Manila Klasiko - Labor Day gig

Manila Klasiko

Black King's Bar - West Avenue

May 1, 2014

Let me just say, to start off, I had high hopes for this gig considering that it was held on Labor's Day and just by looking at the line-up, classic na classic. Pero what turned out to be a promising night turned into a slight disappointment for me. Maybe I just missed out on the other bands that night, oh well. And pardon if I missed out on the songs, my memory's not to be trusted. Note to self, next time, bring a notebook dumdum. On to the night.

BKB Logo

Black King's Bar is a nice little hole in the wall conveniently located along West Avenue, Quezon City just a few minutes drive/walk from the unholy aberration that is SM North. The place not only caters to this type of music but to a wide array of music styles as their fb page attests to. I don't drink too much but SanMig Light at 50 php a pop seems quite the average for places like these, especially if you just came for the music.

BKB Location

Cool photo of the BKB stage taken off the internets...

I got there during Disorganized's set with their punk/oi singalongs. What I remember them doing was a Partisans song, "Police Story". Other than that, they seem to be doing the same song over and over. Again it may be just my memory, their set was highly energetic, don't get me wrong, but it seemed to me like just one song after another....

Disorganized

Al Dimalanta

Next up was Sir Al from Dead Ends/Throw. He started off by explaining na wala nga ung drummer kaya he didn't have the band with him on that night. No need to explain chief, e I think everyone would understand, ako personally, I would have preferred an acoustic set just to break the "electric" atmosphere. Four songs we heard from the man, three coming from his Dead Ends catalog, "Dreamer", "New Life", "Lights are Out", and another classic from the Urban Bandits ("Nagpapapansin") which he introduced as a song na nakakapanhinayang kasi hindi na kinakanta ni Mr. Morales. It was a treat to hear Lights are Out with the classic line "Teenage lust is hard to control when the lights are out!". 4 quick songs delivered ala Billy Bragg with electric guitar as the only accompaniment leaving everyone a bit bitin. I know I was.

And then Hard K came up next. They kicked it all off with a Circle Jerks song "Wild in the Streets" before going to a few RDA, G.I. originals plus a Dead End song ( New Life, which was already done by Al Dimalanta earlier sans back-up band earlier).A long set by the group, maybe to compensate for those who weren't able to attend?

Hard K

The next band to set up was Sacrilegion. These guys are Heavy, yes with a capital H. I don't know kung style nila yun but if memory serves me right, wala silang bass during the night pero mabigat pa din. I would characterize their set broadly as metal, what with the heavy drumming, aggressive guitars and growl attacks. Not really my cup of tea but I bet, there's a lot of you out there who dig this type of groove. Go check 'em out if this is your thing.

And that's it. As a punter said that night, some of the bands were not able to attend, if true, then that's too bad. And to top it all off, I had to go straight to work after...Happy Fuckin' Labor's day...

3 out of 5 2 stiff fingers!!!


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