T4 Takeover: Tour Journal Day 1 (Part 1)

Hanging out is what we do best - especially at rooftops. Featuring Ray (Staid) and Danj (Bystorm) sharing vocal tips perhaps... or something more dangerous...

Davao's pride : Durian. Never got to taste it. I just couldn't take it.

This is the "hamburger" at a local vegie resto at Davao City. It's actually man tao with two pieces of vegie ham. I just couldn't convince myself it was a vegie burger.

Bystorm Breakfast : coffee, coke, pandesal, munchkins, donuts

Up now are some pics from the recent Bystorm/Staid/Half the Battle tour of Davao City and Cebu City last weekend.

The tour process went smoothly as we booked our flights via ZestAir. By a bizarre turn of events, ZA called up 3 days before we fly to Davao saying that our flight from Davao to Cebu on Saturday was cancelled and that we have to get another flight. Her ZA suggestions did not work out so I booked our flight via Cebu Pacfific.

Staid went ahead of us on Thursday morning as we left Manila on Friday morning. We met up somewhere in Manila and got a cab to the airport. As we entered the terminal, I realized that I made the wrong move thinking that we were boarding at NAIA Terminal III when it was actually the Domestic Airport. Sht...

So we went to the Domestic Airport thinking that we could go in already, but no...the X-ray people were not yet there so we impatiently waited for the f'n guy to arrive. By the way, terminal fees suck, according to Denver. And yeah, I second that.

The flight went smoothly and we landed in Davao City at around 6 AM. I was so f'n sleepy the whole time that I could simply sleep about anywhere. The guys we were supposed to meet at the airport were not yet there so after a couple of minutes waiting, we went ahead to Downtown Davao City to get some coffee.

After a couple of minutes, our new Davao friends, Astrubal and Idid went down to fetch us and bring our stuff to Astro's place. We get to walk around DC. It was awesome.

We met Staid and the rest of the Davao crew a couple of hours later at a local vegie resto. I forgot the name. It was right in the middle of the city. Nice food. Chinese inspired cuisine. Cheap too.


Soundtrack: Morissey 'You are the Quarry'

Apologies...

Sorry for not updating this site for a couple of weeks now. Been terribly, terribly busy. Between shows, recording sessions, tours and of course WORK. I know. Excuses, excuses.


First things first. Thanks to Tadsz and the rest of the Asterisk Collective for inviting us to play @ the Fourth Door Gallery. Awesome Sunday show with a bunch of new bands I have not heard of. Cool to see some new bands. Also played with heavy hitters Omerta, Talksick, Sister Bastard among others. Check out some pics here: http://irememberhalloween.blogspot.com/ and http://rafimafi.multiply.com/photos/album/17/Asterisk_Collective_Serve_Fail_Show


Hope to see more shows from these guys.


Also, BYSTORM just came back from a recent conquest of Davao and Cebu cities with STAID and HALF THE BATTLE. We met the coolest and kindest people in the two cities. Thanks to everyone who helped us out. I'm planning to post a tour journal this week so keep checkin. Got to eat some awesome food as well.


Good stuff: the recent Take-4 Takeover of the South, V/A Mercy for None, Merauder 'Master Killer', Trapped Under Ice 'Secrets...'


Bad stuff: Zest Air

August 16 (Sunday) show @ Sampaloc, Manila

BYSTORM is a late addition to this show happening somewhere in the outskirts of Sampaloc, Manila in a venue called Fourth Door Art Gallery. It's happening on a Sunday with a bunch of cool bands including one of my faves right now, SISTER BASTARD and OMERTA. You also get to see some bands we don't usually get a chance of seeing like GINSENG LUZON plus some new bands. See you there...

Good stuff: Hot Water Music 'Till the Wheels Fall Off', Have Heart 'Live @ Burning Fight', the recent AAW tour, Mafia Wars...

Bad stuff: Red Sox 0-3 against the Yankees..sheeshh..

New ad from Major Malfunction...

Check out this new ad from Major Malfunction c/o Dnagleregs...

Currently watching : Cro-Mags DVD

Red Kimono (or something...)

Tofu/Mushroom steak (the green stalks are asparagus)

Breaded/Deep-fried veggies

Vegie Chicken Yakitori

Vegie California Maki

Up now are some concoctions from Red Kimono (or so I think, I can't really remember the name of this one), a Japanese Resto located @ the Techno Hub in front of UP Diliman, along Commonwealth Road. The food is nice, although I don't really 'dig' Japanese food. A bit pricey too, but is better than Marciano's, that's for sure.


Proper soundtrack: Gauze, Melt Banana, Razor's Edge, LIE and 'Turning Japanese'

Marciano's...

Carbonara

Quattro Formaggio (4 Cheeses)

Baked Ziti

Up now are recent food trips@ Marciano's Italian Resto located somewhere in Greenbelt in Makati. Not the best pizza and pasta in town, I can tell you that. For Italian food, their sauce is a bit bland. Kinda pricy too and its not commensurate with the taste.

Adobong Mushroom @ Rufo's

Up now are two plates of Adobong Mushroom (sizzling) from Rufos' Katipunan. Awesome sht. Perfect with garlic rice at 2 in the morning...

As A Whole,Cuerdas show review...

After a long day of work, it was time to jump start the tour of Davao City's As A Whole. I met them somewhere in SM Megamall along with Led and Danj. People were everywhere so it was hard for us to get a ride to the venue. When we finally arrived, the crowd was already outside the venue patiently waiting for the show to begin.

The show was started by some fellows called JUST IN CASE which played a very short set after talking bout some issues. RUSH IxDx went up next and we played a fast set. Hopefully, the demo will be finished before BYSTORM leaves for Davao and Cebu City next week so we can bring some to them. It's always fun playing with this band.

SISTER BASTARD played next minus their vox so their guitarist left his guitar duties and assumed the vocal roles. This band is getting better and better. Infest-styled hardcore that we all love. They played songs off their two demos. Awesome sht.

BYSTORM played after them and this show will serve as a kick-off to our southern tour next week. The set was tiring and I was pretty much spent after our set. We played 'Tenement' which we usually don't play live.Cool.

Bulacan thrash heavyweights PLAY were up next and were fast and awesome as usual. They played a bunch of new songs which I can't wait to hear on record.

AS A WHOLE from Davao City were up next. Their songs has a variedsound to it, mixing fast thrashy stuff with slowed down 'moshy' beats. They even did a Trial cover to boot. They played a nice set last night and I can't wait to hear them rip it up in front of their home crowd.

After AAW set, I spent most of the time outside but I still managed to hear great sets from KILL RATIO (epic, melodic crust..), NOISE CONSPIRACY PROJECT and THE BEAUTY OF DOUBT who played new songs off their upcoming record. This will also be their last show for a long time because Ronald is about to leave for work.

It was a great night fir hardcore and hanging out. To those who failed to check out AAW last night, make sure to go to their shows in Laguna and Cavite.

Up in this post is the AAW tour shirt c/o Northern Territory. Support AAW by purchasing a shirt.


Currently listening to: 97a 'Abandoned Future', Bad Religion 'All Ages', Coke Bust 'Fuck Bar Culture'

As A Whole Interview...

To give you an idea about As A Whole, I decided to have a short interview with Peter, read on, and see you on Friday...


1. hey peter, how you doing buddy? are you guys excited for your luzon tour starting this friday? any expectations?

Hey Mic, everything is fine , thanks for asking. kinda busy preparing but that’s the plan right. Yes we are very much excited to be there and meet old and new friends. And see and play with lots of great bands. Expectations, well I expect no less than a plain good time..

2. what is the purpose of as a whole? why do you guys play punk rock when you could be living 'normal' lives?

I think I could say that asawhole was always for fun and reality. We aim to channel our dissatisfaction and annoyance and frustration to a better and again, fun medium. if you consider it normal to look out for each other and maybe expand it more to looking out for your community and the people around you , then I think we live a pretty normal lives , but that aint the case and punk rock gave you an option to think better and do better and have more excitement doing it. And chicks dig it! Nah (joking…)

3.in one of the songs in your demo, one is entitled 'stop wearing eyeliner', what's the story behind this song?

The title is just a joke and a metaphor, And might be bad one hehe . Just sometimes you get annoyed when you go to shows and you see all this people looking disame and bragging about how they did their hair and stuff like that. Promoting stuffs which is somewhat against everything that punkrock stood for in the years. I might be wrong I don’t know , just not in my book..heheh

4.how is the davao scene these days? how would you compare it to the first wave of davao hardcore during the late 90's and the early part of this decade? any bands we should watch out for?

Davao scene is doing good and getting bigger. People come and go but you still see lots of old faces keeping the spirit alive. I remember in the late 90s and early decade it was more into politics and punk rock crust and a bit hardcore. But just like every scene, there are always
problems that leads to people leaving the community. Too much drugs , lack of cooperation to name a few or even too much politics or LACK of politics. hehe but still life goes on and people tend to learn a lot during the passing time. Definitely look out for Roundhead if you like ala Hatebreed type and Anxiety to Hsyteria for all the 90s metalcore fans.Angst for some old school thrash hardcore. Clobeerin time for street edge music To name a few.

5. what's your current playlist?

As in now? Well I am currently listening to a lot of Morning Again, and Die my will and Congress. I just got my hand to this music so im in a stage of savoring it. but Bane, Trial, Feud, sonic youth and Massive Atack is always on my list.

6. what's the most important lesson you learned in life via punk rock?

I think it would be simplicity of living. Who knows what our lives would take us. But still we all know that we have an option and we know that anything is possible. Every situation has an equivalent “diy” option. And that’s something we learn and could carry as a punk rocker or not. Diy saves lives.hehe

7. that's it. sorry for this very short review and the even shorter notice. see you guys on friday. shoutouts?

The shorter the better. See you soon!!! I have to announce that due to some problems our ten song cd couldn’t make it on the tour but rest assured that it would be released before September under cot label with Colaboration with Northern Territory. But tour shirts would totally be there. Thanks a lot mic.. partey!

As A Whole Cavite show flyer...

Up now is the flyer for the Cavite show this Sunday. All you kids from our homeland, come out and show what you got. Should be an awesome show. Great line-up. Support out Davao brethren.

Come to the show on Friday at Cuerdas in Pasig. Lots of great bands to support AAW.

It's been raining the whole week. Car's still broken. Hopefully going to get it by tomorrow. Cory's dead. Today's her funeral. No work. Need to stay home, do some much delayed work, hang out with my kid, update this blog and probably cook pasta later.


Good stuff: Red Sox winning 3 in a row after a recent slump, Merauder 'God is I', upcoming AAW tour...