CHIESTER

So we played a last-minute show at The Back Alley at Fullerton last Friday (make that early Saturday morning LOL). First time there, a lot of drunks to say the least. Tough crowd, we sort of knew that it wasn’t our type of venue, but we soldiered on, thinking that we’d see how it would work in this environment.

Luke (the booking agent) liked our sound, that was a good turnout. Funny that Cindi’s friend Ingrid was shoving people away while she was trying to focus on videotaping us (frankly I thought she was gonna kick this guy’s ass!!!).

Watching the footage again, I like the new songs. My parts in Burning Bridges needs some work, Cindi’s lyrics for First Crush gave me chills.

One thing pissed me off though: the (so-called) L.A. people. I personally don’t think they’re from L.A., if they were, they’re PUNKASSES. Beat the shit out of the Indian dude, he didn’t deserve it. Sure he was drunk, but did you have to beat the living crap out of him just because you had friends with you. One that had a yellow shirt (yes, the LA punk had a YELLOW-f@?!kin’-YUPPIE shirt!) that yelled ‘that’s how we roll in LA’. People (regulars at the Back Alley) were like ‘you’re in Orange County DUMBASS!’ but just stood there. If it weren’t for the security guy, he would’ve been seriously worse than beaten up.

It got me sick to my stomach, I could’ve helped the guy. I had to pull away my girlfriend and the rest of the band so no one else would get hurt. The nature of lawsuits here in the US stopped me, I might’ve gotten in trouble.

If you’re reading this punk I’ll make something clear: you’re lucky that you were just in Orange County. You’ll get your day, and I hope it’s f@?!in’ soon.

What would be the ultimate dream gig? I have a few…

1. Playing rhythm guitar with the remaining members of Alice in Chains.

2. Be the new guitarist of Soundgarden (YEAH RIGHT!!!).

3. Be the rhythm guitarist alongside John5 for Rob Zombie.

4. Be introduced as a new guitarist for Marilyn Manson

5. This would be really something: to be introduced as Ozzy’s new guitarist (that I gotta practice a LOT lol)

6. Be the guitarist (or rhythm) alongside John Christ for the last Danzig tour (with Chuck Biscuits on drums).

7. The Velvet Ash touring with Interpol. Or The Cure.

Any gearnerd like me always have a checklist (a wishlist for you regulars).

Guitars:

I can’t even begin with this one! Can I do this alphabetically? LOL.
WASHBURN: HB30, WV16 or WV80, N4, N5 and N6, Scott Ian Signature, Jennifer Batten Signature.
ESP: EC-1000 , DV-8, EC-2005, PC1, PS2, AXXION, Jeff Hanneman Signature.
FENDER: Jaguar, Jazzmaster, John5 Telecaster, Iron Maiden Strat.
GIBSON: Goth V, Dual Cutaway Les Paul Custom, Eric Clapton Crossroads 335
EPIPHONE: Tony Iommi SG, Wayne Static V.
BC RICH: Mockingbird NJ, Bich NJ, Kerry King Custom.
JACKSON: Surfcaster Custom

Amplifiers:

FENDER: Twin Reverb, Bassman, Deluxe 90 112, Hot Rod Deluxe.
VOX: AC30
MARSHALL: 30th Anniversary, Bluesbreaker combo, 1974X, Plexi reissues.
ORANGE: anything! they rock!
PEAVEY: 5150s. DUH!

Effects:

Digitech Whammy Pedal and JamMan, Dunlop Rotovibe and Univibe, Boss GigaDelay,
There is more…there’s always more

I forgot to post that here! I saw that movie and I thought it was very well made. It made good use of the soundtrack, heck now I love Freebird from LYNYRD SKYNYRD! I found out the weekend after that Ebert and Roeper gave it a Two Thumbs Up!!!

If you get a chance, go see both of Rob Zombie’s films, rent (don’t buy a burnt copy f@?!er!!) House of a 1000 Corpses and watch The Devil’s Rejects on the big screen!!!

Disclaimer: This is all edited and this is my version of this story. I tried to make this story concise and fair to all those concerned.

Silkwood Lineup:
Fred Guiao - vocals, bass
Raymond - guitars
Charm-Ela Ong - drums

Jenny’s Regency was not playing as much when Hans left the band. And we had trouble getting a bass player all the time. I think our last show was that gig with Julius’s brother Jay. I couldn’t ask Nic to switch roles as bass and guitar player all the time. So it kinda just died abruptly.

I ran into my good friend Fred sometime January of ‘96. We’ve talked about bands again, then he mentioned that he had one, and invited me to their rehearsals. I was not familiar with Silverchair because I didn’t like em at first, so Fred lent me his Frogstomp tape, and boy was I surprised! These kids can play, even though Nirvana (and STP sometimes) was stamped all over the place. So I studied both Silverchair and Wolfgang (a local band who’s really great).

When I showed up, Charm was surprised that I was there since Raymond was late. So I started my setup and we played Israel’s Son, and it rocked! Raymond arrived midway through the song. I was surprised that Charm can play, and she hits those cymbals hard! Raymond is a natural on guitars. We played the rest of their set and Raymond kept on watching me play. Then he told me he couldn’t figure out some of the parts of certain songs and was watching me play em. So I showed him (later on tabbed it for him). Playing with other people does help everybody, since you’ll all learn from each other. Now there’s this jackass named Richard (a friend of Fred’s) that came REALLY late who plays bass when they do Wolfgang songs. Got a nerve to tell me I was playing out of key for Weightless when my back was turned. I think Raymond told him that HE was the one that was out of key.

Eventually, I got these guys to listen to Alice in Chains (not that Fred needed it).

Towards summer, Charm stopped playing with us, so we were a drummer short. Lucky for us, Julius was flexible on his work schedule, so we got him on board. I didn’t know if Raymond liked the idea that he played bass when we played AIC songs. So months passed by, we were playing better, then December came and our friend Paul from Kabaong ni Kamatayan needed some bands to play on his production. So Lois Slain was there and then my sister asked me what what my band’s name. For some reason, Foresight came to mind. I knew for a fact that Fred didn’t like that name, but he didn’t fight me on that. So here’s the Foresight lineup:

Fred - vocals
Raymund - bass
Yours Truly - guitars
Julius - drums

We got an amazing response when we played. Even the club owner gave us a slot for Tuesday. Paul got us gigs on his productions. That was hard work for Fred and I. We would invite our regulars on separate days so they won’t pay a lot, and to keep them coming to our gigs, and it worked. Slowly we were mixing our AIC sets with Marilyn Manson songs to separate us from your average band.

Then Raymond couldn’t go to our practices anymore, so my younger sister recommended Mark Goze whose originally a drummer. He plays guitar too, but he played bass for a while. Then there were shows where we were able to borrow Lee Nadela (Slapshock, Pigtails, ex-Agaw Agimat).

The band only stopped when I moved here in the US. Our last show was Halloween 1997.

Those guys were great. I’ll work with them again someday.