gig-a-bytes pt.deux

It’s 12:25 AM and i just got back from an outdoor gig but before that had a pleasant Thai dinner alone at  Jatujak. Great food and fast service. Had a hard time choosing  but settled on Tom Kha Gai and Pad Thai. Excellent.  Normally, the pictures would be the food in it’s complete uneaten state but i was so hungry i ate without taking pictures first so here’s the aftermath instead.

Wipeout!. Great Thai Food. Fast. Excellent service.

Now for a plethora of pics from the Lee Rocks Manila gig.

Peavey. Guitarist of  Sleepwalk Circus Fran- guitarist and lead vocals of Sleepwalk Circus.

Mica-bassist of Sleepwalk Circus

Marco-lead guitarist and vocalist of Musical O.

Chino Soliman-bassist of Musical O.

Mario Consunji-rhythm guitarist of Musical O.

Peavey, Fran and Mica of Sleepwalk Circus.

Sleepwalk Circus-watch out for these kids. Amazing band.

Musical O-another fantastic band to watch out for. These kids play music way well beyond their years and have great material to boot.

Marco,Miggy and half of Mario of Musical O.

Ria of Paramita consistently wow-ing the crowd

Unfortunately, most of the Paramita pics were blurry as i just used my phone’s low unmega pixel camera so here’s another shot of Ria at the start of their set.

Ean, Paul and Carlos of Up Dharma Down.

Armi of Up Dharma Down

Aue and Bing of Juan Pablo Dream

get your kicks on route 196

For the longest time Terno has been mostly associated with Saguijo, 70% of the Au Go Go series were in  Saguijo. In fact, Up Dharma Down built their audience from those Terno Au Go Go’s in Saguijo. They don’t seem to recall that now but their early best gigs were from those nights wherein the audience literally surrounded them(we’re talking a foot between audience and performer) as well as the other Terno artists. There were no tables during Au Go Go, a practice Saguijo started doing with their anniversaries but early on Terno Au Go Go had the place wall to wall with people.

For the past year or so though, i’ve put up nights in other establishments and one of those is Route 196. It ’s been steady so far. There are good nights and there are bad ones but overall it’s been a nice second home for that part of town. The really good thing about Route 196 though is that one of the owners, JP, really promotes on his own and doesn’t just rely on the bands to do so or depend on the strength of the line up for the night. That i can appreciate as it is unfair to rely solely on the bands to do the promoting. Aside from that their Pizza’s incredible.

Starting December, 13 to be exact, DEEP FRIED will also be held at Route 196 alternating with Saguijo which makes the electronic dance night ‘Monthly” as opposed to being “Bi-monthly” and that’s a good thing. Special thanks to JP for being open to the idea much like Angelo of Saguijo was. Kudos to these bar owners.

Speaking of Route 196, tonight is Terno Night…

and tonight we have Menaya as guest band along with the Terno staples. Thanks again to FRan of Sleepwalk who’s taking over eflyer chores temporarily. See ya.

terno infairness

When i look back and reminisce about the Terno Au Go Go series from 2005-06. It makes me think of how good it was because it was held quarterly or just when we can. It could be two months in between or four. There were eight or nine i think, total with the one at the Adidas Sports Camp being the last. Every Au Go Go was something to look forward to for myself, the bands on the bill and the audience.

Nowadays, it’s become more of a routine, the monthly nights in various bars all over the metro. I had to adjust to the state of things and keep up with the times. For visibility, i had to do it frequently and it has its moments but lately it’s somewhat gotten better,even though it’s monthly and you don’t miss it as much.

I suppose, it’s good somehow for most people to know that they can catch their favorite band/s in a particular place every month and as long as they introduce more people to what they’re digging and bringing them to the gigs then it’s OK.

By the way, for those who are confused or weren’t around the early days of Terno, Au Go Go was the showcase night for ALL the Terno artists and some guests quarterly or whenever while the latter part,  Terno Inferno is basically, just a night featuring a revolving number of Terno artists and a guest once in a while that happens on a more regular basis. Monthly. There’s the original Inferno at Saguijo and it’s satellite nights in other venues like Route 196, Magnet Bonifacio High Street etc.

On that note there’s Terno Inferno TONIGHT the 15th of November @ Saguijo.

Usually i do the Eflyers myself, when i can, but for this one Fran of Sleepwalk Circus volunteered to do the deed. THanks FRan! JOin us tonight…

Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup

Actually it’s more of “Waiter, may ipis sa iced tea ko”  Translation: Waiter, there’s a cockroach in my glass of iced tea”. Yes, it did happen last Wednesday at a Chinese restaurant, let’s just put it under the name, Zong at Trinoma. It’s definitely a Fear Factor moment i never expected in a quite high priced establishment.

By the way, for the purpose of your imagination, i drank half of the iced tea already by the time i discovered this character swirling in the drink and obviously scared that i might completely swallow it. Thankfully,i saw it and was spared. Anyhow, of course , no restaurant owner nor its people would do anything deliberate as to put a  creepy crawly on an unsuspecting customer’s food or drink but i’d like to think that it’s still the responsibility of the management of the said restaurant to ensure cleanliness within the premises.

Oh and i take back what i just said because you and i know if you’re an asshole to waiters then they don’t get angry, they get even if you know what i mean.

Back to the issue on hand, It also doesn’t help that the staff who were manager-less weren’t really trained for customer relations in times of crisis. The  somewhat expected response was an apology and reassurance that should i end up getting sick, they would take care of whatever hospital or medicine bills and that they will waive the charge for the dinner.

As in most cases with majority of local restaurants, the acting manager/waiter  and a couple more waiters( who by the way don’t seem to like their jobs, unsmiling, looking irritated when you flag them for some service) offered to….just replace the iced tea. Oh they said sorry alright but in a casual manner though like i should just accept that i could be harboring some cockroach eggs by the following day.  Then again, maybe its a daily occurrence to them i don’t know.

My wife Rica who obviously cares about the health of her husband was miffed at this point as the acting manager,while polite in tone, was haggling on what can be done to appease us. It went from replacing the iced tea to “we cannot do anything about this but say sorry as it wasn’t intentional” to “we don ‘t have a manager to decide on these things” onto “the owners can’t be reached and they don’t have email and the restaurant also doesn’t have an email address”. After a few more sermons of how the customer is always right and as consumers we must fight for good service in establishments, the waiter gave in to giving a discount. A whooping 20% discount.

You know, It’s not really about getting a discount or getting a free dinner it’s more of the service and enforcing our rights as consumers so that they can improve their service. If it happened in the US or elsewhere they probably would’ve been sued already. But it’s a good thing for them, we we’re still quite understanding and patient but it’s really about time restaurants and food establishments train their staff on customer relations and to be more specific, on situations wherein the customer has something to complain about.

I know it’s a delicacy in other countries and a reality TV staple but the common household cockroach that hangs out in the kitchen or garbage can variety can’t be clean to eat now are they?

Luckily, so far, i’m ok. Acid in my stomach probably nuked the little bastard. Well, as they say, there’s a first for everything but i’m certainly not looking forward to more nor will you find me dining there again.

look what the cat dragged in

From the folks at FHM comes this nice surprise and despite the financial hardships of a small record label like Terno, declarations like these makes it seem worth all the blood, sweat and tears.

to view another Terno Recordings artist on this list click HERE

and so it goes

For those who want to catch UDD again,they will be performing at 70’s Bistro with Sleepwalk Circus this Wednesday the 5th at 10pm. Those who will buy the limited edition cds at this particular gig( we cannot sell at just any gig) will get in, free of the usual door at 70’s Bistro. Again, let me reiterate that the gig is a plus much like Hexagon’s but if, again, should the venue be full, we cannot do anything about it.

This is NOT the album launch part 2. It’s just a regular UDD gig at a QC venue wherein the best we could do is to have the venue, 70s’s Bistro waive the door if you purchase the limited edition cd.

There is another chance for those who don’t want to purchase anything or if you have already purchased the limited edition cd but would want to catch UDD since you weren’t able to get in during the launch. It is for free and it’s in a mall, Podium to be exact. It’s on the 14th of November. I really would want you to come and support the band on this date plus you get to see the newest Apple store in the country, the A Shop.

I think i might be spinning some tunes as well using, just an Ipod along with the latest Numark iDJ2, a nice toy to have if you really want convenience. As much as i’d like to bring vinyl or use Serato with turntables and my laptop, i think i’ll give this baby a whirl. Curious to see how it performs. Mark the date. 14th of November. 7pm as stated in the artwork below.

If you want the other version of this artwork click HERE

The regular version of Bipolar should be out 3rd or 4th week of November at all Astrovision, Odyssey, SM, Tower/M1 and Fully Booked branches. While waiting, get the brand new album of Ang Bandang Shirley already available at your favorite record stores as well as this year’s other Terno releases like Paramita’s sophomore album and Swissy’s debut.