It was my most anticipated day out of the three days at Ansan M Valley Rock Festival 2015!
because that day the lineup had
One OK Rock!
Motorhead!!
and most importantly,
Foo Fighters!!!
Even though the festival was run very awfully for the past 2 days, that lineup got Jin's and my hopes up!
Apparently, Jin and I went to bed really late for some reason again.
(Probably because of the late night tea party for healing our sore throats.)
So, both of us got up around the time for lunch... AGAIN!
Gotta have some Korean food while I can.
We arrived at the bus station at a bad timing, we had to wait about 30 minutes for the next bus.
This is why it is normally recommended to go to Korean music festivals before 12 PM,
if you don't want to deal with the crowd on the bus that is
which was why it was much hotter too.
The heat from the sun and the intense humidity due to the rain from past two days made the weather a bit unbearable during the day.
Oh yeah, and this was the first time I took my point and shoot camera with me.
I've gotten so used to the optical zoom on my DSLR, that taking pictures without the optical zoom on my iPhone felt very awkward.
So, I decided to bring my really old point and shoot with me.
Its sensor was awful, but at least it has optical zoom!
They made the shuttle bus free for Sunday, because...
uh....
you know, the shuttle buses were awful for the past two days.
But what big of a difference does it make if it's free?
They still don't go anywhere....
*sigh*
Partially thanks to the weather.
and we weren't even at the festival site yet...
We could hear the music from the distance.
Jin and I finally arrived at the festival site!
so, time for some beautiful pics in the clear sky.....
I almost forgot that there was no grass at the festival site anymore.
Here at Ansan M Valley Rock Festival!!
Honestly, I had no idea what that "M" stood for.
but after this, I started to get the feeling that "M" actually stood for "Mud," thanks to the festival site that was "all mud and no dry ground."
Yeah, we came too late...
Sorry, Jin. I knew you wanted to see Hyukoh, but it's my fault for going to bed too late the day before.
Oh, and there was another incident that showed how disasterously Ansan Valley Rock Festival was operated.
When Hyukoh was trying to do their encore, the staffs accidentally shut off all of the sound and put on advertisements on the screen.
and thus, Hyukoh did not get to do their encore.
It was a very outrageous accident for the fans of Hyukoh.
There's a third stage at this festival.
It was tiny and there were barely any shows there.
but it seemed to do its job as a shelter from rain and the sun.
....
Honestly, I would prefer a larger crowd for larger festivals.
The mud was so bad that the gig at Big Top Stage had already begun while Jin and I were doing our best to cross the great plain of mud.
we still had to buy what we had to before they all ran out.
I bought a Foo Fighters t-shirt that had a UFO drawn on it. Jin bought himself a blue Foo Fighters t-shirt.
Apparently, there was a "Break a Leg" t-shirt, that also says "broken leg tour" on the back.
I would have gotten that one instead if I had known about it...
it really sucks that I completely missed that one.
but honestly, out of all of the official artist merchandise, Motorhead's had the best design.
Unfortunately, my money isn't infinite.
Money always seems to be the problem for many of the things I do...
The songs were very heavy, and made me want to headbang to it. \m/
Those security guards doin' it again...
Although Jin and I weren't able to get in to the "chicken coop" because we were too late,
we still had a lot of fun, thanks to the awesome music!
The funny thing was that a lot of the Korean and Japanese hardcore/metal bands were really good at English.
Well, Harry Big Button's not entirely comprised of Korean members to begin with.
It was pretty tiny for a protruding stage that Foo Fighters normally uses, but it was still the first time ever they set up a protruding stage at a Korean music festival.
It's also the first one I've ever seen!
As you can see in the above picture, the "chicken coop" up front of the stage was tiny.
The fence arrangement wasn't useful for the official camera staff, organizing cables, nor ease of movement from the console to the stage.
Most of all, it was such a obnoxious obstruction to the crowd uniting under music.
There's no excuse, it was just there so that the security agents can "control" the crowd better.
It was pretty obvious when the Big Top Stage was compared with the Green Stage
At the Green Stage, there were bigger mosh pits, bigger circle pits, and even human trains!
What about the Big Top Stage?
Mosh pits and circle pits only formed within the tiny "chicken coop" up front.
Honestly, the two stages were similar in size, it's just the awful fence arrangement that screwed up everything for the Big Top Stage.
....
Assholes.
because why not?
They gave out water bottles to the crowd!
You might say, giving out water bottles is a good thing
No, considering what they have done to the crowd for the past two days, those water bottles were nothing but hypocritical bribery.
They glared at mosh pits as if they were illegal terrorist gathering.
They interrupted the audience and suppressed with violence to all shoulder sitting and crowd surfing.
They cursed at the audience, slammed them to the ground, and ripped off their pass bracelets.
They confiscated flags and selfie-sticks with force, or they pointed laser pointers at the audience's face.
They also had this non-sense logic that allowed smartphones, but not point-and-shoots or goPros
(Smartphones these days have very nice cameras, if not nicer than typical point-and-shoots.)
AND YOU THINK THOSE WATER BOTTLE WILL WASH AWAY ALL OF THE BS THEY PUT ALL OF THE AUDIENCE THROUGH? I THINK NOT!
Bunch of hypocrites...
by the way, all of the above were not even a problem at Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival (another music festival of Korea).
Apparently he was also enjoying the festival after performing on Friday.
Unfortunately, there was a dark future ahead of him....
So we decided to have an early dinner at one of the food trucks nearby.
and...
we decided to have some...
REGULAR!
ORDINARY!
The grape soda was gross, but the hot dog was...
Just kidding!
Actually it tasted very regular and ordinary.
(but it was your first time eating swedish hot dog.)
After eating some Swedish hot dog.
One OK Rock was pretty surprising band.
By just looking at the name, I thought they would be a modern rock band or something like that.
but it turns out, these guys played music that was just as hard and heavy as those of Harry Big Button's!
Thanks to their hard and heavy music,
I sure had a lot of fun headbanging and moshing in the mosh pits!
Yeah, F**k you, security agents!
This is how you enjoy hard rock music!
Even though the fence arrangement was the worst possible arrangement in existence,
people managed to have a lot of fun and mosh!
The best thing about harder and heavier rock music is that people can actually enjoy it without having to know all of the songs!
This is why I always prefer harder and heavier musicians at music festivals.
and my goodness.
These guys' English was very good.
Do you see that drum set??!!
It looks so beautiful!!! Especially those double bass drums!!
\m/
People exclaimed and cheered automatically!
This is where Jin and I met two of my friends, Rumi and Arena (these are their nicknames)
and Arena and I repeatedly made exclamatory remarks about the stage setup.
and then...
Motorhead's concert began!!
They took over the Big Top Stage with their loud and powerful music!
and for all hard rock music,
there shall be a mosh pit!
Oh, and the reason why I'm criticizing the security agents of Ansan Valley Rock Festival so much is because they don't know a thing about hard rock music concerts.
Typically, people who don't know anything about hard rock concerts regard the mosh pit as some group of armed terrorists (that means you too, Ansan Vally Rock Festival security guards), which it's not.
Mosh pit is comprised of people who want to enjoy music with their whole body.
There is a safety rule that people in the mosh pit respect, for example:
1. When someone falls, help them get up on their feet.
2. When you find a lost item, help it find its owner.
Rule #2 is pretty apparent on the video shown above. Everyone started shouting "Hand Phone! Hand Phone! (this is how they call cellphones in Korea)" when someone found a lost cellphone. I've seen that happen several times for various items.
and I experienced rule #1 personall. I fell while moshing during Motorhead's concert, and the people around me pulled me up even before my body touched the muddy ground! I am very grateful for the help I've received.
Same thing for shoulder sitting and crowd surfing.
People know what they're doing and they are aware of the safety protocol!
Things would have been much safer if the security guards stayed out of this, without suppressing everything with violence.
and you know what?
They finally drew the public's attention on how bad they were.
The security guards' habit of beating up the audience, eventually escalated into beating up an artist(Kiha Jang from Kiha & the Faces) who was enjoying the concerts, after their own gig.
Kiha Jang himself mentioned how the security guards cursed at him, ripped his artist pass, and dragged him out by grabbing the back of his neck, on his twitter account.
and that drew a lot of public attention, and eventually drew the media's attention as well.
and there was also one more poor soul...
This man was one of the people who were trying to protect Kiha Jang "from the security agents," and the security guard head butted this man's head and...
He ended up with "orbital wall fracture."
This poor dude came to the rock festival to have some fun, and ended up in a hospital due to the security agent!
.....
Yup, it was THE WORST MUSIC FESTIVAL that I've ever been to in terms of how it was run.
The Lineup was great, it's just that the festival was operated like bull crap.
That all happened during Motorhead's gig.
That was one of the best drum solos I've ever heard in my life.
The sound was so powerful, that it gave me eargasm even though it was just a drum solo!
\m/
Arena and I, honestly never thought we'd ever see this man in Korea.
but we did!!! Hell YEA!!
I had a lot of fun during "Ace of Spades"
After band member introduction that was followed by "Overkill."
Oh YEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!
Although Foo Fighters was my favorite band on the lineup, I had the most fun during Motorhead's performance!
They've been a band for 31 years, but they still have the power and energy!
The throne that Dave Grohl (with his broken leg) performs on!!
My friends and I had so much hype!
It was really epic.
Many people in the audience started taking picture of the stage!
and then, after waiting for a long time, fighting mosquitos...
Foo Fighters began their concert with Everlong!
it's not like they have an epic intro song like "Ecstasy of Gold" or anything, but that opening was powerful and epic regardless!!
and then they kept the heat going with Monkey Wrench!!
This is also when people started to mosh in Foo Fighters' concert.
I went crazy, of course.
This is why hard, fast, heavy music is the best at festivals!!
then they performed Learn to Fly, and after that...
and then...
THE PRETENDER!!!!
I cried.
The Pretender was the very first Foo Fighters song I've listened to,
and it still is my favorite Foo Fighters song!
It was such a great feeling to be at a Foo Fighters concert, and be surrounded by other people who also love Foo Fighters' songs, that it automatically made my eyes tear up.
It was also the song on the setlist that had the most intense mosh pit!
\m/
This song is called "Congregation," and it's also from their newest record, Sonic Highways!
Dave seems to have gotten a nice first impression of South Korea, according to some of the things he said before performing Congregation!
After performing 'Walk' they did this segment where they introduce all of the band members
They were pretty impressed by the audience's reactions.
They made remarks like:
-"Dude, we have to come here more often."
-"We're totally coming back. We're totally touring all of this f**king country."
-"Best solo of the whole tour, right here it Korea"
"He's gonna come here and start producing."
-Dave: "They love you!"
Taylor: "They love us."
-"Are you the best audience in the f**king world?"
just to name a few.
There are two types of band in this world:
Those that come to Korea and absolutely love it, and those that come to Korea and absolutely hate it.
and I think Foo Fighters is the former
I mean Korea is known for its crazy crowd, that's why Noel Gallagher came to Korea twice in 2015.
A lot of bands don't do that.
It's something you'll never see again when his legs are all cured!
Then they performed My Hero!
This is one of the songs that also makes it onto the setlist 99.9% of the times!
Oh and, I cried again.
There's something about this song that makes my eyes water up.
I think it's the chorus where everyone sings along "There goes my hero, watch him as he goes."
Oh, and this one was hilarious!
Dave was like "I'm gonna play a nice, quiet, love song." "Shhh, just relax."
and then he played 'All My Life'
and everyone went crazy, and started screaming and moshing again!
I love it when rock bands say that they'll do a quiet song and then go all out with a loud song instead.
This song was 'Times Like These'
It's one of my favorite Foo Fighters songs
I got all excited about this, but unfortunately no one else seemed to be as excited as I was.
and the thing about this song is that
ever since 2012, they started playing the acoustic version of this song when they're touring.
However, since it was Korea's first time seeing the Foo Fighters, they did us a favor and played the original version instead of the acoustic version.
It's not like I hate the acoustic version or anything, I just love the original version of Times Like These much more than the acoustic one.
....
and then the time has come for the last song.
BEST OF YOU!!
All thanks to the Ansan M Valley Rock Festival and CJ group's awful festival management,
.....
They were only given an hour and a half to perform, while everywhere else they normally perform for more than 2 hours.
......
Ansan Valley Rock Festival and CJ group are hopeless.
I think it's necessary to boycott their festivals from now on.
oh, and back up on the Best of You video,
Dave also left this remark:
"In some places, you go and the audience is like meh... and then some places you go, and the audience is f**king crazy."
Foo Fighters is such a fun band!
Anyway,
Foo Fighters still made the night of July 26th, 2015, the best night of the year for many people who were there.
They sure made that night the best night of the year for me!
I guess I'll see you again in the U.S. or in Korea.
I still have a lot of songs I haven't seen you perform live yet!
and people were still singing along to Best of You....
which was over several minutes ago.
Our sing-along wasn't over yet!!
Rumi, Arena, Jin and I made our way out of the festival.
This year's Ansan M Valley Rock Festival was absolutely horrible!
It would not have given me a good memory if it weren't for the awesome artists and the audience!
The festival itself was managed so poorly that if it weren't for the lineup I would have left in the middle of Friday and never come back.
To sum up
It had a good lineup, but the festival by itself was awful
Arena, Jin and I did not have to go through the pain of taking the shuttle buses, and were dropped off at a convenience store near Oido station.
but we still had to walk to our hotel for more than and hour.
Arena, Jin and I had some late night snacks along with some tea.
We stayed up all night, and headed back home around the time when the metro started running again.
Ansan M Valley Rock Festival 2015
the end.
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