I recently made a necessary visit to Center for Arts (CFA) Bar. Upon seeing the gate, I saw in my mind’s eye how the gates of Mordor would have looked like if they stood in Timog, Quezon City. My initial thoughts ranged from had I been given the wrong directions? to had I been tricked into thinking that CFA was actually as nice and artsy as Mag:net High Street?

CFA has to be the most spacious (as is Mordor) live music bar I’ve been to, but it has also given me the biggest disappointment in terms of house maintenance and equipment (Mordor has trolls, catapults and other nasty things, CFA only has dreadful sounds and foul-smelling unisex restrooms). It might be entirely because its name has a ring of grandeur to it (come on, it uses “Arts” as its last name!) that leads one to expect a museum-like ambiance, or it might be that the bars I’ve been frequenting are more for the upmarket (Fuck, seriously, getting drunk on local beers at 90 or 75 pesos is not the kind of habit I see myself in in the next few months even if I’m not mostly spending for it. I’d still feel sorry for my date.).

I’d been debating in my mind all night why the venue was called as such. After much looking around outside and inside, it came to me that the venue was built primarily to hold performing arts workshops. Okay, nothing wrong with building a talent place that moonlights as a bar, I guess.

What follows may not be the case in other prods. So don’t hate me just yet. Correct me if I’m wrong. Let’s discuss.

Kurt. He writes, sings, and plays the guitar. Look! He also has black nail polish.

25 bands, 1 night
The regular line up of medium (say, Sonic Boom, Kerplunk!, Revolver, Terno) to big (like Nokia IAC) productions has about 7 to 15 bands. I’d like to call 15 max. Btw, I just made medium and big up since I don’t know how to label them other than by their number of attendees and the amount of capital these productions put into their gigs (read: advertisements, promotions, and I don’t know what else they have to spend on).

So how do small production crews like this make 25 bands in 1 night happen?

Pre-production stage
Weeks prior the event, the production manager (PM) scouts for about 30 neophyte bands and gives them a tentative gig date and venue. The PM gets a more recognized band for the main act. Once the PM finalizes arrangements with the venue (this translates to the PM making an advanced deposit payment to the bar. It’s usually 50% here, then another 50% on the event date. But if you’re chummy with the bar management then they’d probably just take your word for it, the payment can follow later on) and bands (and this translates to a “Yes, we’re coming so enlist us in the poster), then comes the giving out of promotional materials and tickets for the bands to distribute and sell. It’s both the PM’s and band’s liability to promote and sell, but in productions this small, I’d say more liability goes to the band.

Each band is:

• Given one (1) piece of event poster
• Required to get rid of 15 tickets that usually range from 75 to 150 PhP each.

Production stage
At The Door. I paid 150 PhP for the CFA gig to get in, so let’s stick to that for brevity’s sake. What comes with your 150 pesos? Let’s break it down:

• 110 PhP goes to the PM as your door fee that covers production costs for the venue, posters, tickets, and main band’s TF (this is the only band who gets a TF, btw)
• 40 PhP goes back to you in the lovely form of beer*

Sounds an OK deal to me. No free beer came with the ticket, though. I now wonder where my 40 pesos went.

* If the PM’s feeling generous

Onstage. Bands are expected to show up in the venue earlier for enlisting. The PM then collects ticket remittance from the bands before letting them inside the venue to wait for their set. CFA’s stage can hold about eight people or two bands, two drumsets, two sets of everything. Band #1 starts to set up at 7pm, while Band #24, or the last band before the main band, plays at 2am-ish. That’s a pretty long wait for you if you ask me. The population would’ve radically decreased during the main band’s set, you’d have ordered more than 3 buckets, which is enough to have you and your friends falling asleep already.

Not all 30 show up, of course. At the most 25 bands will appear. Unlike in most gigs I’ve been to, sharing of instruments is in fact encouraged, especially between bands who have close time slots. Each band does 2 to 3 songs.

This is the part where the PM’s mind plans: Band B has to set up as Band A’s does song #2 or #3. Two bands can share the stage, remember? I find it wrong, this practice of having Band B on the set already while Band A is still redeeming themselves from what mighta been a disastrous first song. It doesn’t only distract the audience, it rids Band A of what little is left of their show. You’d like to think that the primary goal of small time productions is to help catapult your band into recognition. It’s probably only the third, even fourth goal. First is always to make money. Second is for the love of it. I know quite a few who do small time productions, but I tell you now that the kind of treatment I’ve seen them give their bands was better than what I’ve seen this night.

Equipment, or Your Bad Sound System Gives Our Band A Bad Name. I believe in how pure talent can prop one into fame. I’ve seen people in gigs nod to the impression that sucky pieces of bar equipment cause little distinction to a band’s performance if the latter is really good and capable. I would always raise a disagreeing eyebrow to this (my left one, always, cos I can’t do that with my right one without turning you off). Having good equipment should be at the core of any live music bar, the obvious reason being the members of an audience only have their sense of hearing attuned, and members of a good, neophyte band have but their instruments and the bar’s equipment to rely on to make good music. After 3 even 4 run-on sentences, I could have simply said bad equipment produces bad music, and bad music is only good at making people walk out the door.

Post-production
Each band member is given an ID that says “(Production Name) Artist” after their 4th or 5th gig with the production. The ID automatically enlists the band for the next gig, and yes, the band can decline.

I feel bored now after writing this.

In closing, I quote a line I accidentally overheard:

Emo kid:
“Sabay-sabay tayong maglaslas!”

Post-thought: At least Mayric’s has a female restroom that even the more hygienic females can stand. This is a necessary comparison that I just have to bring up. Mayric’s (located in Espana, Manila) has been around since forever but it hasn’t let me down.

Left: Me dressed as a moss plant. Right: My brother. Yuh, you heard me right.