It was only until 2005 when I first step into that dark hole-in-the-wall bar along Espanya. The scene was as typical as your average rock joint: smoky atmosphere, beer bottles everywhere, that familiar smell of sisig mixed with the overwhelming aroma of urine, sweat, vomit and what-not from the bathroom’s over-flowing toilet. Tripnotic waiters, kuya Oca sits still by the bar entrance, and of course, the resident “tambays”. Majority of which came from nearby schools, struggling to survive hour after hour of submitting plates while shugging down their warm and stale beer. The only difference is this rock joint usually starts the day, and I mean literally, “DAY” at 10:00 AM.
Indeed, what better place to stay than being in a poorly ventilated enclosure that looked like an abandoned beer house. If you’ll ask me, I’d rather stay in this hole than being stuck in a sophisticated super-club with a bunch of spoiled brats and pseudo-fashionistas (unless you’re Tim Yap, you’re good to go regardless if you’re wearing a shitty election-campaign shirt from your friendly nuisance presidential candidate). For this hole-in-the-wall does the other way around. I mean, where in the world you would find a bar that welcomes both sando and slipper peeps despite the ridiculously misleading “no sandos and slippers allowed” outside the bar entrance. What’s more, where can you find a bar that allows you to stay the whole day without even ordering a single plate of nuts? Or allowing students to slack, cram and finish their projects while downing 3 bottles of Red Horse in broad daylight? And where else can you find a place that showcases top-notch homegrown bands?
True to its tagline, “where all great bands are born”, this rocker’s nest has bore and molded a lot of talented offspring, making them Espanya’s own sons and daughters. Sadly, the days of child-bearing are finally over. Like mothers, and for lack of better words, this place has reached the winter of its menopausal stage. For the past 25 solid years, plus 3 more, this canteen-turned-rock joint has sheltered numerous bands, and tremendously helped famous acts launch their musical careers, from the likes of Cocojam, Color It Red, The Jerks, Eraserheads, Rivermaya to Join The Club, Imago, Kamikazee, Sandwich, Greyhoundz, Queso, and Parokya Ni Edgar to name a few. Amateurs and professional musicians alike, this place joint became their mothership and has gladly offered its roof to achieve one common goal: To play music. Or perhaps, to become one of the so-called “greats”.
I’ve had my fair share of triumphs and failures in this very place. Along with the countless sabaw gigs, beat-up drum kits, grounded amps, inaudible mics, crazy-ass crowd, it is safe to say that these were indeed, the fun times. For that, the least I can do is to thank you. As I’ve said before, ”For those days that I’m here and for those times spent, everything was all worth the waste.”
Thank you for providing us the space to vent our yearnings, loud growls, afternoon musings, beer breaks, and most of all, for letting us express ourselves through our music. All of these will be greatly missed.
This is our homecourt.
Long you may run, Mayric’s/Sazi’s Bar.
Oh, please, pocket! Please allow me watch them.
the latter makes more sense.
SEASON 1
We are very serious people. Seriously.
Or maybe, I chose not to.
Legit DL from Number Line Records
Michelle Branch is <3 LURVE <3
supbronsosaur asked: You’re a radio DJ trapped in the studio as the world ends. How does it end, and what song do you choose to play in those final moments?
disintegration by asteroid the size of China, I’m in the booth alone, probably jacking off for the last time to the tune of The Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun. *Scene ala Kubrick*.
Is this the newest trend?
Is it the new “classic LBM” to cut class?
Is it another term for “getting away with crime”?
First, Ampatuan, then GMA. Now, CJCorona.
Who’s next?
Twenty Heavy-Duty Musical Questions -
Ask me any one of these questions. Or tell me your own answers, and your reasons why.
1) What album do you consider to be “epic”?
2) Which band do you feel is more important: Crass or The Clash?
3) You’ve been in a terrible accident. You were horribly injured, so badly your heart actually stopped. Shit, man—you were legally dead for three minutes. Then you were in a coma for a week. When you’re finally starting to recover, your best friend brings you your iPod as you lay in your hospital bed. What song do you listen to first?
4) Name a musical collaboration you WISH had happened.
5) You’ve got a time machine. What show would you like to see?
6) Vinyl? MP3’s? Favorite format and why.
7) If David Bowie had looked and acted like Joe Pesci his entire career but still made the same records, would they mean as much to you? How about Madonna, Lady Gaga, Ozzy Osbourne, or other artists?
8) What musician would you most want to have sex with? Assume you’ve still got that time machine.
9) What musician would you go gay for?
10) You’re directing a movie based on your life. The screenplay was written by a psychic who knows you better than you know yourself, and even wrote scenes based on the parts of your life you haven’t even lived yet. What song do you play on the soundtrack for your birth? Your death? And for when you lost your virginity?
11) Your pick for the most overrated band of all time.
12) Name a record you’re kinda embarrassed to admit you like.
13) Name a song that makes you cry. Now tell me why.
14) Name a musician whose work you love, even if you suspect you’d absolutely hate him as a human being.
15) You’re a musician. If the only way you could support yourself as a musician would be to have Britney Spears’ career (not her personal life, but her career, singing the same shit Britney sings and raking in the same piles of money), would you do it?
16) Your favorite record that you’d never let your children listen to.
17) Name a song that makes you horny.
18) Name a song so bad it makes you angry.
19) You’re a radio DJ trapped in the studio as the world ends. How does it end, and what song do you choose to play in those final moments?
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It’s the only way to be.
photo by: Hannah Chu