This past weekend was the Jisan Valley Rock Festival. I went to the Pentaport Rock Fest two years ago, when Muse headlined (best live show evaaar!), but since then, their lineup has progressively gotten worse... and then this year, 'Jisan' showed up out of nowhere, as the new rock fest on the block, and their line up totally got me stoked for a weekend of mad fun.
I got there pretty early on Friday because I wanted to catch Jimmy Eat World! They were freaking awesome!! I'm so glad I got there in time to see their show. Here's a video I taped of them playing 'Hear You Me' for your viewing pleasure:
Next was Fall Out Boy. They're not my favorite band, but I do own their 'Infinity on High' album, so I know some of their songs and it was cool to see them live. You can see Pete Wentz with the fire-engine red hotpants, under the big screen. He likes to spin round and round... hehe...
The main reason why I went to Jisan on Friday, was to see Weezer! They were the grand finale to an epic day of music, and they were soooo good! Their songs are such feel-good, nostalgic tunes, I was just grinning and jumping around through the whole concert. Especially when they played 'Undone,' it totally took me right back to 9th grade. They played quite alot of their older songs, like 'Island in the Sun,' 'Say it Ain't So,' 'Buddy Holly,' and 'Beverly Hills,' to name a few. I was actually surprised to see that Koreans are totally into Weezer~! I had no idea they had such Weez-love! The crowd went nuts, especially when Rivers injected bits of impressively accurate Korean here and there throughout the set. :) He's such a nerd, love him. The show was Epic indeed.
I also got to see some Korean rock bands, which were pretty entertaining! I especially liked 'Crying Nut'- they were a lot better than I thought they would be. Other shows that I saw were 'The Airborne Toxic Event,' 'Human Instict' and 'Crash' (Korean metal band).
One thing that's cool about going to rock fests in Korea is that it makes you question whether you are actually in Korea at all, because there are so many foreigners! And everyone just parties with eachother in the spirit of good music. Amazingly, I was able to meet up with a bunch of my Pentaport buddies, and have a mini rock fest reunion. It was so good to catch up with them and reminice about all the insanity that went down at Pentaport two years ago.
The festival itself was also set up pretty well, with teepees, food booths, bathrooms, showers, merchandise stores, and even an internet booth. But I have to say, there weren't many veg options at all. The only meals Chris and I ate were specially-ordered noodles from one specific booth. It was only vegan after we asked them to make it without the bacon and clam sauce. They were hesitant to do it at first, but what were they going to do, let us starve?
We also met another fellow veggie who was looking for something to eat, so we all ended up ordering the same thing. It wasn't great, but it was food, so we weren't exactly complaining. Unfortunately, I ended up eating pretty much the same noodles for dinner and also lunch the next day. That was probably the only disappointment of the whole festival... that there were practically no veg food options, despite the fact that the festival's slogan was 'Go Rock, Go Green!' Yea rite, my ass.
noodles & coffee
I also found a booth selling snack baggies with pretzels, nachos and peanuts. All the other bags had dried squid in them, but I asked them to make a bag for me without the squid. :)
Then my friend found a booth selling samosas, and I got to taste one. I'm pretty sure they were vegan, and they were soooo delicious, I wish I had known about them earlier so I didn't have to eat those sad noodles- twice!
Anyhooz, despite the food, the festival was awesome. I was there pretty much all day on Friday, camped out that night, and stayed for most of Saturday, but didn't stick around for Basement Jaxx that night, or Oasis on Sunday night, which was quite a shame, really. I bet they were amazing too. But it's okay. I saw Weezer. I had already had so much fun, I went home feeling super good~.
See you next year, Jisan!