Live Review from The Underground Festival @ Fanzone
1. 진짜 너를 원해 (You Want It Real)
2. 오늘 밤 너와 (Together Tonight)
3. 호롱불 (Flame)
4. 새벽 (Dawn)
5. Jungle the Black
6. Bye Bye Planet
After Shotgun Politics’ major raising of the stakes with their pop-infused rock ‘n’ roll, things were only set to continue in the same vein as Galaxy Express took that stage. And, indeed, they began with a huge hail of soaring guitars to herald their set. Now, I’ve seen them play a couple of times over the years, the first being in 2010. They play, and there’s really no other term for it, solid rock ‘n’ roll. They have little to do with too many soaring notes, or making everything into a harmony like with radio rock. No; there’s riffs galore, with the chugging guitars like early Black Sabbath (but played at the speed of Judas Priest), with some Hendrix-ian bendy solos to top it all off; really, together it kinda sounds like a Diamond Dogs-era Bowie song played fast, but with better singing – and it’s pretty good. From the quick riffing of 오늘밤너와 to the huge-drums on the mostly instrumental 새벽, they were in pretty good form. 새벽, in particular, saw some really crackling guitars, which isn’t a sound you hear much nowadays, and was nice to hear. Their last two songs, the most anthemic, have been mainstays of their setlist for a while, and the simple straight-ahead rock that they’re based in was executed very well; well enough to perhaps make the MC5 proud. However, I feel that the sound wasn’t quite suited to the setup of the night, which was made for a much poppier band; most of all, their drums are meant to be thumping-loud, but they sounded muted to me, which took away from the impact a bit. Still, they’re a hard-working group, and that always gets through to the audience; and as the Robert Plant-like shouty bit closed Bye Bye Planet, it was clear that they’d certainly managed to do that.
— Shashwati Kala
