Hey Migs! Finally I get to share my great memories of kalye and Razorback! I was just in 3rd yr highschool when I started to go to Kalye so forgive me if I get some of the details wrong (and pls do correct me if Im wrong).
Well anyway there I was in veering towards the punk scene when all of a sudden I find myself in Kalye! My sister told me about the place and said, "May band dun pag sabado maingay, parang yung mga trip mo". At the time, I got my music fix only at those punk concerts held in different covered courts around the Metro, So finally a nearby place w/ a regular slot for a rock group. (Dredd was way too far for me at the time) Astig tlga 100 bucks gets you a "temporary tatoo" that says "CHECKED" on your wrist, and a piece paper that could eventually get you either 1 sisig and a beer, 2 beers and an order of fries, or a beer and a burger. Man I must've tried every combination that my Php100 consumable charge could get. I even had a burger once on pandesal coz apparently the kitchen ran out of buns! Php 150 lng ok na weekend ko, that already included around 5 sticks of smokes and my cab fare pauwi!
Razorback got me started on rumcoke too, literally! As a fan I was curious on what they where drinkin, and had to try it out for myself (thinking maybe if I drink this [gooey brown stuff], I get to be as good as them!
) I still have those cardsuit drink stirrers at my house today! Hahahaha. But damn it when they hiked the consumable charge to 150, the rumcokes got even smaller
The first time I entered Kalye was literally like a scene from a movie, they were playing "Born to be Wild" when I walked in, the very first song I heard them play live. Cool talaga! At the time the band was set up near the door, you wont see them if you peep in from the outside but once your in, poota magugulat ka, katabi mo pala yung banda sa right mo! (they changed the floor set-up sometime afterwards, the area got a bit bigger, transferred the band to the opposite side of the place).
I can still remember those Sheffield equipped Peavey amps on top of beer crates, The Tama drums that always had that distinctive crack/prack sound of the snare. To this day I still hold Kalye as the club which has the best sound ever. I think it was a guy named Mang Tony who was always at the control tweaking stuff to make sure they sound good. The gear, Louie's Ibanez Bass, Tirso's famous flying V, and sometimes he'd bring out a strat which I believe was made from parts of different guitars, Dave's Les Paul, both axemen would always have a Wah pedal, one time I saw Tirso throw in a Boss Phaser in his set-up, but most of the time it was just a wah pedal then plugged straight to those Peaveys. Kevin . . . well Kev had a notebook he would sometimes refer to for the lyrics.
Dave wore in brown LA Gear Shoes, Migs in Nikes, Kev I think wore Asics and Tirso and Louie always had boots on! And the shirts! Man I was always drooling when I saw their cool shirts! among others the notable ones were Tirso's apetite for destruction shirt and rolling stones shirts, mig's yellow "the who/tommy" shirt, louie had those metallica shirts (as depicted in the hebigat album cover) Man those were the days! Everybody would have either a beer or a rumcoke near them and Dave would have what I thought at the time was a screwdriver but turns out it was really just mango juice! I remember saying "[apple] pare foreigners pala tumutugtog tsaka tumatambay dito, buti naman 100 lang." Then they would sing Laki sa Layaw, " Wow sikat din pala tong kantang to sa US, alam na alam nila ah." Then during set breaks I would hear them cursing in tagalog, "Aba ayos, ang galing pala magtagalog nitong mga to! Parang pinoy na talaga" Hahahaha!
The songs! We always thought Pepe the Hepe was from JDLC till hebigat came out, these guys made pinoy rock sound so heavy and cool, and I think most of the people today learned to appreciate Pinoy classic rock solely because of Razorback, I know I did! Palengke, Beepbeep, Pagbabalik ng Kwago, Laki sa Layaw, Harina, Black Dog!! (actually it was Kagatan . . Blak Dug Blak dug . . . . ) Hahahahaha!
Other covers, Slowride, Flowerchild, Burning Tree, the real Black Dog, War Pigs, Sunshine of Your Love, Steppenwolf, Jumpin Jack Flash among others, and sometimes they would even do Sandman and Nirvana's Breed. The jams and guest bands: Gnash, The Breed, Bonehead, The Youth, Rizal Underground, Aftermath (Iron Maiden grabe plakadong plakado!!!!!) and of course Wolfback and Razorgang nights wherein they would have 2 kits for Migs and Wolf so they could pound simultaneously and Manuel would join in as a third guitarist as well. Migs was the only drummer I saw who could walk in the bar with his leg in a cast, walking aided by a pair of crutches but would still sound the same when sitting behind the drums. Akala mo tuloy he was faking his injuries eh!
Migs, was it really that hot behind the kit, or did you just put the fan their to get that cool "drumming against the wind" look? Hehehehe
Set breaks you can find most of the people having a smoke outside (on the spot where Gweilos is right now) that was like the designated smoking area (although at the time you could still smoke indoors in makati) and every once in a while you'd see some guys in a row pissing on what used to be an empty lot in front of Kalye. It was so funny coz one time somebody shouted "Wow Hagibis!!!!!" while we were taking a leak. The bouncers were pretty cool too, forgot their names though but I think the one with the curly hair (Jolly I think is his name) is some sort of magician/illusionist now.
I think what made Kalye great as a venue was the fact that the band was enjoying themselves as much as the crowd did, it was an intimate set up but still had enough space when the kids would want to rock out and go wild. Another thing I remember about Kalye was that everybody I brought there to see Razorback came back at least twice to see them again, and all had great comments for the band.
I jope I didnt bore you guys with this post, but when I read this thread it really brought back a trunkfull of memories from the old days!
Thanks Migs! Im still looking for our old kalye pics!
Max
