Pentaport rocks.

Rock festivals come in all shapes and sizes, but Pentaport can claim the granddaddy position. This year is the 6th iteration, and the three-day festival offered up enough rock, electronic, techno, and DJ’s to balance out the mud and corporate presences.

Two thirds of Idiotape – a seriously awesome electronic pair of DJ twiddling knobs, and pushing buttons, complete with a man on the live drums. The high energy sound never got boring, and between songs the otherwise engaged crowd applauded.

The rest of the scenery seemed almost a sideshow compared to the big stage. Along with four other stages, the above backdrop didn’t seem too out of place. Not pictured was a fun game involving Converse shoes being flung from feet into steel drums.

It’s so unfair that the professional videographers get the best views.

Not too many freakish outfits seen on Sunday, but this trio took the cake.

Gotta love the hair. On the main stage was 부활 (Bu-hwal) featuring 박완규 (Park Wan-kyu) – AKA a long-running Korean rock band. They’re popular enough to have a Wikipedia page in Korean and a page in English, and rocked the stage to the thousand or so of fans crowding the stage.

Good stage presence and a rockin’ sound – welcome to two of the reasons people enjoy summer music festivals.

Bassist 서재혁 (Seo Jae Hyuck) keeping the beat going.

Vocalist 정동하 (Jung Dong-ha) – also a professor of Vocals at Kyungbok College.

After a couple of beers and a plate of some excellent grub, it was time for the Ting Ting’s. By sheer coincidence, this also seemed the time for Typhoon Muifa to make its presence known. The ponchos came out, the setup got delayed, and the shots came out… rather crappy.

I warned you. Not sure what was happening with the lighting here, but it didn’t get much better during their set.

Jules De Martino on the drums – also playing lead guitar, bass guitar, piano, and doing some vocals.

Katie White on the guitar, bass drums, bass guitar, and cow bells – and of course the vocals you’ve heard on their hit songs. Even using a telephoto lens and cropping, the lighting never really cooperated long enough to get decent shots.

This was actually one of the best views I ever saw of the drummer’s face – on the big-screen. Not pictured is Katie holding a sheet sounding out some Korean, indicating her pleasure at being in Korea.

 

The pop-rock, dance-punk duo kept the crowd jumping despite the wind and rain.

Although Simple Plan was the headlining band (and arguably the most well-known band on the three-day lineup, next to Korn on Saturday night), Kiwi and I caught the shuttle bus back to the subway station so we could get home.

Well-organized, reasonably priced drinks, and plenty of music kept things going despite the weather conditions. The games and other diversions made it about more than just what was happening on stage, That a couple of extra subways were arranged beyond the usual schedule virtually ensured everyone would get home after the last mainstage act finished up.

Disclosure: Chris in South Korea received two free tickets, courtesy of Groove Magazine. Thanks a bunch!

© Chris Backe – 2011
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