Cubao Expo

I spent most of Saturday at Cubao Expo, the wonderful quirky pocket of Cubao that I hope the 'popular kids' will never discover en masse.

I am not concerned about posting about it here, because those kids do not read my blog. I no longer hang-out at Distillery along Rizal Drive because the pop-kids have discovered it. My aversion to them is not in their fashion, their slenderness, or in the fact that most of their cultural horizons never extend beyond anything more than ten years old (Ok, I exaggerate). But I do not appreciate how they cannot hold on to their liquor. I am a self-aware judgmental person on this because, as an earlier post of mine has mentioned, we have the genetic disposition to drink a lot.

The main reason I was there was the invitation to check out Outerhope, who I haven't seen perform in ages. They played their set on the 2nd floor of one of the shops, in a rather newly-opened place called My Apartment. The novelty with this venue is that you can watch the band up close (all 10 of you) on the 2nd floor, or you can stand on the street and watch them from the open windows. The buzz I heard that evening was that the bands sound better outside. My appreciation of this type of venue is that since it is 'intimate' it allows the band members to start telling a couple of interesting stories. I enjoyed Mic's (pianist/vocalist of OH) story of how a cancelled gig at Mag:net high street gave birth to a 'Living Room' set in their apartment -- comprised of all the displaced bands that evening.

My plan was to leave once Outerhope was done, but I ended up sticking around to watch Ciudad, the next band on queue. The fun and friendly vibe stuck to me and I ended up spending several more hours with Mic and brother Mike.

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Cubao is one of Manila's districts that are full of stories. As it is a major node of this city's transport network, everyone is going somewhere, and people still walk its streets at 4am. There are nooks that still contain the freaks, the very bad fashion, and the surprises.