On the May long weekend I found myself in Seoul for the two day Seoul Jazz Festival at the Olympic Park. I will be honest, I meant to look up some of the acts beforehand but I didn’t. I knew the two headlining acts and went with it (Mika and Damien Rice). We left early Friday morning to check into our hostel and meet up with the rest of the group. Once we were all together and dropped our stuff we were off to the festival!
The first day was beautiful, but also very hot. Very hot. I was smart enough to apply sunscreen before we left our hostel. But not smart enough to reapply later in the afternoon. As we were leaving the festival that night my friend said “nice burn” and then slapped my shoulder. I proceeded to scream in pain in the middle of the subway station.
But I digress… As I mentioned before I hadn’t really checked out any of the music beforehand. My experiences in this department have always been exceptional so I wasn’t too concerned, and I was right. All the acts were phenomenal. The headlining act. Mika, was amazing! This is probably the first “pop” act I’ve seen since my pre-teen years, and it was definitely worth it. He put on a fantastic show, and was very engaged with the audience. Although the only time I’ve found bands haven’t engaged with the crowd was during Warped Tour, but that’s possibly because each set is only 30 minutes.
The music was all very diverse, there were acts from Europe, Mexico and Korean-American. I took some photos, but I don’t think they really do the musicians justice, as I said, my camera has been acting up and not working properly.
I’m not particularly good at music reviews, or concert reviews, but here is some sort of attempt:
When we first arrived we went to the Spring Garden stage and saw Clara C perform. She’s of Korean descent but was born and raised in America. While she could speak a little Korean, she was most comfortable speaking in English. But it was sweet of her to speak with her Korean fans in Korean. Her music was very fun, maybe pop-jazzy. While I enjoyed her set, it wasn’t particularly my style.
The next singer we saw was Roberta Gambarini. She was great, I really enjoyed her set. I spent it mostly lying in the grass trying to sunbathe and relax.
After Roberta, we got to see Wouter Hamel. He is a pop start from the Netherlands, but he’s also quite popular in Korea. He was really fun, and his music was quite different from pop music from North America. We danced. His stage presence was unreal, he had all them Korean girls swooning. All.
This next band we only caught for a few minutes and I was kind of upset, they were amazing. It’s fantastic, a mix of electronic and swing. Sounds weird, but it works so well. The internet calls this “electro-swing”. They are called the Parov Stelar Band. They are a European collective based around Parov Stelar, who is the DJ who makes the music.
After them we went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela. They are a Mexican duo who specialize in playing fast rhythmic guitars. I was back to lying on the grass to listen to their set. It was also amazing.
Finally, the headliner, Mika! Again, he’s put on one of the best pop-concerts I’ve been to. It was so much fun, he was very engaging with the audience and a fantastic dancer. I don’t think he really stopped moving all. I somehow knew most of the songs, despite having only ever listened to his debut album. The internet tells him he’s released two more since then. Oh well.
During his set, giant balloons were released to crowd surf. Needless to say, we found one on our way back to our hostel and caused a scene during the subway ride back to Hongdae. Yeah, we were those people.
Filed under: Concerts, South Korea, Things or Places I have been too
