After a great deal of whining we arrived an hour and a half late at
Alberto's to find Cedric together with Bon sporting that familiar frown
that we've all been familiar with Cedric. This is Pay It Forward. Well,
almost...
... Mark still isn't around yet and its already been 30 minutes since
Laix and I have set foot on the waiting area of Alberto's. We're already
sick and tired of looking at Boy Abunda's bald head as we sat there
together with the studio's owner Mang Jun who seemed to be enjoying the
cheap tabloid humor of ABS-CBN.
By the time The Buzz was over Mark ascends from the stairs together
with his buddy Emil whom we haven't seen for quite sometime so after the
usual chit chat of 'hellos' and 'how are yous' we enter the studio and
practice by the time we've finished we're already been getting constant
text messages courtesy of All Wound Up another band that we'll be
playing with that night.
So right after we've paid our bill we hurriedly proceeded to the venue
which is on this far flung republic of Alabang a very foreign place for
us QC-based punkers, but nevertheless we could play there and so we
decided it was worth going to.
After grabbing a bite at 711 we went of on a train ride to the trusty
railway system known to many yuppie scums as the MRT it was quite
crowded but all of us were able to sit down (except for Laix who was very
busy with his mobile phone talking to a girl named Kat)by the time the
train stopped on Ortigas where there resides the oh-so popular Megamall.
Jeanie text me as the train was leaving Boni Avenue station saying that
she won't be able to make it because her mom didn't allow her and Tina
her sister because of the venue's tangent distance from their place in
Manila. With a sigh, I replied to her in the message that its alright
and that we'll head home as soon as we finish our set.
Nearing our stop I've already gotten several texts from Chit who was
one of the gig's organizers inquiring as to where we are already.
Proximity was one of the things that we all are struggling at the moment as we
hope for the train to arrive to our stop and it looks as though as we
enjoyed our train ride so much that we forgot to get off the train on
our stop so we decided to stay on the train and wait for it to turn
around so that we could get of at our intended stop at Magalanes.
So while we were waiting we hurriedly ate the donuts that we bought
before boarding the MRT and asked Bon to take pictures of us with her
handy-dandy digicam.
As we got off Cedric decided to change his shirt on the station's
toilet so Laix, Bon and I waited for him right outside the station where
Laix thought it would be great to have our pictures on the station so we
both paused in for a snapshot wherein we were later approached by a
disapproving security guard saying that taking pictures inside the station
isn't allowed.
As soon as Cedric, Mark and Emil got out of the toilet we crossed the
overpass to board the Alabang-bound buses.
I'm not quite sure but I was shocked that the bus fare is still more
than P20 and we're already in Makati which is relatively near Alabang or
so we thought...
I was amazed that one by one our bus passed by those familiar landmarks
that I rarely see (usually I just see them whenever there'd be a family
affair somewhere in Southern Luzon or whenever we'd be going on those
redundant high school field trips to Laguna to go and see Rizal's house
in Calamba). It was really weird to see that we just went pass Splash
Island which I thought was no longer in Metro Manila. We got off along
with all the other passengers on the bus' last stop.
You wouldn't believe that there in front of us is a billboard for a
store that rings an era of our childhood that is synonymous to Mighty Kids
and Sperry Topsiders...Zenco Footsteps...whoa! This must be some weird
stroll down memory lane.
So as we crossed the street going to Jazmer's (the gig's venue, which
we don't have any clue at the time as to where it) we strolled around
this crowded street filled with vendors selling pirated DVDs and VCDs
which kind of reminded be and Laix of Raon in Quiapo along with the
familiar lines like: "Dee Bee Dee!" and "Boss Ex! Boss Ex!"
Good thing Cedric had the initiative to call the guys from All Wound Up
on their cellphone thus helping us to finally arrive on the venue.
Tired and exhausted of the long journey we were surprised to see the
venue situated along a long row of videoke bars which had those GROs in
thick makeups and stuff.
Anyways there on the door we were greeted by Chit saying that All Wound
Up have been waiting for us so we got in and we got this cool spot
which is sort of like a VIP room in there where there's this ultraviolet
light that sort of illuminated anything white and so we goofed off with
Bon's camera taking pictures of ourselves since we thought it would be
cool to have pictures of ourselves looking like the Crypt Keeper on
Tales From The Crypt, or like the dudes from Alkaline Trio in their photo
on the cover of their From Here To Infirmary album. But those darn
pre-set light controls of the camera didn't make that possible for us so
instead we looked like total idiots showing off our teeth and posing
beside an alien 3D painting on the room's wall as a band playing Punk Rock
101 lingered on the background.
Later I was greeted by Pule of Cary Grant near the table where he sat
together with the other members of the band and some of their other
friends from Adamson.
Then came this band with a guy that sort of looks like Bret Hart of WWF
who sang in a falsetto voice that made Mark laugh his heart out.
As the next band whose guitar player's playing reminded me of Siakol's
palm-muted strums, Emil, Mark and I decided to get out for a while and
grab a meal at this nearby Mini Stop, and as we got out I was greeted
by Mike of the Atheismo blog. We were quite shocked that when we got
back to the venue band that sort of played like Siakol was still there
playing talk about concerts. Well anyways its a good thing the next band
played a song that's somewhat familiar to our ears which was Saves The
Day's At Your Funeral followed by another band that covered Save Ferris'
rendition of Come On Eileen.
It was already pass midnight and I was already getting missed calls
from Jeanie as the band playing before us went on stage which was Cary
Grant who played Ash songs who also got the chance to have a lot of fun
filled tales to tell after their set and I wouldn't bother to tell you
this so I guess you could ask them about it...
Well anyways be the time got up the stage Cedric asked Jack of All
Wound Up to tune the bass guitar that I'll be using and he also got frantic
because of that complex amplifier that he inserted his guitar into (and
come to think of it that amp sort of reminded me of Voltron's
dashboard).
And so we played our set but as we started our second song Mark
couldn't hear Cedric's guitar and Cedric again had this grin that he sported
earlier while he was still waiting for us to arrive on Alberto's.
Nevertheless we played and finished our set as we intended it to be
without any embarrassing moment that would forever scar us.
Next up was All Wound Up whom I was also going to see live for the
first time and they were really good and flawlessly played their set to the
estranged crowd.
After their set it was announced that the gig was already over and its
already 1AM and so after a few goodbyes to the organizers we together
with All Wound Up all hopped in this SM Fairview bus and shared our
laughs and got home safe and sound.
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