Live: South Club charmed Prague

Korean band South Club is an amazingly interesting project dangling between alternative rock, blues, and grunge, something commercially unusual for Korean music market known internationally, which makes it more special.

During their second European tour, South Club came to the Czech Republic and performed at a club called Nová Chmelnice, typically hard rock venue served as a fan meeting and rock show for about 100 enthusiastic fans. Personally, I think the show could be fuller if the promo was a little heavier and with Czech people, there is always an issue with prices, which we still have to take into consideration.

That being said, Chmelnice as a venue was never my favorite, which proved just during the show in which band struggled with bad sound engineering resulting in technical problems on the performers side, but the band dealt with it in the most professional and affectionate way towards the fans and the atmosphere was truly pleasant and welcoming, and dare I say, quite special. You could really tell that the band had a wonderful time and so did we as fans.

South Club came in strong right away with “See You”, “I.D.S” and “Someday”.
The music of this band is curious about many similar genres, resulting in a lot of space for the band to truly let go and improvise as well. There you have powerful ballads like “Anyone” (performed at the second half) and the lovely 누굴 위한 노래인가요? (Who is this song for?), heavy rock songs taking you back to the ’90s like “Dirty House” or “I.D.S” or blues rock inspired “I Got The Blues”, giving a lot of space to every instrument come out and play, especially the guitarist GET-KU, but also the drummer Jang Won-young.

At the second half of the show, we got to see the bassist Nam Dong-Hyun perform two solo songs, among them a touching ballad 오로라 (Aurora).

South Club has an amazing energy on stage among its members, the main showrunner is also the leader, producer, and songwriter Nam Tae-Hyun whose singing and entertaining abilities gripped the crowd and didn’t let go until the very last seconds of the show. Nam Tae-Hyun’s voice capabilities are something to truly look forward to, from soft tones to heavy blues screams, from high to low notes. His voice carries the emotions – be it anger, sense of freedom, pain or loneliness. Its a singer with vast stage experience but most importantly with knowledge of his voice and the true meaning of the songs he wrote and you can really hear that. It may sound like groundless words, but you can easily distinguish singers who are a true artist, living inside the music, from the rest. And Nam Taehyun is definitely living and breathing through his band.

We don’t get to see many Korean bands in Europe in general, not to mention the Central or Eastern parts. So the end of this article is a huge thank you to Beyond Ent, an agency that brought not only South Club, but is working on bringing more, so if Korean music is your passion as well, you should check it and support it, that way, we get to see more of them.

And the very end goes to you. Don’t be afraid of Korean music, music speaks one language and South Club is very much worth your time. If you are still ahead of their shows, I strongly recommend it as well. Mind you, Korean shows are something completely else since the fan meeting is always included, which makes it more special and you as fans, will simply remember it forever.

You can still see South Club for their shows in France in next few days (more about it here) and hopefully, in the future, your support could mean more places for the band to visit. You can do so through their Website, Facebook or YouTube, but most importantly by buying their albums, you can get them on Amazon, but also Kpopmart.

Prague Setlist:
See You
I.D.S.
누굴 위한 노래인가요? (Who is this song for?)
Someday
Believe U
Blues of D
Blues of A
I Got The Blues
Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones cover)
더러운 집 (Dirty House)
왕따 (Outcast)
오로라 (Aurora)
별
Anyone
미쳐가지고 (I’m Crazy)
빗방울 (Raindrop)
Hug Me
안녕 (HI/BYE)
Liar
Grown Up / Encore
I Got the Blues / Encore

South Club is a South Korean rock/indie/blues rock band formed by Nam Taehyun in 2017 after the singer left his idol career in the band Winner. The band soon released the first single “Hug Me” after joining the independent scene, gaining popularity within South Korea. On May the same year band releases their first EP called “90”. The band itself exists in Nam Taehyuns own company called “South Buyers Club” making sure the band has complete artistic freedom. Currently, the band consists of four members singer, guitarists, and songwriter Nam Taehyun, his brother and bassist Nam Donghyun, lead guitarist Kang Kun Koo and drummer Chang Won Young.