Korea Life Blog - Practice Rooms Update and Bonus Arm Wrestling Pics


Well we ended up having a great time at the practice room. We played for 2 hours and the kind owner gave a full hour more as "service" - meaning for free. We were so busy jamming I barely took any pictures but here's what I did get:



As you can see, the room is identical to the pictures on the website. I half expected the old "bait and switch" but I couldn't have been more wrong. The owner was extremely nice too, accommodating our every need, even letting us use his friend's superb effect pedal set-up (not shown because I'm an idiot).



Good thing because James, smart as he says he usually is, remembered his effects processor - but not the cable to plug it in.



Several different amplifiers to choose from. James used this one mostly (or the one next to it) and I used a nice Fender on the other side of the room with the effects hooked up. Sounded really nice.



Another shot of the equipment. According to "Doug" (I'll call him Doug as I'm not sure if he wants his name posted on the internet after suffering an embarrassing and crushing defeat at arm wrestling as you will see a bit later) the drums were really good. Much better than in the practice rooms in Japan, he said. He'll be coming back to Korea when The Korea Life Bloggers take the show on the road.



These guys are multi-talented. They both could play the guitar, drums and keyboards, sing and juggle porcupines. Humbling, truly. They were in a band together years back in England and played for stadiums full of beautiful screaming women. I think that's what James said when he was drunk anyway.



Doug, who could ride a note like a sailboat gliding gently on the sea, continues to experiment with the keyboards. Mostly he played the drums.



James banging away on the drums and singing his favorite lyrics: "Hey hey we're the monkees!"

All in all a great session considering how long it's been since any of us played in a band. We played Airbag and Just by Radiohead as well as a few others I can't remember the names of. The rest of the time we just improvised - creating incredibly spontaneous and awe-inspiring noise. When it was over, there were several agents waiting outside the room with recording contracts and a stretch limo and James had to fight off the groupies with a can of spray-on chest hair he had in his guitar bag.

Later we hung around at the hotel James lives in and drank a couple of vodka-and-orange juice cocktails. I planned on taking the last train home but they had stopped running earlier than usual due to the recent strike. Met back up with the gang for a late dinner and then out to a bunch of the clubs until morning again. I'll let James cover the fascinating aspects of that on his website. There were a few problems because I was dressed in shorts and sandals (didn't plan to go out) and apparently there's a strict dress code in Hongdae these days I had no idea about.

Now for the arm wrestling match that took place at 6 or 7 in the morning back at the hotel. James has been taking protein and eating cretins, I mean Creatine (maybe both) in a hopeful attempt to become a "brick shithouse" and beat his friends up back in England next month. He and Doug decided to put his newfound strength to the test.



Doug won the first couple of times but apparently he had been cheating.




After a lot of whining on Jame's part, Sam came in to adjucate the match.




Two fearsome warriors locked in a mighty battle. Who will be the champion?




Hahahaha, chump! With a mighty roar James finishes off Doug once and for all - showing the world he really is a hero in his own mind, err, time.