The obligatory gush post after a show
Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm being forced to gush. It's just that I don't feel like writing about it. But I reeeeally loved the Death Cab for Cutie/Mates of State show on Monday, and I have to blog about it now, while the feeling's fresh.
I met up with Mikey, Quark, Lia, Marie and Steph - friends from college, some of whom I haven't seen in two years - at Bowery Ballroom. I'd been waiting outside for an hour. The last two college kids who were waiting with me had just scored tickets from a scalper. One anxiously asked, "Is it 21 to enter?" "18," I said, trying my best to sound reassuring. I'm usually quite impatient, and it was a bit cold, and I'd contemplated just dropping everything and going home, but I owed Mikey my ticket, and I've never seen Death Cab ever, or been to a show (my friends here are not the show-watching variety), and I haven't seen those guys in a long time. It was a relief to finally see them walking towards Bowery.
We went in, shed our outerwear (ah, heat, finally), and made our way towards the stage. In a few minutes, Kori and Jason of Mates of State came out and started playing. The first time I heard Mates of State (it was What I Could Stand For), I absolutely loved them. And then I heard A Duel Will Settle This, and liked them a little less. So I never bought any of their albums, just downloaded some MP3s and kind of shoved them to the back of my mind. Well, the other night they did both songs and it was gorgeous. Now I think Duel is amazing. Quark said of the three or so times he's seen Mates of State, that was the first time they did the "It's autumn, love" part in What I Could. During a break in a song or a particularly tricky part, Kori and Jason would look at each other, and they'd be perfectly in synch.
Ben Gibbard was standing in the wings during Mates of State's set. After the last song, the guys from Death Cab brought out their instruments and almost unceremoniously started playing "A Movie Script Ending" and then right after, "We Laugh Indoors." My friends and I let out a happy whoop. We'd been expecting mostly songs from the new album, Transatlanticism. The Photo Album is my personal favorite. It was the CD I constantly played at night, just before going to sleep, when I first moved to New York. They did play most of the songs from Transatlanticism, (or was it all? I don't know, there were so many) but also a couple of songs from each album. The girls (and there were a lot, a number of whom were in love with Ben Gibbard. Including yours truly.) kept calling out "405!" and Chris Walla kept saying "later, later." Quark and Mikey shouted out, "Company calls!!!" And what do you know, they played Company Calls next. And then Mikey shouted, "Company calls epilogue!" The band pretended not to hear him.
Ben and Chris' witty banter elicited kilig (giddy) giggles from the girls. Can't help it, they're funny. They kept picking on a guy who'd been to their show at the Bowery the previous day. Marie, who'd been to the Irving show (on the 22nd) said (of Ben), "Mahal ko siya. Mahal na mahal ko siya. (I love him, I love him very much)" They played a long, satisfying set. Long, because of the heels I was wearing (hey, I came straight from work), and satisfying, because they played probably more than 20 songs. Ben, Chris and Nick Harmer kept switching instruments. For the encore, they played 405 with two basses. Lovely. At the end of their last song, the new drummer Jason threw his drum stick into the crowd and the girls shrieked while alert Mikey caught it.
Afterwards, we hung around while my friends talked to Kori, Chris, Versus'/[+/-] James Baluyut (who seemed nice and down-to-earth) and the guy from Aden. Pictures were snapped, CDs handed over, and phone numbers exchanged. I mostly hung back because of a serious case of dyahe (shy, embarrassed, apprehensive). I did get Chris to sign my CD. I still cringe at the thought.
Outside, while waiting for Ben, we marvelled at the contrast between Death Cab's huge, swanky tour bus and Mates of State's van. It took a few minutes for Kori and Jason to load their instruments into the van while roadies got ready to load bulky equipment into the enormous bus. Zoom in on Jason in the van's driver's seat consulting a huge roadmap. Finally, Ben came out with a huge pizza box and Mikey, Marie, and Quark had their pictures taken with an extremely talented pizza delivery guy while Steph and I hung back.
Lia invited me to Quark's birthday/screening at The Den of Cin the next day. I haven't seen Keka and I felt guilty because I forgot to greet Quark the previous day, so I went. Marie and Steph were there, but I felt a bit out of place among the film school/artsy people. It's funny; I can't even say a complete sentence in Tagalog anymore. My tongue keeps wanting to speak Ilonggo or English. I think in Ilonggo, which I translate into English, and then I speak Tagalog, or at least I try to. It is a strange and circuitous path, and worsens my already bad conversational skills. Start a conversation with me, and I can kill it in a word, like a twisted Name That Tune game. James Baluyut came (he's such a nice guy) and I thought of asking him to sit with us because he was standing alone by the staircase, but he doesn't know me, so I didn't. Thankfully, Marie did.
I loved Keka. It was a terrible copy as it's not out on DVD yet, it's only been released recently. But it was unlike your typical Filipino movie. It was subtitled (Steph said Lia typed up the subtitles, aww), but I thought the dialogue sounded much better in Tagalog. I thought it was groundbreaking in that it appealed to a wide demographic. You have the fans of the individual actors, the people who'd watch it for the love story, the people who'd watch it for the comedy (casting Vhong Navarro was a great idea), the people who'd watch it for the blood and violence (the opening scene already had a dead body in it), the people who'd watch it for the quirky shots and sequences, and Quark's legion of friends. It's also told in the point of view of two people, one of which would be the villain in more conventional flicks. But it works. You find yourself rooting for a four-time murderer. Having seen Lost in Translation not too long ago, one scene in Keka reminded me of the scene where Scarlett Johansson walks in the middle of a crowded street in Japan. In this scene, it's Katya Santos walking in the middle of a crowd in Manila. Eery, no? Two great minds on different continents coming up with a similar shot at almost the same time. Made me miss the Philippines all of a sudden.
{New Year, Death Cab for Cutie}
Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm being forced to gush. It's just that I don't feel like writing about it. But I reeeeally loved the Death Cab for Cutie/Mates of State show on Monday, and I have to blog about it now, while the feeling's fresh.
I met up with Mikey, Quark, Lia, Marie and Steph - friends from college, some of whom I haven't seen in two years - at Bowery Ballroom. I'd been waiting outside for an hour. The last two college kids who were waiting with me had just scored tickets from a scalper. One anxiously asked, "Is it 21 to enter?" "18," I said, trying my best to sound reassuring. I'm usually quite impatient, and it was a bit cold, and I'd contemplated just dropping everything and going home, but I owed Mikey my ticket, and I've never seen Death Cab ever, or been to a show (my friends here are not the show-watching variety), and I haven't seen those guys in a long time. It was a relief to finally see them walking towards Bowery.
We went in, shed our outerwear (ah, heat, finally), and made our way towards the stage. In a few minutes, Kori and Jason of Mates of State came out and started playing. The first time I heard Mates of State (it was What I Could Stand For), I absolutely loved them. And then I heard A Duel Will Settle This, and liked them a little less. So I never bought any of their albums, just downloaded some MP3s and kind of shoved them to the back of my mind. Well, the other night they did both songs and it was gorgeous. Now I think Duel is amazing. Quark said of the three or so times he's seen Mates of State, that was the first time they did the "It's autumn, love" part in What I Could. During a break in a song or a particularly tricky part, Kori and Jason would look at each other, and they'd be perfectly in synch.
Ben Gibbard was standing in the wings during Mates of State's set. After the last song, the guys from Death Cab brought out their instruments and almost unceremoniously started playing "A Movie Script Ending" and then right after, "We Laugh Indoors." My friends and I let out a happy whoop. We'd been expecting mostly songs from the new album, Transatlanticism. The Photo Album is my personal favorite. It was the CD I constantly played at night, just before going to sleep, when I first moved to New York. They did play most of the songs from Transatlanticism, (or was it all? I don't know, there were so many) but also a couple of songs from each album. The girls (and there were a lot, a number of whom were in love with Ben Gibbard. Including yours truly.) kept calling out "405!" and Chris Walla kept saying "later, later." Quark and Mikey shouted out, "Company calls!!!" And what do you know, they played Company Calls next. And then Mikey shouted, "Company calls epilogue!" The band pretended not to hear him.
Ben and Chris' witty banter elicited kilig (giddy) giggles from the girls. Can't help it, they're funny. They kept picking on a guy who'd been to their show at the Bowery the previous day. Marie, who'd been to the Irving show (on the 22nd) said (of Ben), "Mahal ko siya. Mahal na mahal ko siya. (I love him, I love him very much)" They played a long, satisfying set. Long, because of the heels I was wearing (hey, I came straight from work), and satisfying, because they played probably more than 20 songs. Ben, Chris and Nick Harmer kept switching instruments. For the encore, they played 405 with two basses. Lovely. At the end of their last song, the new drummer Jason threw his drum stick into the crowd and the girls shrieked while alert Mikey caught it.
Afterwards, we hung around while my friends talked to Kori, Chris, Versus'/[+/-] James Baluyut (who seemed nice and down-to-earth) and the guy from Aden. Pictures were snapped, CDs handed over, and phone numbers exchanged. I mostly hung back because of a serious case of dyahe (shy, embarrassed, apprehensive). I did get Chris to sign my CD. I still cringe at the thought.
Outside, while waiting for Ben, we marvelled at the contrast between Death Cab's huge, swanky tour bus and Mates of State's van. It took a few minutes for Kori and Jason to load their instruments into the van while roadies got ready to load bulky equipment into the enormous bus. Zoom in on Jason in the van's driver's seat consulting a huge roadmap. Finally, Ben came out with a huge pizza box and Mikey, Marie, and Quark had their pictures taken with an extremely talented pizza delivery guy while Steph and I hung back.
Lia invited me to Quark's birthday/screening at The Den of Cin the next day. I haven't seen Keka and I felt guilty because I forgot to greet Quark the previous day, so I went. Marie and Steph were there, but I felt a bit out of place among the film school/artsy people. It's funny; I can't even say a complete sentence in Tagalog anymore. My tongue keeps wanting to speak Ilonggo or English. I think in Ilonggo, which I translate into English, and then I speak Tagalog, or at least I try to. It is a strange and circuitous path, and worsens my already bad conversational skills. Start a conversation with me, and I can kill it in a word, like a twisted Name That Tune game. James Baluyut came (he's such a nice guy) and I thought of asking him to sit with us because he was standing alone by the staircase, but he doesn't know me, so I didn't. Thankfully, Marie did.
I loved Keka. It was a terrible copy as it's not out on DVD yet, it's only been released recently. But it was unlike your typical Filipino movie. It was subtitled (Steph said Lia typed up the subtitles, aww), but I thought the dialogue sounded much better in Tagalog. I thought it was groundbreaking in that it appealed to a wide demographic. You have the fans of the individual actors, the people who'd watch it for the love story, the people who'd watch it for the comedy (casting Vhong Navarro was a great idea), the people who'd watch it for the blood and violence (the opening scene already had a dead body in it), the people who'd watch it for the quirky shots and sequences, and Quark's legion of friends. It's also told in the point of view of two people, one of which would be the villain in more conventional flicks. But it works. You find yourself rooting for a four-time murderer. Having seen Lost in Translation not too long ago, one scene in Keka reminded me of the scene where Scarlett Johansson walks in the middle of a crowded street in Japan. In this scene, it's Katya Santos walking in the middle of a crowd in Manila. Eery, no? Two great minds on different continents coming up with a similar shot at almost the same time. Made me miss the Philippines all of a sudden.
{New Year, Death Cab for Cutie}
