Chris from Dirty Kitchen invited us to play at his Stag Party/Production last night at Mag:Net in Katipunan. When Balot and I got there, Chris immediately greeted us with an apology. Apparently, there was some mix up with submitting our bandname in the Mag:Net line-up for the month of April. So for one night only, we were known not as SunDownMuse, but "SunDownMouse". So when the sun goes down, the mouse comes out of to play, or some similar whacked-out imagery will do. 
It was a stag beach party. Although, I originally imagined strippers in beach outfits or bikinis. I was surprised to see how nicely they tried to stick to the beach theme that night. When you step onto the second floor of the place. The entire floor was filled with sand. Yes, you heard it right, beach sand. I have no idea how the bar owner was okay with putting sand everywhere, much less how they managed to get so much sand. But apparently the bar owner gave the go signal for it. I saw it as one big astray actually. And I'm sure other people felt the same way too.
What used to be white walls were now riddled with drawings and inscriptions using chalk which made the place seem more fun and festive. Briggs had some medical emergency regarding her mom's diabetes so we had to ask Chris if the other bands can play ahead of us until Briggs can make sure that her mom is going to be fine.
The Ives Experience
The first band that played was a start-up college band. It seemed that they've only had probably 1-2 gigs prior to last night. Although they played some covers from No Doubt and Sublime, they're essentially an emo band with a female vocalist. Experience will be the best teacher for them. The band at this point seems to require a lot of practice in terms of timing (i.e. play in time with each other, and don't just end songs abruptly unless it was intended), and showmanship (i.e. don't turn your back to the crowd for the entire set).
I felt bad for who seem to be the lead guitarist. First of all, he only played two songs for the entire set. He only played during the cover songs. After sitting out the majority of the set, he comes back onstage and his guitar strap broke at the beginning of the song. He constantly struggled to play because he had to carry the guitar at the same time. He lifted his right knee in the air to support the guitar. But left his foot dangling in the air which must've been tiring. He was wearing a perfectly Mr. Clean white polo shift. But since he had to suspend his knee up in the air to support his guitar, he had to lean on the wall. Therefore, imprinting all the wonderful chalk inscriptions on his back.
I don't claim to be an expert at being a musician. However, playing in a band and being around the scene for how many years has taught me a thing or two. This band just needs to keep at it in order to clean up their performance.
Dirty Kitchen
This is the Chris' band; the husband to be. They had to play 2nd because we were still waiting on Briggs to arrive from the hospital. Their drummer wasn't there yet. So they just jammed with the Ives Experience's drummer for a while until their drummer arrived. The jam was cool. But I was really amazed with their bassist. I've seen Dirty Kitchen play before. But I've never seen them play with this particular bassist. Briggs and Balot told me that this bassist was a reknowned bass player. And he was highschool friends with the rest of the band. Nice to see them reinforce their line-up with someone that good. The name of the bassist escapes me. This must because of the copius amounts of alcohol I drank last night.
The best part of Dirty Kitchen's set was when they covered "#41" by Dave Matthews. It just happens to be my all-time favorite Dave Matthews song. So I really got into watching them play when they played that song.
SunDownMuse
Briggs arrived before Dirty Kitchen finished their set. So we were complete just in time to play next. Of course, I wasn't able to take any pictures of us playing. So there will be no visuals for our band that night.
Briggs just got her Hofner guitar back from getting it fixed. It was now donning a new bridge, new frets, straightened out fret board, and adjusted action. We all agreed that we missed the Hofner sound. And it was obvious that Briggs was enjoying our set because her prodigal guitar has returned.
Tribu ni Dulu
Apparently, this band is exactly the same band as Ives Experience but one of the guitarists is now the vocalist. I gotta say, their songs and antics got me thoroughly entertained. Although, there was less people by the time they played. I was still into watching them, even though I'm one of only few people that was cheering the band on. Oh, the drummer's name is Dulu. Hence the band name, obviously.
As we finished watching Tribu and watch the last trickle of people leave the place, Briggs and I decided to knock down a few more beers before heading home. We always seem to jive with drinking. I got home and managed to drag all my percussion gear back up to my place in my drunken stupor. I've done this so many times. However, it still feels excruciating each and every time.
I'll end this post with one of the chalk inscriptions on the wall at Mag:Net. It seems be a line from one of Happy Meals' songs. I just found it funny and loved it at the same time.
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