Hey hey hey! It's ADG7!

 

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Today is Lady Steed’s and my anniversary. Because of family reasons, a getaway weekend wasn’t possible, but we weren’t locked into the house at night even though we had no specific plans. So on a whim I checked Freight & Salvage’s website—perhaps because we’re planning on going there Monday for Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs—and holy smokes but what is this?

Well, I was instantly converted but I didn’t see how I could drag my beloved to a Korean show on our anniversary, but I put on the Tiny Desk Concert all the same:

 

This, I need not tell you if you just spent the last seventeen minutes watching it, is amazing. And Lady Steed didn’t hate it, so off we went.

And it was even better live.

What you see in the video was the first chunk of the show, then there was an instrumental bit, then the singers came back in 80sish attire to close it out. Just as campy as the opening in traditional clothes and the lead singer in drag and yet totally different.

The whole show was awesome both generally (everyone had fun at Freight & Salvage tonight) but also specifically to me. I love Korean folk music (if you have never been on a Korean college campus and run into thirty percussionists doing laps in a concert hall you haven’t lived; sorry, but it’s true) and basically what ADG7 does (buy their albums) is do to Korean music what we saw done with Western folk music in the 90s, from Loreena McKennit to Dead Can Dance. I honestly cannot imagine what could be better than that. This is a combination I have consciously asked the universe for many times and now it is here.

They said this was their first concert in the U.S. this tour, but, best I can tell, after tomorrow in Grass Valley, their next date is twelve days from now in Germany. Don’t know if that’s accurate, but check your local cool venue and look for ADG7 (악단광칠). Believe me: you will have an excellent time.

Also, if you’re in to that sort of thing, members of the band came out and chatted with people afterward.