PUNK IN ASIA

Taiwan, S. Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam (2017)

My first musical love affair was punk rock. I spent many nights getting my fill of it at Bay Area staples like 924 Gilman, Mission Records, Bottom of the Hill and Thee Parkside. Generally, the lineups were chalked full of local acts or a touring band from the East Coast or some Midwestern city that I still have not visited. But every so often a show would come to town featuring a band from Japan, those were the shows I knew I shouldn’t miss.

This was the pre-Y2K era, where new music wasn’t a Google search away and one couldn’t just download MP3s on Napster and Limewire. I dove into Asian punk bands like Hi Standard, The Anger Flares, Demerit, Balzac and others.

During my 6-month trip to Asia, I was determined to see how punk thrived there and the niche it had carved for itself. What I found was a dynamic scene of dyed mohawk’s, well quaffed pompadours, DIY record shops, and underground venues operating in the shadows of normal society. In my opinion, the dedication of the scenes abroad exceeded their US counterparts, possibly since they operate on the fringe when it comes to local cultural norms. As one local punk in Seoul put it, "everyone listens to that K-Pop shit, but we don’t.”