For every time us foreigners have proven ourselves a liability, there’s another story about the positive contributions in the scene by foreigners.

The date was Sunday, July 3. The next day would be a holiday for Americans, so an extra large number of them were out that night.

When Yoojung, the door girl, came back from a bathroom break, she found the door money missing from its hiding place in the attendance book. The alarm was raised, but nobody could find it. We assumed it was theft.

“I’ve been going to shows in Korea since Crying Nut and Yellow Kitchen played street shows out in the Shinchon area ,” says Paul Mutts, “and I have never heard of anything stolen at a punk show in Korea. I’ve had a guitar stolen from me at a regular rock show at Jammers but that’s it. This is a bad fucking first. So we got a thief stealing from Skunk and there’s nothing worse.”

When Paul found out about the stolen money, he immediately went around and asked for donations. Naturally, he could only really communicate with foreigners, and soon donations surpassed the original amount of money lost.

Yoojung tried to return the money, but Paul insisted, and the donations by foreigners paid for the show that night.

Originally the suspicion was cast on foreigners, by the foreigners present at the time. The discovery of the stolen money came less than a minute after one drunk foreigner hastily departed the show, but he was later found to be innocent.

There is a steady stream of ever-changing foreigners coming through Skunk all the time. Some of them are good people, and some of them are major fuckwagons, and the vast majority we never find out about.

Rather than turn to paranoia, Skunk Hell responded in kindness. The Suck Stuff/13 Steps show on August 7 was billed as free for foreigners in recognition to the donations.