파란노을 (Paran Noeul) at the Pentaport Rock Festival 2024

I don’t know a whole lot about 파란노을 either, other than that they mostly make electronic music, and that they have somewhat kept their appearance secret. From what I understand, their appearance at the festival was a something of a special occasion, and their shoegazey set as a whole band is a bit different from what they normally do.

Unfortunately, they also suffered from the festival’s wonky audio setup. During the sound check they seemed to be frustrated with the engineers and stagehands. It was really hard to hear the vocals and distinguish between the different instruments a lot of the time. It was all smudged or blurred together like it was for some of the other bands. From what I could hear, though, it was pretty nice. I remember watching them play one song, and the highs all clashed and made this shrill, woolly, static wave that totally eclipsed everything else. The engineers in the tower were just turning knobs, and you could hear it in real time. In trying to fix that cacophony, at one point you could hear the cymbals quickly decrease in volume and cut out before going back way up again. I imagine that must have been really annoying to the band, and they did appear to be quite peeved, actually.

I don’t know if it was because they were having a hard time with the festival staff, but they had kind of a standoffish attitude that was a bit off putting and stood out from the overwhelmingly positive attitude all the other bands seemed to have. For example, at one point the singer was trying to play a 태평소, and after a few attempts at trying to make it produce noise he just threw it on the ground. Toward the end of the set they were also throwing some other equipment around. I have never really liked this cliche of smashing guitars or whatever else on stage. It just feels wasteful and arrogant to me, and also just… cliche.

Even before all of this senseless destruction, they had kind of a weird attitude that didn’t sit well with me. As I mention in other posts about this festival, so many of the other bands were totally stoked to be there and seemed so grateful and appreciative of all the people who came out to the show in spite of it being the peak of summer. 파란노을 didn’t seem that stoked, and kind of came off as doing the show almost begrudgingly. When they first came out, they read a safety announcement from their phone that the organizers probably ask all bands to read or mention during their set. It is just a reminder to drink water and get help if you are feeling nauseous or dizzy, etc. Other bands mentioned all this casually between songs, because, yeah, it was hot as fuck out there, and most people are not used to spending the entire day out in that extreme heat like that. I was really unimpressed by the way 파란노을 came out and read the announcement from their phone in a flat, annoyed voice then tossed it aside. I don’t know, maybe if I was younger I might relate more to the rebellious youth persona they seemed to be going for, but it just came off as arrogant and self-absorbed.

I remember at the time thinking that their set would have been better suited for a time slot after sundown. They came on right before the sun was setting behind the buildings, so the sunlight came at them and the rest of the audience from extreme angles.