Seoulsonic Showcase

Third Line Butterfly (Photo by Shelley Hiam)

Seoulsonic Showcase

Now in its second year, the Seoulsonic project to bring South Korean rockers to a wider audience is hitting its stride. As a generation of Koreans has grown up on Western punk filtered through the K-Pop machine since the Nineties, these veterans play more than dance music. The yowling, driving of opener Yellow Monsters on its first U.S. tour recalled the great SST bands of the Eighties. Frontman and human spark plug Yong Won Lee launched opener "Destruction" by exhorting the crowd to jump, which is exactly what it did, and he mugged till the end. He and bassist Jin Young Han both played wireless instruments, which allowed them to dart in and out of the crowd on "Riot" and pop-metal closer "4/16." Third Line Butterfly followed. This quartet led by the yin-yang pair of Sang Ah Nahm and Kiwan Sung, sharing guitar and vocal duties, headed for darker territory. "Where Is Love?" was girl groups gone wild, while "Colony" was carried by martial beats and a hardcore delivery. The band capped its set with a cover of Can's Krautrock classic "Vitamin C." Seoul's answer to Gogol Bordello, Crying Nut (complete with accordion player) turned up in the No. 3 spot, fun meter cranked to 11.