hankyoreh

July 30. (Photo by Kim Jung-hyo)

By Kim Hak-seon, Music Critic　

This year’s Jisan Valley Rock Festival did not disappoint. Even after coming back from the Jisan Valley Rock Festival at the Jisan Forest Resort in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province on July 29-31, I am still not ready to return to the office. I keep asking myself if the last three days were real or a dream. There certainly seemed to be more people this year than last. The organizers estimate 92 thousand people attended over the three days. The unexpected rain on the last day was a welcome refreshment, cooling down the summer heat.

I have enjoyed rock festivals every year, but strangely, I was not as excited this year. Whether because of age or lack of energy, I just stretched out on a mat and listened to the music. But the performances, which were more than I expected, really got me going.

The duo UV, formed by comedian Yoo Se-yoon and musician Myuji, held a special performance past 11 p.m. on the second night of the festival. It was enormously popular. The organizers said 20 thousand people flocked to see it. Even if this might be an exaggeration, it really was an impressive crowd, considering that even the pool and buildings behind the performance venue were full of people. In fact, a lot was being said about UV appearing. Namely, that appearances by DJ D.O.C., Kim Wan-seon, and the Jeong Jin-un Band (founded by Jeong, a former member of the idol group 2AM) would muddy the festival’s identity as a rock event. Perhaps aware of this, UV seemed to have prepared a lot for the performance. They took the stage with a band, and if their music up to this point had been based on African-American music, in this performance, they turned into wild rockers.

Do you know the term ttechang? Describing it as a choir does not quite cut it. It is simply a group of people singing together. I think I saw the mother of all “ttechang” during UV’s performance. They sang their own songs like “Itaewon Freedom,” Radiohead’s “Creep,” The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” and Seo Taeji and Boys’ “Gyosilidea,” and it seemed the sound of the audience singing along in techang could be heard as far as Icheon Bus Terminal. At that moment, I thought you would not see the same response even if Radiohead themselves came to sing “Creep.”

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