Chapter 79
If one tried to recite the entire history of Korean indie rock, even 5,700 characters would not be enough. In the beginning, there was the U.S. Eighth Army; that was where Korean rock began to take shape, and the true beginning of indie rock came with punk rock centered around Hongdae’s live club Drug, modern rock bands formed through PC communications… and so on and so forth.
Trying to write it all down would become far too long-winded, and there are still living witnesses to history who could add their own words, so no one can claim, “This is the one true history and canonical text.”
But one thing is certain: indie rock is still rock. And the rock listeners who remain to this day say every day, “I don’t listen to music for old fogies,” while expressing their distaste for music that is ‘Too Mainstream.’
But they are still people who enjoy rock. In other words, when they encounter the ‘roots’… they are doomed to be the kind of people who cannot help but respond.
The guitar produced a sound that was not quite a note. Along with the unmistakably tentative sound, the drums that had been rumbling softly died down. And the venue fell silent.
Just when the audience, curious about what kind of music would come next, began wondering, ‘Was that a mistake?’ Suyeon started strumming the guitar again.
It was unmistakably a sound built on a pentatonic-scale shuffle rhythm—a bluesy sound that did not suit a ‘girl band’ or a ‘high-school girls’ band’—and it rang out through the venue’s speakers.
‘I’ve heard this somewhere before…?’
Just as those who prided themselves on having listened to quite a lot of rock began rummaging through their memories, Suyeon opened her mouth.
“What the—!”
The final word, unable to become a curse, hovered briefly around the staff section before disappearing. It was Kim Taejong of ‘Music Imma Seoul,’ who was responsible for the 7 p.m. performance the next day, shouting as he sprang to his feet.
“Taejong, what’s wrong? Sit down. I can’t see.”
Cheolyeon said it absentmindedly as he tilted his beer bottle. Perhaps realizing that his reaction had been excessive, Taejong sat back down with a flushed face.
But although Taejong’s reaction had been slightly more extreme, the reactions of the Day 2 bands sitting in the staff section and the Day 1 bands whose performances had ended were similar, differing only in intensity. They all wore expressions of utter disbelief at what they were seeing.
‘Of course they’d react that way…’
Cheolyeon smiled inwardly. If he had not received live-performance footage from Kang Seongmin of Paradox, this was a sight he would never have believed either.
Who would believe that a high-school sophomore girl could play like that?
Regardless of who was stunned in the staff section, the performance continued. The leisurely tempo allowed the audience to begin swaying little by little, while Suyeon’s body moving with the rhythm of her guitar gave them even more courage.
Amid voices saying things like, “What is this?”, “I don’t know what it is, but it’s exciting,” “This is the fucking roots!!,” and “Wow, what the hell is this?”, the drunken voice from earlier suddenly bellowed, “Crossroads!!” Suyeon smiled and continued playing.
It was definitely a cover, but it was slightly different from Robert Johnson’s [Cross Road Blues] or Eric Clapton’s [Crossroads], both traditional blues songs. The tempo had been lowered noticeably, and the song had been transformed into something more danceable.
And the first guitar solo began, more than enough to shock both the audience and the people in the staff section.
The sound was extremely leisurely, yet it sank unmistakably into the listener’s ears. Just as people say getting a zero is harder than getting a hundred, the rhythm and pitch, with not a single thing exactly as expected, paradoxically demonstrated the performer’s precision.
And through that, people unconsciously realized that the guitar performance before them was truly alive. She was not striking the strings simply to ‘play back’ the song without any intention… she was genuinely ‘performing’ it.
The vocals began again as soon as the solo ended.
“Wow, this is fucking insane.”
“Do you know what song this is?”
“No. Isn’t knowing that it’s fucking awesome enough?”
“You call yourself a rock fan and you don’t even know this song?”
Unlike during the first verse, the crowd’s movements had increased noticeably. With as many people as had left, there was now more room for the remaining audience to move.
Only a few minutes earlier, the audience had been staring coldly at the stage without moving. Now they were gazing at it like carp waiting for someone to feed them.
Then the guitar solo began again.
Taejong nearly sprang to his feet once more.
The bluesy guitar tone began ringing in earnest. There was nothing flashy about the movements of her left and right hands; only precision guided by intent.
But the sound was different. Under Suyeon’s hands, the notes displayed ever-changing attacks, decays, sustains, and releases. Not a single sound was produced unintentionally.
Even the audience stopped moving at such an absurd performance, staring at the stage with their mouths slightly open. It was as if they were experiencing something they had never expected, at a time and in a situation they had never expected, from someone they had never expected…
‘Can that possibly be real? Isn’t this a scam?’
Taejong was fairly advanced in years and had devoted a considerable part of his life to blues and blues rock. He could not speak for other countries, but in Korea, he was confident that there were few people who could surpass him in blues.
But what was that girl showing them now? Could truly exceptional talent transcend even the years?
Meanwhile, the solo, which had lasted nearly four minutes, was coming to an end. From the performance, Cheolyeon realized with shock that it had been improvised rather than planned.
‘Isn’t this a little too much?’
Were they trying to completely kill the next band’s performance? Just how serious were they? Cheolyeon looked toward Yoon Hyunjun of the next band, [Yoon Hyunjun Band], who had slipped into the staff section a few minutes earlier. Hyunjun’s face had gone completely pale, as if all the blood had drained from it.
“Hyunjun. This isn’t the time for you to be standing here.”
“Huh?! Y-yes? Uh, um, yes, right. Yeah. I-I’d better get down there quickly.”
With that, Hyunjun clattered down the stairs. Cheolyeon looked farther back in the staff section. The other Day 1 bands who had been sipping beer had gone down long ago. Only Jo Woohyun of [Merkish’d], the Day 1 headliner, remained, scratching his head as he watched the stage with the other members of his band.
“Woohyun. Aren’t you going down?”
“There’s no point in going down now.”
After saying that, Woohyun left his bandmates behind and dropped into the seat at Cheolyeon’s table. Although the solo had ended, the performance had not stopped; they had already moved straight into the next song.
“It’s ‘Sternstunde’!!”
Unlike with the first song, the audience responded with thunderous cheers. Unlike the original, which had a much slower tempo and a melancholy atmosphere, the bluesy arrangement of Sternstunde was now being played by the band.
“Hyung, did you know these kids could do this?”
“Me? Of course I did.”
Even so, Cheolyeon kept the thought, ‘I didn’t know they’d be this good,’ hidden in his heart. It would not be very respectful to say something that diminished his senior’s standing.
“I’ve known them since they appeared on Band Pioneer. I thought, ‘Wow, these kids are something else.’”
“Really? But they weren’t in the Top 8…”
“There were circumstances. I’ll tell you about it over drinks later.”
Feeling a slight pang at the thought that a story close to his own shame might come to light, Cheolyeon quickly ended the conversation and turned his gaze back to the stage.
One night in August
I saw a white bird
A bird that could not possibly exist
A bird filling the darkness
Suyeon’s forte, the guitar, only strummed during this song. But her voice, imbued with a bluesy timbre, held back the emptiness and kept the audience under its control.
The danceable mood that had spread through the audience only moments earlier was already gone. The people still moved by inertia to the shuffle rhythm and its lingering afterglow, but having absorbed the song’s mood, their movements had become restrained.
“This is really going to be a problem.”
“Hm?”
Cheolyeon questioned Woohyun’s mutter. What was going to be a problem? But Woohyun said nothing and downed a glass of whiskey.
“Hey, you’re performing soon.”
“Urk. No, it’s still a few hours away, so… Anyway, now that kids like these have appeared, the indie and rock scenes will be noisy for a while.”
“That’s true.”
The birth of a superstar was not made up solely of positive things. There would be an influx of people and all the things that followed from it. Someone—probably the owner of Paradox—would make a fortune, while someone else’s income might shrink.
Some people would quit music because of the gap in talent and become malicious commenters instead. Others would work hard to catch up by any means necessary, while still others might be inspired to take up the blues. Whatever direction things took, one thing was certain: it was going to get noisy.
“There hasn’t really been anyone all this time who made you say, ‘These are the ones!’ I’m not bragging, but I guess there hasn’t been anyone since us.”
“Come on, there were quite a few bands as good as yours…”
Cheolyeon shot Woohyun a slight glare before continuing.
“I don’t know how quickly they’ll grow. But one thing’s certain: I don’t think it’ll take them many years.”
Summer has come
On a street in some place
Where are you
Why are you going that way
Suyeon’s vocals rang out softly, and the guitar that had only been strumming began to howl again. It took the place of the original song’s final trumpet solo.
Without moving an inch, she kept her eyes closed and her head slightly bowed. While her hands moved busily, she remained silent, and the notes rang out even more fiercely than before. Like the North Sea surging with waves, and like a lighthouse waiting in the distance even through a treacherous journey, a melody containing a thread of hope rang out with vigorous whammy-bar work.
* * *
The heart I had on the day I met you
Was just like the waves
Making the me I am today a little more
“Able to move forward~”
The finale was [Leap Across That Distance]. The audience sang along with Iseo. Even though they had never heard the song before, they had memorized the chorus after only the first verse, making their level of concentration easy to see.
“What was that!! One more time!!”
“The heart I had on the day I met you~”
Iseo kept excitedly shouting for another repetition as if she were a popular singer. The audience wore happy expressions as they clapped along with Suyeon and sang with the song.
Watching them, Ayoon felt a little annoyed. If they could have this much fun, why had they acted that way earlier? Why had most of the people who left, saying there was no need to watch this performance, come back? Instead of hiding somewhere else and taking up space, they should have just stayed here and enjoyed themselves.
‘It can’t be helped. It’s because our girls are too good…’
“Today’s show is fucking insane. Are they always like this? I haven’t made it to Paradox. You have to book it, no matter what. If they suck, I’ll kill you.”
“Yeah, I got it already… Why do you keep saying that?”
Amid all that, Ayoon heard voices beside her and turned her head. It was the same man and woman she seemed to have encountered earlier. When she heard them saying they absolutely had to go to Paradox, she instinctively pulled out her phone. Should she book a spot right away?
But Ayoon lowered her phone again. Then she smiled and looked at Suyeon playing her guitar.
A booking like that didn’t matter.
Wasn’t enjoying this moment for even a little longer far more important?
As these girls had said in [Ashen Days], memories eventually turn ash-gray. The shining present was far more important than carefully storing it away in an old photo album.
Ayoon quietly watched the performance, then impulsively took a photograph.
Suyeon’s smile was blooming brightly against the backdrop of the stage.