Analog Thoughts on a Digital Age

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Smoke and tinnitus. Gig Review "Gods of Metal 9" ;Caliente Bar, Padre Faura




It was still 7:51 and I was already at the main entrance of the Caliente bar. "Hintay, hintay ka muna pare, wala pa kasi yung mga ticket, sorry", aplolgozed this long blonde haired guy in black leotards and 5 inch soled workboots. One by one came these troops in black, with smokes in onehand and their pocket in the other. T-shirts with the logos of Slayer and Deicide(?) silkscreened at the front. And Tattoos, holy crap. Tattoos. Where was I?
This was supposed to be my reintroduction to the Phillipine metal scene. I had been away from this crowd for so long it started out as very foreign to me, but after five minutes it all started to kick in. The attitude, the angst, ths smoke, the volume and the ocasional hawking ans spitting. Not to mention the generic chant "Rawk on, bebe".
Of course I was sitting in as quiet little corner in the bar when the first band came in. KRONOS was their name. I was impressed by the drummer, who was a chick. Their vocalist , who was also a chick did some really ear-splitting banshee wails in some parts of their set that got the crowd.
Then there was the second band LAVOS BECKON, which wasnt very impressive except for the guitarist who was probably too young to drink. He was carrying this 7 string RJ and was doing scales. I thought to myself, "these young guys get better and better" I was just sourgraping by looking unimpressed during the whole set.
The others were a blur, not very impressive musically. There were a few noteworthy moments though, like this death metal makeup band ARCHAIC ARGOT, with a singer who drew a knife and was doing stabbing actions to his stomach. One time, he actually exposed the large scar in his tummy probably from some surgical procedure or a childhood accident. Fear was their tool. I just hope he went and actually stabbed himself on stage. He would have done us a big favor.
Then there was this comic/novelty death metal band called CHAMBER 69. Here's how their set went..

"This song is called WRRRAAAAAOOOOUUUUUGGGHH!"

(2/4 beat drums with bass and shredding distorted guitar for about 2 minutes)
"WRRRAAAAAUUUOOOOOOOOOGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
STOP.
audiernce applauds.

"Thank you, this next song is called "Genital Herpes"

(2/4 beat drums with bass and shredding distorted guitar for about 2 minutes, again)
"WRRRAAAAAUUUOOOOOOOOOGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
STOP.
audience applauds.

Thank you. They leave the stage.

Up to this moment I still cannot figure out what the freak that was all about.

The highlight of the night was FUSEBOXX and ETERNAL NOW. I came there especially for FUSEBOXX and I have to say that aI was not dissapointed. Their "Outlet" saga was probably the best piece of pinoy prog metal I have listened to since Wolfgang (although formatting their songs like YES and Dream Theater Songs does not exactly make them Progressive).
I even bought their independent release "Listen" being sold at the club entrance.


click image to see their site:





I can say ETERNAL NOW are a bunch of aliens who took the bodies of Filipino college students and to be able to play in their clubs and share their otherworldy music. Wow, can this band play. Their lead guitarist is obviously the leader and architect of the group. Dream Theater's influence is very heavy on these two groups. And I love Dream Theater!

The night was worth it. To say the least. I would do it again.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

sori for this so so so late comment...obviously after nearly 3 yrs!

i just would like to comment on ETERNAL NOW..it was just last saturday that i was able to see them... in deed the Dream Theater sound was very influential in them. I can say that underground artists like 'em should be given a far more abundant attention than the so-called "Pa-pogi bands" savoring the mainstream record labels nowadays...
I feel sad everytime I get to talk with the members of this underground band members when they tell me that they've been around for years now playing in clubs w/c very few "musically educated" crowds watchin 'em...
Education & 'heavy' influence should be injected in the crowds now.

9:00 AM

 

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