Dong Abay: The Return of the Comeback

"Once the music leaves your head, it's already compromised"

-Quote from Sonic Youth's Liner notes from the album Dirty


Saturday August 12 was a special day.

I was getting ready to watch idol Dong Abay perform at the Saguijo. Damn---the last time I saw him perform was 12 years ago at 70's bistro with tatang joey pepe smith. I can very vividly remember the rowdy crowd that night---upstaged by a rowdier Dong...and a totally wasted Pepe smith. Those were the days when been beer was cheap at 18 and you could enjoy sisig for a tad 60 bucks.

2006 and it seems music got itself in a damn big hurry. Every shitpile that you can listen to has become more accessible, more user friendly. Unfortunately, it has evolved to being equally distant, disembodied more christina "aguilerish"...or shall I say american idolish. For chrissakes I was listening to the new Audioslave album --Revelations and it still could'nt sink in. Welcome to Reality Music--where college radio has been declared extinct and all you'd ever need is a google toolbar. (translation lw).

If you've read my previous post a few milleniums back, you'd know why I had to get the whole crew to watch Dong Abay perform---the guy is just a gem to behold. Now, I wouldn't go into a track by track review of the FLIPINO album--doing that will just ruin the listening experience. Let me just put it this way, the only way to go into musical multiple orgasms is to relive the experience "live". With Dong Abay...it's exponentially califragelistic.

On that sweltering night of August 12th---SAGUIJO was the perfect place to see the "MAN". The 11PM gig seemed forever as the rich, spoiled cono kids of the i-pod generation started to mill around with what was touted as the venue's "main stage"---12 tables with around 35 seats to house your bel air ass. And so one, no, two bands performed---they all sucked that I lost count---the 1st band sounded, looked like Cooky Chua and Color it Red....on downers.well I'll be damned if it ain't Cooky "color it red" Chua

Around 11:30---The stage that would normally house 30--swelled to 60 then around 75 when Dong Abay and his posse took the stage (a clear indication that the two early bands did suck). People were already chanting "whoooohoooo" and "more"..and the fucking set never even started yet. So after around 10 minutes of soundcheck DongAbay--the band launched full assault.

Wow.


Again. Wow.

In my lifetime, there are only 2 artists that I've watched live worthy of the epithet talent and energy. Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine (no seriously). Dong Abay makes them look like The Brady Bunch. The band---napalmed thru 6 songs off the FLIPINO album and man, was it ever so consuming. They started off with "Perpekto" then "Tuyo" ,"Mateo Singko" ,"Bombardment", "Kukote" and "WWIII". The encore was the killer "Banal na Aso, Santong Kabayo. I was hoping they'd sing "DYAD"---but it seemed out of place for a crowd that was on aural climax. Never have I seen a crowd in a small sardine packed venue to be so pumped up---so flaky and bonkers that SAGUIJO was transformed into a mini gucci bags Madison Square Garden.We were possessed by this Man

7 Songs. No Sweat. The band hasn't even warmed up yet. They clear the stage to offer humility to the next bunch of kids with badly tuned guitars. Sometimes the world isn't fair. And so I vow to, in the next six months get my mp3 recorder and bootleg the live stuff on the road. So many songs to listen to--yet so little time.

Catch DongAbay Live this September at the Following Venues:

sept. 5 - 70s bistro, anonas, q.c.
sept. 6 - big sky mind, broadway, q.c.
sept. 12- mag:net katips
sept. 28- mayrics, espana, manila

posing with the FLIPINO IDOL!

Again. Mabuhay Ka Dong!