Yesterday Laibach became the first western group to play a full concert in North Korea as they performed to 1,500 people in Pyongyang’s Ponghwa Art Theatre.
Throughout the show the audience was expected to sit quietly, clap politely between tracks and not dance as the Slovenian group played a 45-minute set to 100 non-North Koreans and 1,400 invited locals. The show was the first of two, with the other set to take place tonight, with both falling under the ‘Liberation Day Tour’ banner marking the anniversary of North Korea’s liberation from Japan.
Over the course of the set, the group played a number of their own tracks including ‘Life Is Life’ and 2014’s ‘The Whistleblowers’ (which opened and closed the show) as well as a traditional Korean folk song, ‘Arirang’ and, bizarrely, renditions of songs from The Sound Of Music, including ‘Do-Re-Mi’ and ‘Edelweiss’. Before the show, the band had to submit all of the lyrics from the songs they were due to perform to North Korean authorities which were then reportedly subject to ‘severe cuts’. Kim Jong-un was not present at the show. You can check a couple of photos from the show below courtesy of Jørund F Pedersen.
