Han Kyung-rok of Crying Nut crowdsurfs during the closing show of Club Spot, Oct. 25, 2014. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar By Jon Dunbar This is the fifth part in a series intended to raise awareness of Korea's elusive live music scene and help more people find it.
Younger people might be surprised nowadays to hear that the area in front of western Seoul's Hongik University, known as Hongdae, was once ground zero for the entire country's live music scene and independent culture spirit. It used to be the place to get away from K-pop's omnipresent sensory overload. The area became a subcultural hotbed sometime around the early 1990s, and in the latter half of the decade, it was bursting at the seams with the (then-still-youthful) energy of live music.
There are still people around who remember these early days, and while they've grown old, some of them still haven't grown up. There are a lot of sad stories around the rise and fall of live music venues in Hongdae, but let's face it, it's not really a business that churns out success stories. 9.
Spangle Ever notice Taeyeong Apartment, the biggest apartment complex in the Hongdae area? Before redevelopment, that spot used to have a lot of culture. This is where Spangle opened its doors in 1996, replacing an earlier music bar called Double Deuce. Spangle was the house venue for some of the well-known first-generation modern rock bands, including Huckleberry Finn, Cocore, Deli Spice and My Aunt Mary.
According to one website, the l.