lakefest show review...

verse 'triple logo' shirt

ruiner 'letting down japan' 2008 tour shirt

we got to the venue around 3:30 pm and the cold breeze was definitely rearing its ugly head. the lake was f'n dark and everyone was getting just a bit too chilly. got to see some old faces and managed to talk to some. set up the merch table beside the a better hope foundation guys. after hanging out and talking to some peeps at the venue, we headed out to get some food. we found this makeshift store after climbing a loonnngggg flight of stairs and luckily they have some fried tofu and they had this awesome home-made chili 'salsa' with some ginger in it. tastes awesome and took the cold outta us for a while. check it out:

Before going back to the venue we managed to drink some kapeng barako at a tree house. How cool is that? We heard someone starting out the show and later on i heard it was IMPLORE THE DARKEN SKy, sounding a bit like H8000 bands with a more modern touch. I never got to see them though cause we were too busy hanging out with our coffee at the time.

When we came back, we were surprised to find out that we were about to play next since we were changed slots with HALF THE BATTLE. No problem. BYSTORM playing with the sun setting in the background and the crowd starting to heat up. we had a blast playing. Great sound system, nice venue and crowd. HTB followed suit and were their usual crazy selves that drove the crowd into a circle pitting frenzy. They also palyed Good Clean Fun's 'No Sacrifice Too Great'. Awesome set as always. At this time the crowd was really getting it on and of course there will always be morons at the pit but its all part of the show, right?

WALK ME HOME followed HTB and calmed the crowd for a while with their college rock inspired songs. I may be wrong but Chamberlain comes to mind. Nice set. After WMH, I think San Pablo locals STANDOUT was next. Were these the same guys from AURORA? They play fast hardcore with some moshy parts and even did a Shutdown cover for good measure. Crowd sing-along in full effect. MIHARA followed them and these guys are one of the most hardworking bands in the Laguna Hardcore scene today. You can see them at almost all the shows and they're getting tighter at every turn. They played I think about 6 songs including a cover of 'No Spiritual Surrender' by Inside Out. Cool.

A BETTER HOPE FOUNDATION was up next and destroyed the crowd again with their own blend of fast hardcore and really well thought out lyrics. They even had a contest wherein they were egging some guys to stage-dive butt naked or dive from the twelve feet speakers for free shirts. Some guys stripped down to their boxers and another one dove from the speakers. Awesome set once again for these guys. Thanks for visiting the Philippines.

After ABHF, came PILEDRIVER, TAME THE TIKBALANG, SAUNA and LEGARDA in succession. I heard all FOUR bands played great which unfortunately I did not catch because I went out with some friends to grab dinner. It was at this juncture that I heard that Pao's phone got lost and was never returned. Fucked up. Thanks to Odessa for the marble potatoes. Yum.

Up next was TYPECAST, but who gives a fuck? haha. GROUND ZERO played next and like MIHARA, these guys get better every gig. I got a GZ and the new ISVARAH 'Cleansing' shirt before going. I failed to do some trades for some more stuff though. Too busy hanging out with friends. hehe. TOWARDS THE END played next and if I'm right they were the ones who played 'Sick People' while we were heading out.

All in all, a great fest to start out the year. Congratulations to the San Pablo crew for making this happen and wqe hope to be back next year. Thanks a lot and see you soon at the Eskapo tour!

Good stuff: Killing Time 'Brightside', Cro-Mags 'Age of the Quarrel', Blacklisted 'Heavier than Heaven...', Double Cross Webzine, DW best of 2008 list, the return of HTB and Beng, upcoming Eskapo tour, get stoked...

ESKAPO PILIPINAS TOUR

january 13 @ Black 8 Bar, Pasig c/o Flowergrave Collective, Eskapo's Farewell Show

january 12 @ binan, laguna

january 11 @ lucena

ESKAPO: PILIPINAS TOUR

january 9 @ san fernando, pampanga

january 5: tour kickoff c/o maim collective

january 10 @ pulilan, bulacan



january 8 @ ten02 bar: can you spell M-E-T-AL?

january 6 @ freedom bar c/o sampcore collective

so, unless you're living in a cave, you've probably heard of ESKAPO coming to tour the Philippines next week. Everyone's pretty excited about the homecoming of one of the greatest Filipino hardcore punk bands of all time. two (2) full lengths, a bunch of compilations and an upcoming 4-way split with Kill Ratio, Istukas Over Disnyeland and La Grita and finally they're coming back to their native land. holy shit. don't miss out. this may be the first and last time you'll see eskapo (hopefully, not). so lace an em up and go to all of these shows. pick up their tour shirt and help food not bombs...

the first lakefest 2009

we're going to san pablo city today to play the first lakefest: some sort of hardcore fest put up by the san pablo city crew. it's been a while since we played in spc and hopefully the show will turn out great. i'm still sick but hopefully advil will pull through to combat the recurring headaches. gonna travel by bus with HTB and BYSTORM so for sure it's gonna be a blast. watch out for a show review tomorrow...

it's the end of a fucked up year...and another one coming..

hey there. sorry if the title's a little depressing. i guess it's just that line from the almighty embrace that keeps popping up every time the new year comes along.

but seriously, 2008 has been a very good year for me and i think the hardcore community as well. here are some good things that happened last year:

1. passing the bar (worth al the blood, sweat and tears and i hate everone calling me 'attorney!' at every turn..haha)

2. bystorm - malaysia/singapore tour

3. bystorm/pulling teeth split cd (thanks mike, dom and the rest!)

4. conquest for death show @ cainta

5. magrudergrind tour

6. verse 'aggression'

7. richard collier 'for the love of death'

8. sauna 'deeper it goes'

9. half the battle reunion show!!!

10. matt skiba singing on 'what happened' by h20

11. all non-compliant shows (thanks to led, z, arje, denver and everyone else who helped out in putting up all the shows last year..tis great having you guys on board)..

12. audiobooks, ebooks and 'regular' books...

as for the downside, well, nothing really, just keepin it positive..i just want to apologize for not updating this site regularly. i got a bunch of excuses and i don't really want to get into that. part of my new year's resolution is to update this shit regularly. like a newsletter with show reviews and hopefully get in the interviews i promised earlier..

cheers to 2009!!!

stuff to watch out for in early 2009: ESKAPO PILIPINAS TOUR - Jan. 5-13, 2009, PUNISHABLE ACT from Germany show at Sta. Rosa City, SECOND COMBAT/MOTIVATION tour on February, DEADLY RHYTHMS FROM THE PRODUCTION LINE - 4 way split with ESKAPO, KILL RATIO, LA GRITA and ISTUKAS OVER DISNEYLAND

Thanks!

I was trying to upload some pics from the recently concluded Conquest for Death tour but there seems to be a problem with blogger.com. I'll try to post them later.

Anyway, the CFD show last Friday was awesome. One of the best I've been to this year. Their first set was swesome but when they did an encore of three What Happens Next? songs the shit just hit the proverbial fan and everything just went nuts. Must get a video of this show. If anyone has a copy, hit me up. Also some nice quality pics...

So there's going to be a lull of shows for the next couple of weeks which is fine by me since I need to do a lot of stuff myself. I'll definitely be at the War All the Time show on November 28.

Something to watch out for is the upcoming Southeast Asian Tour of A BETTER HOPE FOUNDATION. They got a free downloadable dmeo on their site. I'll try to post it later. The show will be on December 12, 2008, Friday, most probably somewhere in the metro.

Also, I Remember Halloween Issue No. 3 is out now. Has a Bystorm interview and Chokecocoi tour diary among others. Hit the link on the right side of your screen to check it out. Definitely one of the best zines around these days.


Good stuff: Short, Fast and Loud Issue # 19, Eskapo 'Wind of Hell', Monster X 'Indoctrination (Discography)', Propagandhi 'Live from Occupied Territory', Side by Side 'Live on WNYU', My Name is Earl Season 2 (Again!), Conquest For Death 'Beyond Armaggedon'

CFD @ Cainta, update flyer and directions!

Here's the updated flyer for the Cainta leg of the Conquest for Death Tour here in the Philippines. Hopefully everyone can come. It's a Friday night and the venue is pretty accessible either by car or public transport. CFD will be hitting a bunch of What Happens Next? songs to make up for their supposed Asian tour last 2004. So this maybe our last chance!

The Time is Now! Circle pits!!!

Pizza? Coffee?

Yellow Cab 18(!)" Cheese Pizza. 5 guys without dinner. On1 18" cheese pizza. Amazingly this piece of work won. We only managed to eat two slices each. Great group pizza. Amazing pizza crust.

Double-shot espresso from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. This little monster gave me pulpitations in no time. Perfect for late night work. Too strong for my tastes though.

Had this one after a Bystorm practice. Feeling like a cop so we grabbed some donuts and coffee. I don't eat any other donut or cake or ice cream if its not plain chocolate. These are made of 3 layers of chocolate. Even the coffee is surprisingly good. They also got Iced Coffee but this is the way to go. More to come...

My Disco Tour Just Ended! Conquest for Death Up in a couple of days

Dangleregs classic Have Heart shirt witht the greaty live pica t the back. Live pics are awesome on hardcore shirts. good color scheme too. Dark Blue ink on light blue shirt.

KIds on the Move/Channel X Indonesian Tour 2008. Got this when Bystorm toured Malaysia and Singapore last summer. Nice shirt. Cool bands. When is KOTM coming to the Philippines?

Led's ELEVEN shirt. Eleven is another upcoming SxE band from Kuala Lumpur. They have a CD coming out from UnitedxFront Records so we gotta watch out for that one.

By the way, the Pilipinas leg of the MY DISCO tour ended last night. They played two awesome shows with some of the finest bands we have. CAITLYN BAILEY from Davao also played in the two shows and did not disappoint. If anyone is interested in their 'Fuego' CD, drop me a message, I got a bunch of copies thru trade. RICHARD COLLIER also played an awesome set on Wednesday. They had a bonus 'B-sides' CD-R that they gave away to those who purchased their 'For the Love of Death'CD that night. They played new songs and it sounded terrific.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the two shows. My Disco had a lot of fun playing in front of us. But there's no time to relax kids, CONQUEST FOR DEATH will be hitting the Philippine shores starting on Thursday! We got two shows lined-up for them. The Thursday show will be held at Lucena City and the Friday show will be held at Cainta, Rizal. I'll post the updated flyers later.

Good stuff: the recent My Disco shows, Wait in Vain 'Seasons', Anchor 'The Quiet Dance', Verse - everything, The Big Bang Theory Season 1 and 2 (one of the funniest series ever made), Prisonbreak 'Season 4', Tropic Thunder (definitely one of Ben Stiller's funniest movies, seond to There's Something About Mary, exceptionally funny was Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as a black guy), Unbroken 'Life, Love, Regret', Celtics 2-0, the upcoming Conquest for Death tour!

Bad stuff: nothing really, except Nawasa and MWSS digging on the streets of Sampaloc. They piss me off...

More Vegies! Coffee!

Recently ate at Latazzia Fusion last week. Took some pics another food review. Up first is Lumpiang Shanghai. Wrapped ground gluten and then deep fried. Nice. Perfect with the right amount of catsup. Up next is fried tapa (beef to you foreigners). Moderately good. But tastes good when you put some vinegar with chili. Needs to be fried more. I recently learned that the people behind Latazia Fusion make their own gluten. How cool is that? Can you spell DIY? Last but no the least is their BBQ. I must say that this is the vegie BBQ with the most 'Pinoy' flavor in it. Really cool if you miss your friendly neighborhood BBQ.

Now some coffee review. Me and some buddies recently went to Gonuts Donuts to try some coffee. They had a promo with one Cafe Americano and one donut for about Php 57.00. Pretty reasonable. But I think the guy who made the coffee put way too much water in my cup so it tastes kinda bland. But with the right amount of sugar and creamer, the tastes kinda creeps back. Will try again for future reference.
Who says vegetarians/vegans can't eat street food? I was recently at the Atrium Building in Makati and they had this small bazaar/food stores at the ground floor. I was starving so I went to check it out. I found out that they serve plain fried noodles for Php 20.00 a cup wherein you can put your choice of sauce (chili, sweet, spicy, teriyaki, etc.). I put way too much chili in mine. I think it's called noodle place or something. Beside that stall is another one called 'Pupung' I think or some character based on that comic strip. Anyway, I found out they had this nice Indian Vegie Samosa made from potatoes and curry. And anything with curry is pretty nice in my book. Awesome quick meal to say the least.

If you have any recommendations on where to find good vegie/vegan food/coffee, hit this blog up.

Currently listening: Bad Brains 'ROIR', Soul Control 'Involution'