nofx

we just had pancakes for dinner when we arrived at the venue at around 9 pm. it started 30 minutes later and we went home at around 1am. i fell asleep soon afterwards and eventually woke up this morning wanting to write something about this gig.

nofx was one of the very first punk rock bands that i ever listened to during high school via the sudden upsurge of epitaph record releases that flooded music stores. but it wasn't until my graduation day in high school that i was able to get a copy of their 1994 album punk in drublic that got me hooked to their songs and the rest was history...

...but a couple of weeks ago urban dub sent a message to deathtopuberty's myspace inviting us to watch their gig with nofx, one of the bands that stands side by side with greenday, mxpx, blink 182 and rancid on the top of the musical influences of my previous band payitforward, (i mean our drummer mark virtually has almost all their albums in epitaph records!) not to mention that it was one of the first cassette tapes that i lended to jeanie when we first started talking along with pennywise's about time and epitaph's punk-o-rama 1 and who am i to refuse this offer...

and the story of how we were able to get our hands on those tickets was quite a story already...

too bad though that i wasn't able to get more tickets because as the day of the gig approached i learned that more and more of my friends were interested in watching and i think it;s also somewhat unfair that people like albert sy of bad omen; or my nephew gato or our friend ac; and mark and laix of payitforward wasn't able to buy tickets...that was poor judgement on my part and i feel like a total jackass for booking only 4 tickets which i gave to jeanie, tina and jen...

fast-forward to last night well i must say that it was cool to see a lot of old friends from the 'scene' like agee of acid cow art collective, the amazing keith dador together with his camera kit that he avidly calls his 'kabuhayan package'; jeremy of the band strap on 7-inch; mona of slam demockracy; tado of live tilapia norman of jeepney joyride and a whole lot of other familiar faces from the late 90s punk rock scene that i was once part of... and as you can see it served also as a reunion among post adolescent sceneters who've already moved on from punk rock to whatever it was that we're all individually up to...

at around 9:30 urban dub was already playing, followed by fastpitch and then the ambassadors who played an excellent set including their song 'chaotic world' which was also included in middle finger record's 2001 compilation entitled: up yours! they were soon followed by king ly chee which was also one of the most intelligent female fronted hardcore punk bands that i've listened too since tilt and the muffs (though kill ly chee is way tougher than the latter two).

then came nofx who made me sing my heart out when i heard "Perfect Government" from punk in drublic and later on to the bottles to the ground from pump up the valium and then to the brews and the medley of the quass and dying degree and lori meyers.

and it was not totally an enjoyable experience since fat mike would here and there make fun of asians including filipinos as to why we like metallica so much... or when he poked fun at organized religion which primarilly focused on christians...(which makes the incident that involved them and underoath's dropping of the warped tour come into mind.)

and there's a lot of hardcore jocks who love to spew their sweat on unsuspecting people, apparently some things never change, and beer and an overload of testosterone never helps.

but all in all i think jeanie, jen and tine enjoyed it and it was a cool thing to see folks from typecast (who'se singer's female companion walked out on him), hilera, the guy who drums for rivermaya, yasmin kurdi among others to be treated just like any other audience.

while there were also folks from mtv whom i think have faded into obscurity since no one of the crowd there watches their lame shows, and there was a PETA booth which was in a sense cool that the gig at least stands for something though i'm not at all a fan of animal rights.

so we left at around 1am and outside the gate we saw a lot of poser punk kids and nasty crusties bumming out with their gin and jutes, while some are grobbling at the gates to get in for free, while there are some drunken kids who're beating up an urban dub poster.

and after a long walk with them whereupon we ended up at quezon avenue right beside pegasus bar we all hopped on a cab and went our separate ways and as i sat on the front passenger seat of the taxi home i realized that a lot hasn't changed with punk and its scene and its also a reminder why i no longer attached myself to it: it's part of the growing pains that you experience when you're young and you've always had this knack to stand up to everything that's considered the norm.