Honestly, Hong Kong was the shiznitz. Bright lights, tall buildings, fast cars, hot girls, hot food, cool weather, blingbling, hot food, and really tall buildings and fast underground inner-city transport. We did alot of walking too, aside from riding around on the MTR (that's what they call they'r light rail system). Took a ride down to Tom Lee, the market in Mong Kok, and walked up and down the side streets of our hotel pretending to be sight seeing when we were actually just trying to pass the nervousness before the gig.

The gig was a little awkward, not because we were in a different country, but probably because the audience was a bit more intimidating than what we usually get. I'd say 90% of the heads in the audience had blonde hair, and the few that didn't were still a head or two taller than me. And they were all wearing suits. That closed the deal. I stood in the bathroom before the gig contemplating my balance as my head started to turn. Wasn't pleasant at all but we got through it all right and in the end I was really proud of the band, and really proud of our extra special guest that night: Lalay Lim of Urbandub who very generously offered to help when Trevor couldn't come because of passport problems.

We were all really really proud to have been part of the Nokia IAC music showcase in Hong Kong and we hoped we did our country proud. Many thanks to Nokia for choosing us and to all the folks who downloaded our song off of the Nokia IAC site (nokia.com.ph/IAC).

On the way to Hong Kong we were looking forward to the prospect of meeting some really important people in the music industry, perhaps even some bigwigs from overseas. We did meet a lot of new and interesting people but the ones that were the most helpful and interesting were probably the bands themselves. One Buck Short from Malaysia, Slur from Thailand, and Pointblank from Malaysia. Superb musicians all and showed that Nokia did indeed choose the finest from each country. But more importantly they were all nice nice guys and didn't make us feel alien at all.

All in all, a really great experiance for all of us involved. We took in the city lights (a truly amazing city at that!), breathed in some oriental air, took pictures of old school british colonialism, walked awestruck through perhaps the most amazing airport in the world, and played in front a truly global audience. Can't wait to do it again.

Three cheers for pinoy rock!

Henry

Faspitch and The City: Part II
Current mood: worried
Category: Life

The concrete world is starting to get ya. The city is alive, the city is expanding. Living in the city can be demanding. Oooh yeah... Inner City Pressure. There's the traveling to and from gigs, waking up before the traveling, showering after the waking up, processing the bodily functions that don't normally process cos you just woke up and you're hungry and your trying to process your hunger, and then there is the playing in front of people who have totally not heard you before (and sometimes totally not like you at all), meeting new and interesting people (in good and bad ways), and meeting new and interesting obstacles to city life. Example no. 1 - Second Hand Smoke. That has been quite the dilemma for me lately: Breathe the smog or breathe the cigarette smoke. Either way I fail. Most of the bars we've played at are smoking bars so I've had to inhale large clumps of used nicotine and it finally got to me about a week ago. I had to ask Lalay to take me to the Hospital as I was having trouble breathing. Quasi-Official Diagnosis: asthma attack due to second hand smoke. As a result I've had to ask my bandmates to not smoke near me, and if at all to smoke at the window (poor poor fellows). Lalay wins the roll for [Pendant of the Asthmatic Vocalist]. Word. Example no. 2 - First hand smoke. I don't smoke but most people around me do. And they're doing it more and more. It's none of my business but it is not a beautiful sight to behold (much less to be-smell hehe). At all. Example no. 3 - Free beer. Oh wait... that's not an obstacle. Let's move on now. Neon signs, hidden messages. Questions, answers, fetishes. You know you're not in high finance. Considering second hand underpants. Check your mind, how'd it get so bad? What happened to those other underpants you had? Yeah, I do sometimes wonder where my other underpants went. I had a pair of nice ones the other day, but they seem to have disappeared at the laundrymat along with my brown handkerchief. Speaking of which, I would like to say Happy Happy Birthday to Alex Lim who's constant understanding and loving care has provided us with a means of retrieving our laundry. He has also over the years allowed us to grow as a band and provided us with some super awesome experiences and equally awesome advice. More importantly though, he has been a friend (a very good one) and a father figure to us and has always been there in times of need. You are a true angel in disguise Alex and were it not for you Faspitch would not exist as we know it today. We hope you have many more birthdays to come and would be proud to be there with you at each and every one of them. I think that it has been the presence of people such as Alex, Lalay, and the rest of Urbandub, our techs, Ralf, and whole bunch of other folks (including the fans) that have really helped us deal with the "Inner City Pressure". Not their individual expertise but the care and warmth they show to us everyday. These are the things that are sometimes lacking from an unfamiliar cityscape. I thank these people everyday and I hope we meet more like them. I would also like to thank everyone (EVERYONE) who attended, made possible, and made amazing the What The F! tour we did during April. The last leg of the tour was somewhat anti-climactic (due to a self-destructing bass amp) but it was still something we were very proud of and are very thankful for. We have another tour lined up in June with Typecast for No Fear that we are really looking forward to, especially with a few more new songs being added to our setlists. We want to see you again. And so I have to stop writing now. The floor is dirty and I'm on a mission to achieve complete floor cleanliness. So here I go, load some Dallas Green and git wid da mopping. Henry