FC Seoul and Psy

Free tickets are the best way to witness anything, especially fun things.

Last Saturday I went with a friend who was visiting from the States to see the FC Seoul national league soccer game. They played a nearby city, so the rivalry was palpable. There were more cheers to complicated tunes and body motions and more crazy Asian action, but none of it could hold a candle to YonGo Jeon. In the end Seoul and the rival city were both ties at 0, but to my dismay there was no overtime, no shoot out.

The most notable event of the soccer game was indeed the halftime show. You know how sometimes for American sports games they will bring lucky ticket holders or local children out onto the field to perform some stunt like throwing three balls into a giant Pepsi can or trying to make 5 consecutive baskets? Well this was sort of along those lines. A youth soccer team (they looked about 7) was on the field for a relay race. They children had to run through two sets of small, inflatable wickets and then around a poll and back. They had to do this all while holding the hands of the guys in FC Seoul mascot suits.

That's when it gets interesting. You see, the mascots were in many shapes and sizes, usually with very large, anime style heads. The most common and innovative costume was the ostrich: a person would basically pull on what looked like ostrich legs and then a belt that looked like a life size ostrich body. Off the top of the body dangled a pair of fabric human legs, giving the impression that the human upper half was in fact riding an ostrich. (something along the lines of this but less redneck and more Asian-y) Unfortunately, as creative and comical as this outfit was, it did not lend itself well to running through wickets. The big, clumsy ostrich feet kept falling off all over the field and the mascots had such a hard time getting themselves through those inflatable hoops with a ostrich neck sticking out of their stomachs and legs dangling around on either side. The 7 year olds weren't much help as they, desperate to win the really, would drag the shoeless mascots along through the hoops and down the field. Priceless.

On top of that I went to a Psy concert with my student on Wednesday night. This guy is famous for putting on a great show, and he did not disappoint. For starters, he's a crazy Korean guy, kind of pudgy, in a red tux with coattails and glitter. He was jumping up and down on the stage, the lights were all over the place, glitter and streamer and confetti canons, pyro technics, and a stage full of breakdancers. He covered many popular songs as well as the more upbeat ones of his own. The crowd was intense, most of who had bought little glow in the dark sticks to shake madly, and spent the majority of the hour and a half jumping up and down. Surprisingly enough there were people of all ages at the concert: teens, college kids, young couples, parents in their 40's with their children, even old men in their 70's.

For the final number, Psy got up on a crane and was panned out over the entire crowd. The best song that he performed was one where he turned off the lights and his group of breakdancers were all in glow in the darkoutfits and all the women had glow in the dark streamers in their hair. The whole lot of them had these lightsaber-type things and everyone was spinning and shaking and bouncing on the stage. As hard as it is to find an artist in Korea that doesn't bore you off your seat with stiff posture and sappy ballads, Psy was a welcome breath of fresh air on the painfully lacking Korean music scene.