RECAP: Block Party 2025
For the 4th year in a row Block Party 2025 has given Haebangchon (Itaewon, Seoul) and weekend of music to be proud of.
Ryno performs “Please” on Acoustic
Please (Studio) - the kick ass full band studio version - is available as of Dec 18th 2025. This video starts during Verse 3.
Thoughts.
Since I arrived in Korea, I’ve been purposefully trying to immerse myself in Korean culture. I am a foreigner. There’s no escaping that. I’m constantly reminded by this fact, minute to minute, living here. Little kids in their parents arms stare at my strange features like I’m an alien creature. It’s nice.
To an extent, this commitment to immersion has led me to hold back on mixing it up with foreigners—not completely though. I’m over in Haebangchon (HBC) once a week now performing or visiting a venue (like Uplift Seoul) to catch a band I like.
In late September, there’s a yearly music festival called Block Party, specifically located HBC. This 2 day festival was what drove me to check out the vibrant art scene (mostly driven by foreigners) bubbling along there.
I first became aware of Block Party back in NYC. I spent quite a bit of time trying to discover what the music scene in Seoul would be like for me—knowing we were talking a lot about moving there. Debaser Magazine was one of my first discoveries (formerly called Platform Magazine). The same people who work hard at Debaser Magazine also put on Block Party Korea.
I arrive in Korea April of 2022. I applied to perform in 2023 and 2024. In 2025 I was accepted into the 2 day lineup. So rad.
The show.
This Pretty City Lights performance turned out great! There was a sizable audience. I felt like I played well. I was really impressed by the crowd’s overall behavior. I would have been fine if everyone was chatting, but their overall respectfulness for my quiet songs did not go unnoticed. That kinda thing makes me play better—obviously.
I did some fun things with guitar effects to make it different. This took a lot of time to perfect in rehearsal. I split the guitar into two separate elements I could control with my feet—one ‘tone’ and the other ‘guitar effects’. Check out my pedal board (image). I made my usual songbooks for the performance, as well as sold my vinyl and cds. Some people wanted me to sign the vinyl, which was neat.
I’m grateful for all the people who came up to me after and said nice things. I am refueled.
