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51 More info j Thunderhorse Tavern Website: www.fb.com/ThunderhorseTavern getting there c Noksapyeong Station, line 6, exit 2. Walk straight down the street for three minutes to the green pedestrian underpass. Take the stairs down, cross through and exit on your right. Thunderhorse is two blocks down on your left, next to Thunder Burger. Grab your next beer at Thunderhorse Story by ian Henderson / photos by Ken Robinson A metAl bAr for the mAsses life in Korea started with a girl, a city and a bit of luck: He moved here for a romantic inter- est and ended up playing in the band Captain Bootbois, as well as the melodic death metal group Fatal Fear. The contacts he made through these en- deavors resulted in him relocating to Busan, where he worked with Jinsu Bae to build the legendary Club Realize. During this time he started mixing albums, too — with such bands as Method, Crack Shot and My Last Enemy — and eventually became a full-time audio engineer for Method and for Hellride, a small metal festival that comes to Seoul a few times a year. He’s not the only face at the bar that’ll be familiar to any long-term expats involved in the music scene, either: The vener- able Dwayne Robertson, former proprietor of the now-defunct Rock Stompers (which many a foreigner will attest was the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll dive in Itaewon for years), slings drinks and shoots the shit at the bar. Unbridled commitment to soUnd Having a professional sound engineer should be enough to tempt any group look- ing to play, but Thunderhorse isn’t a one-trick pony. Bands can also record a live-track demo of their shows here, which is usually a far more costly and involved undertaking. There are perks for the general public as well: no cover charge. This helps gather a crowd with- out any commitment of paying to see a show they might not dig or feel like staying through, and it gives the bands exposure to a larger au- dience. Drinks here can be marginally more expen- sive than the going market rate, as in 4,000 won for a draft beer instead of 3,500 won, but keep in mind this negligible amount goes toward maintaining and replacing the profes- sional-grade equipment. And considering you get that level of quality without paying a cover charge, the minor expense is well worth it. Be- sides, notes Kirk with a subtle wink, the bar- tender is known to pour mixed drinks a little on the heavy side. Hails!