My name is Soyoung Kwon, or Skwonny,Skwonto,Skwon, or Soybean as I am so colloquially called back at home. I wanted to be able to say that home USED to be Connecticut and that I’ve made New York into my new home, but that wouldn’t be very accurate. What makes “home” home for me is the network of friends I have. Being a part of the music scene in Connecticut has made my network of friends branch from Southington to just about the entire state. Even though I’m having the time of my life in the city, I still miss being able to arrive to shows alone and know the bands, venue owners, promoters, and kids equally as friends.
Since I’ve moved to New York, I’ve been to 4 shows. At each show, I noticed the obvious differences in the scenes. At the hardcore show, I saw the guys sporting other band shirts, beards and skinny jeans discussing the Boston hardcore scene or how awful such and such’s new album is. At the electronic show, the guys had their thick rimmed glasses, disheveled hair and were discussing new equipment and illegal substances. The other two were an instrumental and an experimental band, both with very different groups of people. Despite the conflicting genres, these shows all had something in common, something that is depicted at every show nationwide: circles of friends; the friends whose entire relationship is based on a shared interest in the same music. These friends are usuals at shows and can be seen together at all times. I was always a part of one of those “circles” since my very first local show in the 7th grade. I felt a pang of homesickness at each of these shows, but then I realized that I traded this sense of comfort and familiarity for the opportunity of something greater.
What I need to remember is that Connecticut may be “home”, but it definitely is not where the heart is. I’ve rummaged throughout Connecticut so much that there’s nothing left to excavate; it can’t offer me anything else. So what CAN offer me something?
“New York City, the Mecca and hub of the cultural world” -Stevo, SLC Punk,1998
