[ON STAGE]Seasonal duo comes full cycle

On an unusually warm night last Sunday the classic rock duo Spring Summer Fall Winter put on an extraordinarily warm show. One of Korea's most influential and enduring bands, SSFW was back in the artsy Daehangno area of Seoul where it got its start 17 years ago.

In 1985, the band made its first public appearance, at a cozy club called the Parangsae (Blue Bird) in Daehango. On Sunday the played the equally friendly Polimedia Theater. The Parangsae still exists, next to the Starbucks coffee shop.

The two musicians ?the guitarist Kim Jong-jin and drummer Jeon Tae-gwan ?wanted to do something special for their return, and so staged a number of romantic stunts with the audience.

The band got its start with the vocalist Kim Hyun-shik, who died of liver failure in 1987, and was originally called Kim Hyun-shik and SSFW. All were college students at the time.

During the concert, the duo waxed nostalgic. "I crashed into this strange round bed at Jahamun Hotel yesterday," said the guitarist Kim, referring to the place he used to sleep after the early gigs. Kim went on to talk about his friend who passed away: "Hyun-shik used to dump us at the same hotel after all our shows here."

Between certain songs, the band encouraged lovers to beg for forgiveness. One young woman came up and explained that her boyfriend found out that she had visited a "booking" club, known for being a pick-up place.

"I swear I didn't go there for 'booking,'" she said. "I was just with my friends, releasing stress."

Corks popped and "love shots" of champagne were given to the brave couples who divulged their problems onstage.

Also, upon entering the theater, the audience members were asked to write things on pieces of paper, like words, thoughts or poems. The organizers then made paper airplanes of the sheets and suspended them from the ceiling. Between songs, one of the musicians would yank down a sheet and use it as inspiration for an ad-libbed monologue.

One thought prompted the guitarist, Kim Jong-jin to talk about his dreams. "I used to enjoy the view of Mount Inwang so much that my dream was to buy a house there," he said. "I haven't fulfilled that dream yet, but musically I've done pretty much everything I wanted."

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by Park Soo-mee