Man, you were really drunk on Friday night." The Welshman told me.

"I was?" I said. I then took a tally of the previous evening's imbibements. This...was somewhat of a long list. Really, the part where I'd gone awry was having scotch early on in the evening, mostly because whiskey tends to make me a bit...ah, rowdy. And then Gundam Guy started playing lots of Electric Six on the bar's speaker system, which also tends to make me a bit rowdy.

Not that there wasn't occasion to booze it up, though- y'see, LePub, my primary expat hangout, is being sold to a new owner. Who, admittedly, I hear is pretty cool, but it'll be a change in the bartending staff, at the very least. So it goes!

I made it home safely, though- I may have had quite a bit, but I certainly know when it's time to pack it in. Saturday was fairly quiet. I briefly stopped by the makkoli festival that was going on, but I didn't have anything to drink while I was there- didn't feel like boozing it up, y'see.

I had originally meant to swing by Hongdae for a punk rock show at Club Spot, but I was feeling vaguely sick-ish, so I didn't bother. Nothing too bad, but I just didn't want to pull another all-nighter. Instead, I went...to LePub! Again, as Saturday was the last night it was under the current ownership. I took it much easier this time around. Which was funny, as I ran into The Welshman and Co at LePub, and the lot of them had been partying hard since lunch on account of the Rugby World Cup. I'm actually a bit jealous of their enthusiasm, but what can you do?

Sunday, again, started quiet. Had lunch with some friends of mine, and (after a bit of hemming and hawing on my part) I DID wind up going to Hongdae, whereupon I went to two places I should've visited a long while earlier.

The first was Castle Praha! Yay microbreweries! The decor of the place is certainly neat. Service was a little slowish, though, and the beer was a bit pricey...but I will say their witbier is deliiiicious. Though it's hard not to be when you're up against Korean beer. Heh.

The second place was DGBD, one of Hongdae's leading music venues. Or...something. They were having the 24th Kimchiabilly Night there, and I am very, very glad I went. It's been awhile since I've seen a live show, and it just reminded me how much I love seeing obscure live music while drinking crappy beer. It's the little things, y'know. The place had a fairly neat space going on- you actually entered via the balcony and had to take a stairwell down to the floor. I guess the cool kids hung out up top, but the joke's on them, as the bar's down below!

The crowd was mostly Korean, and a bit thin-ish, being a Sunday night- but I've seen some DAMN good shows on Sundays, too. I think it's got to do with the really enthusiastic fans being the ones who bother to get up to stuff on a weeknight, y'know?

Playing that evening was...

The Strikers, a pretty straightforward punk-rock trio. Good energy, though!

Copy Machine- you can tell they're a ska band 'cause the singer's wearing a neat hat. These guys were GREAT- they had a really peppy, fun, third-wave sort of sound. On the one hand, they kind of cheated, as they didn't have a horn section- the keyboardist just had a Korg set on 'horns.' On the other hand, the keyboardist was playing both sections, so that's pretty impressive anyway.

Peppermint Jam- the only non-Korean band on the list, they were Japanese Rockabilly (which made me kind of wish I'd worn my Guitar Wolf shirt, but eh). Was funny, being an American seeing a Japanese band in Seoul- I think the guys from Peppermint Jam knew about as much Korean as I do- which is to say, not much.

And finally, the Rocktigers! This was my second time seeing them, and they're no less kickass after the first go-round. Velvet Geena is still tiny and full of swagger. Honestly, any one of the bands I saw that evening would've been worth it, but the Rocktigers set was damned solid. What's more impressive is that, according to the Korea gig guide website, the Rocktigers & Peppermint Jam packed their gear up and took it to a different club for a 10:30 gig. That's hustle! I s'pose if I wanted to, I could've checked that out as well for a double dose of radness, but I decided against it, opting to get home at a halfway decent hour. Fancy that!

In any case, I managed to survive yet another Monday. Though with Halloween fast approaching, I really need to get a costume put together. Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards 'cardboard robot' or, if I'm REALLY ambitious, 'cardboard Optimus Prime...because if you're gonna go for something, why not go big, right?