Korea might have a pretty decent punk scene, but it’s all centralised. How often are there shows outside Hongdae, let alone outside Skunk Hell? At every chance I get, I support anything happening outside our little area. We need punk to thrive in all parts of the nation. Currently, the only other city with a vibrant punk scene is Chungju City.

Way down in the central province Choongchung Book Do, Chungju City is home to over 200 000 people, a small portion which run the MF Crew label. The M, if you’re wondering, stands for Mooshimchun, a small river in Chungju. The F, well, use your fucking imagination.

I took a two-hour train ride down to Chungju last December to see Attacking Forces and 13 Steps, two of my favourite Korean bands, play in their hometown. Also with them were local hardcore band Low Blow, and touring groups Gum X and Johnny Royal. Quite a diverse bill, and not a two-foot-tall mohawk among them.

The terrain down there is much flatter than Kyunggido. When we got off the train, we could see for miles in all directions across wide open plains mostly used as farmlands. Pretty depressing place.

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Our map to the venue directed us to “Choongdae.?But looking at a map, we saw “Choong chung dae,?“Choong book dae,?and half a dozen other universities. Worse, none of my contacts were answering their phones. Our taxi driver scoffed and told us “Looking for Choongdae is like searching for Mr Kim in Seoul.?We took a chance with Choong Book Dae, which the driver said was closer to downtown.

It turned out right and we made it to the club, Road King. It was a small venue without a real stage. All the chairs were thrown into the booths, leaving no room to sit. As we came in, Johnny Royal were warming up. It was empty except for other band members, reminding me of the days when the only people there to watch your band were the members of the other bands.

The show had no cover, and I discovered that the bar wouldn’t serve alcohol that night. I tried playing a game of pool but the owner shooed us away. I figured it was good that two of my favourite bands were here, because this show would suck.

Then the doors opened. Something like 100 high school and middle school-sized kids poured in. They were young, small, and probably the future of Korea’s punk, five years down the road. Not a single mohawk or skinned head among them, but these kids couldn’t pull that off in their schools. They gathered around the stage area, and when the first band, Low Blow, started, they were ready.

You don’t see moshing that violent in Skunk Hell. At least not without Paul there. They kept it up through the first act, and all the way through the rest of the night. Although the second band, Attacking Forces, was a vastly different style, there was no pause from the crowd. They chanted along with all the songs like this was their favourite thing.

The lack of a real stage turned into an advantage, that the crowd wasn’t separated from the bands. It’s probably been a while since anyone watched Gum X play on equal footing with the band.

You haven’t seen 13 Steps play until you’ve witnessed them in their own hometown. There was no escape anywhere in the crowd from the insanity that erupted. I’ll never listen to CJHC the same way again.

By the end of the show, most of the girls got to the front for Johnny Royal, the dual-lead-singer hardcore unit. It was like a wall of jailbait death. When they finished, the band members found themselves signing autographs, a rare sight at Korean punk shows.

At the end of the night, the kids filed out fast to beat their curfews. The MF Crew upper crust took the rest of us out drinking. It turns out 13 Steps vocalist Dokyo 13 is a pool shark at pocketball, and Chungju motels don’t have good porn.

The Chungju City show had one thing Hongdae doesn’t have in abudance: young blood. Most of these kids aren’t of age to start bands yet, but soon they will, and many of them will end up in Seoul.

Start learning Chungjuese.

MF Crew

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