Clone at Cubao X

VENGEANCE WEAPON by Lala Gallardo

So we arrived at Marikina Shoe Expo in Cubao at about 4 pm, and took a look at Lala’s paintings in the 2 galleries where she was exhibiting: at the Vintage Pop shop and at The Chunky Far Flung Gallery. Lovely places both of them, devoted mostly to curios and pop art merchandise, plus space for art exhibitions. It was interesting to see firsthand how a couple of art spaces and funky furniture / home accessory shops are turning the old Marikina Shoe Expo into a hangout for the new bohemians.

Coming back to the place where I used to buy shoes as a child was like experiencing a time warp. The place hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years. It didn’t help that the tinny trebly speakers that served as the PA system was blaring old 80s pop songs like Van Halen’s “Jump” and Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” Nostalgia galore.

Anyway, the sound system arrived past 7:30 pm, and CLONE played first on the bill. We were on at 9:15 pm and were told we only had 20 minutes to play (???) since there were a whole bunch of bands to follow after us. The stage was right in front of Valentino Shoes, which was closed for the night, and so, we set up our portable table and proceeded to serve up the sickest, most twisted noise/IDM/ambient/experimental stuff we could ever come up with.

Karlo & Lala at Vintage Pop

Unfortunately, before we were through, the next band started to come up and sound check, and the drummer did the rudest thing ever, without warning or anything, he started to play along. Which made my blood boil. I wanted to tear his guts out of his stomach with a spoon, however I realized that (1) doing so would have meant acting out of some sense of egoistic pride, (2) doing so would mean physical injury to myself and further still (3) anything I did to him physically would NEVER BE WORSE than what he was doing to himself already: he was playing drums in a back up band for a MULLETED singer named SANCHEZ, who sang original pop songs which were so out of place, his music reeked like day-old oysters.

Forget it. No damage I do to that drummer will top the damage he is doing to his career right now by playing for that loser. Plus: makakarma na lang ang drummer na iyan isang araw.

Clocks for sale at Vintage Pop

Afterwards, Lala, Karlo and I shared some pizza and met new and old friends (including Paolo, Claire and Matt from Dumpling Press) in Bellini’s Italian Restaurant, which was lovely as ever. We had seafood thin crust pizza and finished a huge cookie baked by Lala’s sister, Waya, who will be singing wih CLONE soon. And I took home two drink chips which just so happened to be stamped with the MULLETED SINGER’s name. 

One day, I tell you…. one day, everyone who has done me wrong will die long, painful deaths at the hands of my demon-faced ninjas armed only with rusty spoons.