The Funk Ups

A colleague has invited me to listen to his band quite a few times and I've never mangaged to make it to the bar until last night. I usually go to the gym on Friday nights and I find that, by 10PM, I'm comfortably ensconced on my sofa and beginning to fall asleep. However, he's been slagging me a lot for crashing so early and he's been making me feel a little guilty for not supporting a friend.

Now, most western ex-pat bands in Korea, in my experience, are just a bunch of boozy guys who have a little talent but can't really be bothered to practice much either individually or with the band. They all have full-time days jobs as well, so the music is pretty sloppy especially after they've had a few. The "concerts" tend to be a lot like drop-in jam sessions.

However, The Funk Ups played a really great selection of jazz, funk, and rock. They were actually pretty darn good and tight (well, until that last song when someone's concentration was slipping). The Big Electric Cat, where they played, was comfortable and not too smokey. The club has a pretty good selection of cold beer (although I think that, in the future, I'll first stop at the Three Alleys Pub where they have Erdinger - real beer - on tap).

The Funk Ups have a Cyworld site with information about the band and where they will be playing next, but I can't Google it. I'll check with my friend on Monday and put the link up if anyone is interested in checking them out. They are definitely worth a listen.

UPDATE: The Funk Ups can be found at a MySpace site, not CyWorld. Try this link The Funk Ups.