Where do I even begin. Jan 27, 2024 we held an emo party to what we would describe as truly a magical night. This was by far the most challenging event that I have ever managed after series of coincidencal occurances that this magical night seemed almost fated. This is how it started:
It all began with an unexpected turn of events. I got fired from work sometime last year. This really was a blessing in disguise as it freed up a lot of space for me to focus on EMO IS FOR LOVERS. After coming back from Europe trip seeing my favorite bands like Fall Out Boy and Neck Deep, I decided to work at a indie rock live club in Korea as a doorman. The timing matched perfectly as I saw the role opening up days before my Europe trip was coming to an end. Thankfully I was a semi-regular in the club and already had strong connections with key people for me to land this gig.
Working as a doorman in the rock club, I met Noya band- a seasoned punk rock band who the guitarist joined EMO IS FOR LOVERS' discord after seeing the promo sticker I put on the club bathroom 2 years ago. We chat time to time online but never saw each other in person. I greeted him and we talked about emo music and our discord. I opened up saying I do not have clear next step direction with the community, and he tossed out the idea for possibility in creating a show. It sounded intruiging but since I did not know how that would be executed, I just kept it as one of the possibility to mull about in the future.
A week later, out of pure coincident, I met Earth for the second time. Earth is a musician from Chiang Mai who I met at Anxious concert in Seoul (who I also met because another friend ran to me to introduce him to me where they became friend while taking a piss in the bathroom. Friendships happen in bathroom yall.) I hadn't seen Earth in 7 months ever since the concert, and I saw that he was hosting a padthai cooking class. Also coincidentally, he was hosting the event 3 minutes away from the club I was working. Also out of pure luck, my shift ended right when the cooking class starts which is crazy because my shift NEVER ended that early ever again.
I introduced myself to the owners of the venue and one found it very interested that my instagram handle was emo.kimchi. Luckily I had one promo card for EMO IS FOR LOVERS left with me. One of the owner threw out the words in friendly manner "lets have an emo party together". To which I agreed to but obviously it is never that simple. I had never thought of what such party would even look like. I made at least 6 more visits, and supporting their business, bringing friends to finalize that we would be doing this.
I used my doorman job to nagivate, and network with other bands and find out about how performances and bands work i.e how much is the standard of their pay for each gigs, what they need from the organizers, equipments, etc.
Preparation was in full force. Too many to mention, but basically from planning, staffing, decoration, recruiting, marketing, coaching, executing and performing. Everything was actually fun to prepare but some things were out of my control and it gave me immense about of stress. Still bitter that we were not able to play off the youtube playlist I created for background music, so they played songs from my DJ setlist as general ambient music. It really messed with my own DJ set, and I couldnt play many songs I wanted to. Still quite bitter!
What was amazing: 1) Bands were exceptionally good with their performances. Far beyond my expectations. 2) People who came had crazy good vibes singing along the songs, moshing, and screaming. Environment was better than some actual concerts I've been to it was really crazy to see. Most memorable moment was when I was DJing, people out of nowhere put on the flash on their phones and started waving to make a warm vibe. I really couldn't believe my eyes. Also while throwing gerard cutout into the crowd, I accidentally knocked over the sound system and music was cut off. People kept singing the songs together without the music until the music came back on. What a magical moment. So grateful and proud of our scene. I can really see how people took the party as a safe space to be themselves. I was so happy.
Also to hear the songs I picked play out loud into the street of Hongdae, its an emotion hard to describe. Imagine hearing Saturday by Fall Out Boy or Stickly Stick by Attack Attack, or Your Graduation by Modern Baseball on a Saturday night filled with hip hop and edm clubs in the middle of Seoul- then you have a small venue full of emo people rocking out while normal passerbys take a peek with a curious/ confused face.
The venue owner even said he would like to turn his own Latin place and transition to rock for good. Oh and I was surprised how there were many super young emos in Korea, really make me believe theres a potential for bigger things here. Really could not have done any of this without the people's support and their love for music. I feel so grateful for every one who came or showed interest. Let's make a fun, loving culture around this genre vs the negative stigma people had on us for years. LETS DO IT. Until next time!
Ending with the video we made about the party:
Fun behind story: The videographer for this party arrived in Korea from Italy 12 hours before the actual event. As soon as he arrived to my house, we filmed the footage of me packaging the gifts, and I only met this guy 15 minutes ago LOL.
