loud opening number. The acoustics were terrible, the room was stuffy, and I never want to go to a different kind of concert again. It was that freakin’ awesome.

The dancers had two main reasons: to set the tone for the night (19 and over) and to set up a joke. Frontman Yoon Do-hyun took a dig at the guitarist, Huh Joon, saying they were from his contacts. Nice.

But I must repeat, that room was loud. My hearing was shot for a day after, and happily so. The intimate nature of the venue allowed everyone to be close to the band and for the crowd to get way more pumped. Giving everyone a free drink probably helped as well.

Speaking of which, have you ever been to a concert with a keg for the band on stage? I have! The band drank through the whole show. 19 and over…

One of the highlights of the show was the light attitude of the performers (keg on stage) and how the audience mostly felt like they were just having fun with the band. To make up for how hot and stuffy it was, the band occasionally hosed the crowd down. Several people left happily soaked. Yoon Do-hyun ended the show by turning the hose on himself.

All in all, it was a great show, not just for Korean music, but for any given rock band. I think any Rock musician around the world could learn something from that show.

I just hope they have another like it.