NOS: Big Black Boxes

All rights reserved by the author. Shots by RL Baldwin. Originally published in the May issue of 10 Magazine.
Available online at http://10magazine.asia/4587/the-big-black-boxes/

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Rollercoaster

    Over the past few months, we’ve introduced you to clubs memorable for their quirks and character. Both Lydian and Bowie are such clubs, along with Club TA and Club Freebird. Part of the charm of such a club is its uniqueness, but there’s an undeniable shortfall of clubs like these. If someone wants to create a club that could really make money, be versatile enough to showcase electronic one night and folk the next, quirks and character can get in the way. What you need is the kind of club that I’m going to call a Big Black Box. It’s a plain name, calling such a place what it is: spacious, painted black from wall to wall and ceiling to floor, featuring only large lighting rigs and enormous sound setups and a plainness of space that any good performer will occupy and make their own.
    We have already reviewed one such venue in Hongdae, V-Hall, which is beneath the Seogyo Hotel. But two others, closer to Hapjeong Station (line 2 and 6), offer almost identical opportunities to see performers in a completely undefined performance space. Such halls are Rolling Hall and Rollercoaster. There’s little to say; we’ll let the photos speak for the venues.

Rolling Hall

Rollercoaster
club.cyworld.com/ClubV1/Home.cy/53627398 (Korean), 070-8281-4612

Rolling Hall
rollinghall.co.kr or cafe.daum.net/ROLLING (Korean), 02-325-6071