UNITE ASIA EP CHINESE VERSION IS ON 如果你想聽中文版請按這裡: www.painkillermag.com
OLD SITE IS ON 舊的網站: click here

MAY 19, 2008: Great weekend!

Man - I had a great weekend...all my close friends know why...just good times all weekend...hanging out Friday night with my girlfriend, then all my good friends Friday night...plus I got a new camera so I've been taking crazy photos every other second...Saturday I went to the Sichuan show benefit at the Warehouse which was fun. I was able to make the biggest donation I've ever made later on Saturday through my HSBC account. So that felt good...I wish I could do more...I really hope EVERYONE has donated something to China...they need us as much as possible...

Practice for Sick of it All show has been going well...Can't wait to finally be singing only!!! SUPER excited about it!!! :-) Share my joy my brothers and sisters in Malaysia!!! :-)

I added a "photos" page to our website (yes I know - finally)...So please check out the page on the link up on top...I've put up a LOT of photos and will slowly keep adding more and more when I have the time to do it...

Seeya...

MAY 17, 2008: Charity Show

Today there's a charity show at the Warehouse to donate money to Sichuan earthquake disaster. If you have time please come out to support...the show starts at 3pm. We are not playing unfortunately because Brian is not in Hong Kong. I will still go to the show to support...see you there...

If you can donate money to help the people in this devastated area then please donate money to the Red Cross at these accounts:

HSBC : （004）-567-650155-016 Hang Seng Bank: （024）-267-175123-001
Bank of China: （012）-806-0-000161-7 Bank of East Asia: （015）-514-40-39966-3

MAY 16, 2008: 五萬人死亡

新聞報道是可能有五萬人死亡... :-( 昨天再找到幾個人在collapsed的建築下面...看到幾個救了小朋友在醫院裡可是他們現在沒有了手和arms (為了救他們的生命醫生切斷了他們的手)...現在也知道有點人現在很生氣...他們想知道那麼多建築怎麼可以那麼容易倒塌. 然後發現了很多建築沒有用鋼鐵做的. 很多柱子裡看得到有什麼東西建這個建築...

中國政府打發了差不多十萬軍隊去四川幫手...that's amazing...amazing那麼快可以打發那麼多軍隊...

The latest news is that it's possible up to 50,000 people have died...there are still stories of people coming out alive from being buried under tons and tons of rubble of the collapsed buildings. Yesterday the news should images of children who have survived but had to have their arms or legs amputated in order to stay alive. :-(

There are lots of grieving parents who are so angry about the buildings that fell down. They're wondering how these buildings could all collapse so easily and they can now see what materials are actually used inside these buildings like in the pillars and the walls. They say that they're seeing things that shouldn't be used. They're saying that the safety standards were not abided by...

The amazing thing is that the Chinese government has been able to dispatch 100,000 troops in just like 4 days...that's incredible...all of these people are being sent only to help these poor people who have had their entire lives destroyed...

MAY 14, 2008: craziness

The news about China just gets worse and worse...but I have to say that I think Chin'a premier Wen Jia Bao always proves to me that he is a great man with a huge heart. Which leaders of countries will actually go to the disaster zone, get on their hands and knees, get a megaphone and speak to the hundreds of people who are trapped under all the rubble? Only a person with a kind heart..."one minute, one second could be a child's life"...that's what he said...

MAY 13, 2008: 這個地球! Our world!

Oh my god...the biggest earthquake to hit China in 30 years just hit Sichuan province! They're saying over 10,000 people have died and there'll be many thousands more people who are hurt, injured or missing!!! They say there are still 900 children trapped in a building! On my MSN there's a KLC supporter who lives near the area and he said he had to sleep outside in the public square because he wasn't allowed back into his building! He said that it was so cold outside that he decided to find some place else to stay so he went to a nearby internet cafe which is on the first floor so that he can run out in case there's another aftershock.

Last week, 10,000 people died in Burma with the horrible flooding and cyclone that hit that poor country. There are still dead bodies everywhere...now this in China.

This is a sad sad day...it's been a sad couple of weeks...

昨天在四川有中國最大的地震! 新聞報道說可能有一萬已經過了身!!! 可能還有幾千人受傷了和有幾千人失蹤了!!! 在我的MSN到也有一位荔枝王的支持者住這裡附近他也說他昨天晚上不可以回家! 他說他一定要站在外面因為全部建築給地震使牆向左傾斜. 他說外面很冷...crazy!!! :-( 新聞報道也有說還有九百小朋友是在一個倒塌的學校裡面!!!

上個禮拜緬甸受到了一個很大的災害...也有一萬人過了身...

真的非常sad...

MAY 12, 2008: RIZ on NOFX BACKSTAGE PASS!

NOFX has been doing a special TV show in the West on a tv station called FUSE. The show is called "NOFX Backstage Pass" and is pretty funny. The show is about them going on tour all over the world and documenting all the things that they have to face. They filmed the whole Asian part last year when King Ly Chee opened up for them. So they finally started airing the Asian parts of the tour and you can find it on youtube (I LOVE youtube!)

Last night I finally watched the 5th episode of NOFX Backstage Pass and there I am!!! Hahahahahaha...pretty cool!!! Go watch it on this link: click here

OK - we confirmed our setlist for Sick of it All show in Malaysia!!!

This is the setlist:

Refuse
Work
Queen's Pier
My Family
Promise
Unite Asia

MAY 8, 2008: BURMA and AUSTRIA緬甸和奧地利的事情

Burma...they're saying that 100,000 people have probably died!!! This is the 2004 Tsunami all over again...that country is beyond poor and impoverished and my heart goes out to all the people there who are stuck while they're government (run by the military) takes its time to get them the materials, food and money they need to take care of all the problems that are going to arise (disease, clean water, food, infrastructure)...

To me the most disgusting news I've heard in a long time is about that disgusting and warped old man in Austria who imprisoned his OWN daughter for 24 years. During those 24 years he raped his own daughter and fathered her 7 children. 3 of those children have never seen daylight before because they were all locked in the basement of his house.

This is a sick disgusting and a horrible world we live in. This man in Austria is pure evil. EVIL.

MAY 7, 2008: SICK OF IT ALL!!!

Oops...I thought we were going to be a 5-piece at Sick of it All!!! But nope...our pal Jim really doesn't think he's going to be ready by then. So we'll be playing as a 4-piece but I won't be playing guitar. Brian will be playing guitar and I'll just be singing...wish we were a 5-piece but we don't need to put unnecessary pressure on other people...Jim will be ready eventually! He says he'll be ready to play the Laguna show in the Philippines in July! :-)

If you haven't heard any of Sick of it All's new stuff...then go get their album Death to Tyrants...it's amazing...totally forgot how good this album is. Of course, as always, Sick of it All's HUGE and IMMENSE power comes in their lyrics. And they don't fail on this album either...

My favorite is in the song "Make a Mark"

It's so hard to be remembered,
When you have nothing to say
How can there be influence
with quality in short supply
where they do come from
what do they mean
some random kids from some random scene
what do they stand for
what do they mean
what are they saying
NOTHING NOTHING

GOD - I get so fired up when I hear this song and hear these words...sums up all my thoughts about music today.

MAY 5, 2008: PRACTICE FOR SICK OF IT ALL!!!

What's up everyone! Long time no talk! 大家好!!! 好久不見!!! Thank you so much for reading all those millions of words regarding our trip to the Philippines and then the Comeback Kid show! 謝謝大家看我這幾天上載的稍息!!! 我們在菲律賓的經驗非常amazing...然後第二天回來香港跟這個地球其中最牛B的hardcore樂隊一起演出也是非常amazing!!! I think it's safe to say, that so far 2008 has been one INSANE year for King Ly Chee...it has been one of the best so far and I think only better things are going to be happening! 二零零八年已經是一個最興奮的一年...

First of all, as you know, we are opening for my hardcore heroes Sick of it All on May 25! I cannot believe it...still can't believe it...everything I know about hardcore I learned from these guys! 大家應該知道我們在五月二十五號我們會跟我的英雄同台演出!!! 真的不相信我們這個樂隊會有這樣的機會...見到他們的時候我也不知道我可以說什麼...我怎麼可以跟他們說我小的時候就是因為他們這個樂隊救了我的生命...

所以我們現在有個一點開心和suprising的稍息給大家. 為了這場演出我們找到了一個朋友幫我們彈吉他, 我會作主唱! 我非常興奮. 我們非常謝謝我們的朋友Jim幫我們彈吉他! 他就有幾個禮拜學六首歌! 他非常緊張可是我們相信他. 他一定做的到! Anyway, 他以前是一個美國hardcore樂隊的吉他首. 如果你想聽他以前樂隊的音樂請上他們的網站: click here. 昨天是我第一次不拿吉他唱歌...有點奇怪可是很快習慣了...因為我本身已經唱著一半, 所以現在全部歌詞不是太不同的. 我很期待給大家看我們這樣的表演...就想跟大家說我放低我吉他是我生命的最大的犧牲. 為這個樂隊作出巨大犧牲...So, for this show we've decided to get someone else to help play guitar and I will sing. We've never done this before but it is the most logical thing to do. I already sing half the words of the songs anyway, and the English lyrics for our songs were all written by me anyway. So we've got our friend Jim to help play guitar for us. Jim used to play in an awesome hardcore band in the US called Shook Ones - check them out on: click here. He is going through HELL learning 6 songs for the Sick of it All show and we owe him a lot for him willing to do this for us!!! So in Malaysia, we'll be a 5 piece again with Jim playing second guitar and me on vocals. We're all very excited about this! I had my first practice yesterday without my guitar and it was awesome!!! It was weird at first for me because I'm rarely without my guitar in my hand. But it felt great after a few practices...but not having my guitar is the biggest sacrifice i've ever made in my life...the biggest...hopefully all of you support us and me in this...see you at the shows!!!

MAY 2, 2008: WRAP UP OF THE WEEKEND (PART 2)!

So the alarm goes off in our hotel room for 6am. We've slept a total of 2 hours since we got back to the hotel from Summer Slam. I immediately get up and go knock on Jun's door to see what time we need to be downstairs. Our flight is at 8am and usually we have to check in 2 hours before, so we were already late. So we slowly all get up, get changed, and start taking our HUGE amount of stuff downstairs to check out of the hotel.

By the time we get down it's 6:30. We are one hour away from the airport so if we get in the cars now, we will arrive at the airport at 7:30am!!! So we get in the cars and tell the drivers to please please hurry up so we can get there on time with all our stuff. I don't really remember much of the car ride, I think I either fell back asleep or was talking to Jun and constantly thanking him for everything he did for us. I mean we weren't even in Philippines a whole 24 hours!!! We had only been there like 18! So just for these 18 hours, Jun had to do months of planning for us. So we were super grateful for his time and help...

I think we passed the huge Summer Slam billboard again and I REALLY wanted to stop but we couldn't because we had to get to the airport...

Finally we arrived at the airport at like 7:15 or something like that and we all had to quickly say our goodbyes to our brother Jun because we had to get inside ASAP to check in. It was a sad goodbye but we knew we'll be seeing him again for sure...some day soon...

We raced over to the Cebu Pacific counter and we had about 30 minutes to check in.

We start putting all our stuff in and start weighing all the stuff. They check our stuff and say that we're over by 50kilos so we have to pay extra whatever. So I take my credit card out and they say "sorry - our credit card machinese are down throughout the whole airport". And we were all like so what are we going to pay for it? We don't have that much cash on us. So then for the next 30 minutes they start trying to figure out ways to find another credit card machine from somewhere else. It was CRAZY waiting for them! Then they said "Well, we can't find a way so you're going to have to miss this plane!" I was like NO WAY!!! I have to get to HK right away because we're organizing pick up of Comeback Kid!!! So they tried again...finally...a minute before the plane was supposed to take off they found a way. So now they told us to run as fast as we can to get to the plane! hahahahaha...it was hilarious. We were escorted by 3 Cebu Pacific staff running through immigration, through customs, through the metal detectors and all the way to the plane. As soon as we got on the plane they closed the doors and took off. So the whole damn plane was waiting for us...funny funny funny...

I swear I don't remember anything from the actual plane ride...I must've fallen asleep as soon as I got on...next thing I know we were landing in Hong Kong...

Dude...we were so tired when we arrived in Hong Kong. Immediately Brian and I had to arrange taking all our equipment straight to the ferry pier where the show was taking place. Because Brian and I did were doing this, that meant Man and Pong could go home and sleep a little bit. So those lucky guys got to go home. Brian and I drove and had to go by my house first because all the Comeback Kid t-shirts were at my house. So we went to my house to pick up those shirts and I had to pick up other stuff for the show too. As soon as we got all this stuff we headed over to the show. Glenn and the STW crew were at the ferry pier already bringing all the drums and amps over so they were there waiting for Brian and I to show up.

When we arrived the crew were setting up the stage and putting things down. So as soon as we put our stuff down I started setting up the Comeback Kid merch table and putting all the amps etc where we needed to. Then Glenn, Terence, Richie, and I went off to get some food because I was so hungry. Brian went home and got some sleep. I had to go back to Records Rendezvous to pick up the last of the ticket money so I did that with Terence and Richie. We took our time because we had a couple hours before we had to get to the Macau Ferry Terminal to pick up Comeback Kid. So around 2pm we went back to Tsim Sha Tsui to get the money from Records Rendezvous. Then we went up to my house because I left all the guitar giveaway vouchers at my house. While we were there we watched a little TV, I checked my emails. Then it was time to head on over to the Macau ferry terminal in Sheung Wan.

The whole way there Richie, Terence and I were singing Comeback Kid songs! hahahahahaha...we were so retarded on the way there. We arrived at the ferry terminal around 3:30 and arranged for a van to be there on time to take all their equipment over to the ferry pier. My good friend Unik of Macau were in charge of picking up CBK from the Macau airport, bring them over to the Macau ferry terminal, and get them on the ferry. We owe these guys A LOT for their time, energy and support!!! THANKS BROTHERS!!!

We waited for about 20 minutes and then finally the CBK guys started coming out! It was great to see them all again!!! One look at their eyes and you knew that these guys had NOT slept these past few days!!! So all of them immediately started telling me about all the tour stories so far about Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and all the fun they had had but how they had not gotten any sleep!!! Hahahahahahaha...they were having such a great time at all these shows, but needed to get some rest soon!!!

Instead of going to the hotel to go to sleep though, these guys went with me straight back to the venue to hang out, drop stuff off and go walk around HK. That was awesome to see them do that! They were just like me!!! hahahahaha...So all the CBK guys and myself decided to forget about sleep and just make it through the day and night and then the plan was to go to sleep later.

So they decided that we would walk from the Sheung Wan Macau ferry terminal to the show ferry pier. It was a nice walk and they told me more fun stories of everything that had been going on. They asked me about the Philippines show and I told them how amazing it was but how we only got 2 hours sleep. They were like SAME HERE!!! hahahahaha...it was pretty hilarious that we were building a bond based on NO sleep...:-) But the greatest thing about it was that I could just feel lifelong friendships being built with these guys. I felt awesome knowing that these guys are just regular dudes like all of us - they're just in the lucky position that they get to do this for a living, while the rest of us just dream about being able to do this one day.

We got to the venue and they had smiles on their faces. They seemed to be getting excited and the whole time they started saying "Man I can't believe we're in Hong Kong". :-) That's always nice to hear from bands - like I said, these guys have absolutely no rockstar attitudes, and are just regular hardcore kids.

Kyle the drummer went off with Glenn to buy his girlfriend some fake stuff. Awww - ain't that true love? hahahaha...

Andrew and Jeremy went off to the airport to pick up their luggage. Casey and Matt disappeared...I had no idea where they went but these guys are so familiar with HK now, I wasn't worried.

All the bands started doing soundcheck, while the rest of us started setting up the tables, checking the tickets, doing soundcheck, etc.

Man, Brian and Pong got some rest and were on their way back to the venue. Man had to go back to the bandroom to go pick up another cymbal stand for CBK so he wasn't there for our soundcheck. Mike from STW was there so he soundchecked on drums for us, and Tai from embryo got on vocals to practice a few songs with us. We did a quick soundcheck that was painless as possible - that's because our brother Wah was doing sound and this guy is PRO!!!

We got off and Comeback Kid got on to soundcheck...dude - these guys were SO tired but Kyle, Jeremy and Casey were still excited to go through a few songs. Andrew was exhausted but he was still polite and really nice to Wah doing sound etc. They started doing soundcheck through a few songs, and I almost lost it! Hahahahahaha...it finally hit me that Comeback Kid was REALLY in Hong Kong!!! THE COMEBACK KID!!! :-) Fuck - just soundcheck already sounded this good...what is it going to be like at the show!!!

It was great...sounded awesome...I COULD NOT WAIT!!!

Finally, it was show time...I went down to get waters for CBK, check on what the situation was like outside. The STW guys were getting the door ready because that's totally their turf. No one can do the door like these guys can do it. They have it wired to the point that they are THE professionals at the door. Besides STW, we also have our great friend Heng and Franco sit at the door. You should see these guys in action at the door, it's unbelievable to watch the speed at how they do these things.

I quickly explained to Andrew how we were going to do the free guitar giveaway. They told me that in Malaysia Jeremy kept pulling people's names out of a hat, but the winners were outside getting a cigarette or a drink! hahahahahaha...so these people must've felt terrible when they found out that they didn't get a free guitar! So Andrew and I decided that we'll just get on stage after a few songs and pull a number out of a box and give it to the winner. These tickets that we got were awesome!!! Glenn's girlfriend Heather found them at a stationery shop and it saved us so much time!!! THANKS HEATHER!!!

Show started and kids were all pouring into the show...STW got on stage while me, Heng and Franco stayed at the door getting tickets etc. Dude - they were so good...we couldn't see but we could hear it and they sounded amazing. They played all new stuff which is always great to hear...their new stuff is AMAZING...AMAZING...

Then came Embryo and they of course ripped it up...their brand of metalcore is just genius...tight...great style...great delivery...

Then came us and it was great to go on...it felt AWESOME to go on actually!!! This was going to be our last show in HK until we finish recording our album so it was a special night for us. Later on I found out that two special people who had been with KLC for the past 5 years I think, were going to be leaving HK at the end of the summer. So this was their last time watching KLC - so it was quite sad...I'm definitely going to be missing seeing them at our shows...BEST OF LUCK CHANTAL AND BECKY!!! DON'T FORGET US!!!

Then it was time...I felt like I had waited 9 years for this opportunity...to go absolutely crazy for one of the world's best hardcore bands...

Dude...as soon as they got on stage...I knew this was going to go over and BEYOND any expectations I had for Comeback Kid...

Everything about them was PROFESSIONAL...now THIS is what a hardcore band is supposed to sound like!!! FUCK THEY WERE SO GOOD!!! They went right into "false idols" and I lost it...

Every song they played was one of my favorites...dude...everything was great...false idols...broadcasting...changing face...defeated...die tonight...EVERYTHING...

Then they played "All in a Year"...and Andrew gave me the mic while I was in the crowd to sing the middle part "can't live in yesterday...can't live in yesterday...can't live...in yesterday!!!" FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy and proud to be given the mic for this part!!!! :-) and then the end of the song i went crazy..."ON WITH MY LIFE...ON WITH MY LIFE"...i had died and gone to heaven man...

They finished the set with Wake the Dead of course and had a cool little intro...I was going to talk to them about this intro later that night...

They finished an incredible night...and they helped finish an incredible weekend for me...when they were done people asked for an encore, but I don't think they do encores so they stopped and packed up all their stuff. I went out to go take care of all the money and count the money and then re-count the money. It was great that we didn't lose money this night and were able to pay Comeback Kid some money. Brian and Man took our stuff back to the bandroom. Richie, Terence and STW took their stuff back to their bandroom.

I hadn't eaten since lunch time so I was fucking starving...SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hungry...since the Airport Express is right next to the ferry pier, pong and i helped CBK take all their stuff over to the airport. When we arrived though, the airport express was already closed so we had to check it in the "overnight" luggage place. Then I took them back to their hostel and said that we HAD to go get some food...

So I waited for them to come down and I thought it was only going to be like one or two of them, but they all came down so that was really nice of them. We went off to "Tsui Wah" to eat and along the way I told them that the intro of Wake the Dead was awesome. Kyle said that they liked it but Jeremy didn't. Hahahahahaha...Jeremy explained that he thought it was just a bit too cheesy, it works in places like Hong Kong and Asia where they don't play everyday. But if they played an intro like that in the US or somewhere they play all the time, people would throw things at them! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...that was so funny when they said that...hardcore kids at heart like I said :-)

We sat down at Tsui Wah and it was like almost 2am by now...we were SOOOOOOOOOOO tired dude...I can't even begin to tell you how tired we all were. They all just unwound from this past week of adventures. It was great...great way to end the week...one of the best weeks of my life hanging out and organizing this show, playing at Summer Slam...watching one of the best hardcore bands LIVE in Hong Kong...man...what a GREAT weekend...

Finally, 3am roled around and it was time to say goodbye to everyone. But not without discussing a King Ly Chee/Comeback Kid tour of China maybe next year! :-)

I got huts from all of them and we said our goodbyes...

It was actually kinda sad...they really did become friends from this whole experience and I have no idea when and if we'll ever see each other again...

But I know this much...I managed to make some friendships this week that I think will last a long time. They proved to me and everyone that it doesn't matter how BIG of a band you are, you can still be the nicest guys on the planet and remember where you came from.

Thanks Andrew, Kyle, Matt, Casey, and Jeremy for your friendship and for just being who you are. Thank you SO much for coming to Asia and playing in places outside of Japan. It means a lot and it's been a week that I'll never forget!!!

APRIL 29, 2008: WRAP UP OF THE WEEKEND (PART 1)!

Okay...where do I begin...I don't even know where to start with everything that happened last weekend!!!

Around Monday of last week we decided to print 1,000 copies of our Unite Asia EP onto CD. The reason we did this was because we were going to the Philippines to play at a show that is famous for having over 20,000 heavy music fans show up!!! We had such a great experience playing in the Philippines last year when we went with NOFX, that we KNEW this was going to be great. And we really wanted to give something special to all the Filipino friends, bands and supporters we have over there. So we decided to take our time and energy all last week to burn 1,000 CDs to hand out totally FOR FREE at Summer Slam! It was HELL burning these CDs! Hahahaha...On Wednesday last week I stayed 4 hours after work to burn CDs. I don't know if you know that I teach kindergarten, but if you know about schools you know that late at night it is a pretty scary place to be. Hahahaha...Around 6pm there was no one in the WHOLE building. It was just me burning CDs and every time the CD was ready and it popped out of the computer, I got scared! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...I'm such a pussy!

At the same time while we were burning the CDs and getting ready for the BIGGEST show we have ever played, I also had a million things to get ready for the Comeback Kid show which was the day after Summer Slam. Comeback Kid actually came in earlier in the week as part of their stopover to Indonesia. So I got to meet them and was so relieved to know that one of my favorite hardcore bands is actually full of the greatest people! Then, as you've read on this website, CBK was supposed to leave the next day for Indonesia but the singer Andrew had passport issues.

On Friday night we finally got all the stickers that we needed for our free CDs for the Philippines. We had stickers to put on the front and back of the CD envelope, we had a sticker for the top of the CD, and we had lyrics to fold. All of this needed to go inside the CD envelope. We stayed up until like 3am Friday night putting all this into about 200 something CDs. But we still had 800 more to do!!! HOLY CRAP! I gave up and fell asleep at 3am. Then we had to wake up at 7am to go back to our practice room to pack up all our stuff to go to the Philippines. Our flight was at 11am so we had to get to the airport by 9am. 4 hours sleep before going off to play a show is NOT a good idea...

We got to the airport and this time we brought our ampheads. When we got to the airport we found out that we were over our weight limit by 50kilos!!! So we had to pay SO MUCH EXTRA money to get on that plane. But we finally got on, tired as hell, and immediately got to work. Most people get on a plane and sleep. But we got on the plane and took all the CD materials out and started sticking things on. We were like this little sweatshop on the plane! hahahahaha...sticking, sticking and more sticking...I sat next to Brian, Pong sat next to Man - so we were like two rows of a factory on the plane! The people sitting next to us must have been like - what the hell are they doing? HAHAHHA...

Dude - what's up with Cebu Pacific and not even providing free water!!! Holy shit! Man was sick, I still had a sore throat, and they were charging for water!!! SUCKED!!! So any of you about to fly on Cebu Pacific - BRING YOUR OWN WATER AND FOOD!!!

Anyway...we finally arrived in the Philippines and seriously, I felt like I could've gotten down on the floor and kissed it! hahahaha...that's how happy I was to be back there to play a show. Until this moment, everything for this show was being handled by DEAR SWEET BROTHER Jun (drummer of Kjwan)! And when I mean everything - I MEAN EVERYTHING!!! He went beyond being just a friend for us - he really became part of King Ly Chee for the months leading up to Summer Slam. He handled EVERYTHING including getting us on this show in the first place. He was able to get us a free hotel to stay in, car pick up, food, drinks, he was able to let us borrow Kjwan's INCREDIBLE roadies to help us move all our crazy stuff, EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED for us was because of our brother Jun! WE OWE HIM SO MUCH for all his love - and that's what it was PURE LOVE - not just "help", that is not a strong enough word for everything he did for us. IT WAS LOVE...we love you brother - FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID AND PROBABLY WILL KEEP DOING FOR US!!!

The other person that we really got close to because of Summer Slam was the legend Joey of the INCREDIBLE Intolerant!!! I cannot even imagine how busy Joey must've been organizing Summer Slam, preparing and handling everything. Even though he was busy, any email I sent to him he would reply to me within a few hours! With every email back I just thought to myself "This just has to be one of the greatest guys on the planet"...THANK YOU JOEY FOR ALLOWING US TO PLAY AT SUMMER SLAM!!! It was such an honor to be on that stage knowing that we had your love and support!!! It was like this extra boost of energy, power and confidence you gave us...

So anyway, we arrived at the airport and of course, our brother Jun was there to pick us up! DAI LO!!! :-) He was definitely our "dai lo" during this entire experience! We took about an hour long ride from the airport to the hotel, checked in, and then got back to work sticking stuff on the CDs! hahahahaha...no slacking for us! GET TO WORK! Hahahahaha...

Then we finally set off to get to Summer Slam. It was a LONG car ride and we had to pack two cars up full of our equipment etc...hell but worth it! Along the way I got to just have more heart to heart with my brother Jun so that was great...I'm so happy for him and everything that has happened to him since he's been back in the Philippines...only greater things are going to happen for him and his boys in Kjwan!!! Along the way we also passed a HUGE Summer Slam billboard!!! I flipped out and Jun flipped out too because we got to see our name KING LY CHEE (Hong Kong) in huge words on the poster!!! :-) SOOOOOOO COOL TO SEE!!!

Then finally - we showed up outside of the huge stadium...there were THOUSANDS of kids EVERYWHERE!!! I cannot even describe how I felt seeing all these kids outside of this venue...I just couldn't believe that we were going to be playing in front of all these people in a few hours.

We met Kjwan's incredible roadies here and they were TRUE SOLDIERS!!! They grabbed our stuff and took off like the professionals they were. No bullshit, no small talk, just "We're here to help! Where's your stuff?" We showed them, and they took off with it all. Oh my god...it was amazing just watching them be so professional and SO caring about us!!!

We walked in backstage and immediately saw our brothers in Piledriver!!! It was great seeing our Pinoy brothers again!!! It was all hugs, smiles and just having a good time seeing each other again!!! I love these guys man...seeing them is like when we see our bestfriends in Hong Kong Shepherds the Weak. Just pure respect, admiration and love for each other. And what I love about Piledriver is that hardcore is just written all over their faces and tattooed in their hearts. :-) It's so cool to meet people like that because that's the way I'm like so it's this automatic bond we have with each other...

Man, Pong and Brian immediately got back to work sticking stickers on all the CDs and I went off to handle all the stage things with Jun and his band's manager. The stage was ENORMOUS...the sound was GREAT...the lighting was PERFECT...the equipment on stage was AWESOME...the staff everywhere was professional as hell!!!...all the people backstage were friendly and there was absolutely NO rockstar attitudes ANYWHERE!!! I have no idea how to describe the pure JOY of seeing friendly people, warm smiles and no rockstar bullshit anyway. Spectacular...then I got to see Joey again face to face and he didn't even just come over and give me a little handshake, but he came over and gave me a huge hug and a loud "WHAT'S UP RIZ!!!" :-) I'm telling you man - one of the greatest guy on the planet!!! He was so busy, sweating all over the place, he just found out that a bunch of people were sneaking into the show with fake tickets!!!, but he still made time to say hello to us! You're awesome JOEY!!! AWESOME!!
When we arrived Typecast was on stage and we met these guys last year, but over the past year I've gotten to know their drummer Melvin - so it was awesome to now see Typecast on stage as friends! :-) Dude...they were so good...Melvin KILLED IT!!! HE IS AN AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG DRUMMER!!!

Then out of nowhere, it was Kjwan's turn and this was the first time I was going to see my brother play drums in over 6 years!!! The last time I saw Jun (one of my favorite drummers from HK) he was playing drums in Mirage where he mixed up jazz, rock and drum n' bass into his drumming!!! I remember that when Mirage was playing we'd always go and sit right behind Jun to watch him play drums...he is so good...then finally Kjwan got on stage and DESTROYED THE PLACE!!! Their brand of rock is so refreshing and they were all AMAZING musicians!!! They ruled man...totally ruled...Jun was in a zone and he was just the same legend that he was here! :-)

Then came the band Urbandub that we met last time and they were just as great on stage as they were when we played with them last year! The kids in the audience loved them! :-)

Then came one of the most spectacular things that I got to witness ever at a show...the main guy at Pulp Magazine is a guy named Vernon and he got onstage to play guitar and he was awesome! But the best part was, they had fire and fireworks shooting out of the stage!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! OH MY GOD IT WAS GREAT!!! Dude - it was SUCH a great show and I was so busy watching the fireworks and listening to the music that I didn't realize that the band backing him was Joey's band Intolerant!!! So when Vernon got off the stage, I heard the riff for Intolerant's song "God of War" and I was like what and started screaming to Jun - "OH SHIT!!! IT'S INTOLERANT" and we both ran up to the side stage past security and stood on the side watching this unbelievable Filipino metal band! And when I say unbelievable, I mean unbelievable...THEY WERE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! Tight, loud, perfect...our brothers in Shepherds the Weak kept saying "wait until you see Intolerant!!!" and Jun was saying the same thing "wait 'til you see them!!!" And dude - they were all RIGHT...EVERYONE IN THIS BAND KILLED IT - Joey ruled on the guitar - every note of his solos were exactly how I heard them on the MP3's that I downloaded from their myspace!!! It was just pure professionalism that I was watching in front of me...

Then it was meeting more people for me and I got to see SO MANY people that I met last time at the NOFX show! They were all there and smiling from ear to ear! :-) So great to see everyone again...

Then came some hardcore time for Summer Slam when our bro's Piledriver took to the stage! Dude, they got on stage, plugged in, took like I swear 3 minutes to set things, and then ripped right into it!!! That was inspirational to see them just plug in and GO - hardcore style...it was so cool to see a Filipino hardcore band on such a HUGE stage!!! WE'RE SO PROUD OF YOU GUYS!!! And I know your OTHER brothers in HK Shepherds the Weak were also so proud of you guys!

After them came to me what was a band that gave me chills because it was so touching to see what happened during one of their songs. It was a huge band called Cheese (but they've changed their name - I forgot what it is now - Kelsa? Kesla? Something like that) and they were great! The audience sang EVERY word!!! Imagine 10,000 people singing along...the audience was louder then the band!!! :-) Then came the coolest thing - the singer sang one line of a song acapella (meaning without any music from the band - just him singing to the entire stadium) and then the ENTIRE audience sang the rest of the song back to him!!! OH MY GOD!!! THAT WAS CRAZY!!! I GOT CHILLS UP AND DOWN MY BODY WATCHING THIS!!! I stood there watching all of this and didn't know what to think...just had my mouth wide open in awe watching and feeling Filipino passion for their own bands, the love and support that they give their own fellow countrymen...so touched and will never forget it...

Then came KLC time :-) It felt like we waited all night for this to happen and it was just all out let's go once we started! :-) We threw CDs out in the audience and it was so cool to see so many kids so excited to get these free CDs!!! It made all our hard work so worth it. I mean we literally spent hours and days preparing these CDs and it seemed everyone that got free CDs really were so grateful and appreciated these things!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR RECEIVING THESE CDs AND WE REALLY HOPE YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR AND READ!!!

By the end of our set it was close to midnight and we had only slept like 3 hours the night before, we were so exhausted...I got to hang out with Piledriver and Kjwan some more and I think I passed out! hahahahaha...next thing I knew it was like 2am and Jun was waking me up to get in the car to get back to the hotel!

We got back to the hotel around 3 or 3:30 and I fell asleep right away...we then had to wake up at 6am to get to the airport to fly back to Hong Kong...

When we were at the airport the credit card machine wasn't working and so they wanted us to pay in cash for the extra weight of our luggage and we didn't have enough cash. So they kept trying to figure something out. Finally 10 minutes before our flight, they let us on the plane!!! We had to run from the airport, through VIP immigration hahahahaha, run all the way to the gate, and finally on the plane just in time!!! hahahahahaha...a perfect to end that part of the weekend...

Then came the Comeback Kid show on Sunday...come back tomorrow to read about it! :-)

APRIL 28, 2008: WEEKEND OF OUR LIVES!!!

This has been one of the best weekends I have ever had...EVER...I have only slept 3 hours last night after watching one of the best shows in my life. Last night's show was definitely the best show I've seen in Hong Kong...comeback kid is second to NONE...They were and are INCREDIBLE!!!

I will post a whole weekend review tomorrow...thank you everyone for last night and all the support you gave us at our last show in HK for the rest of the year! Thanks to everyone in the Philippines (I WILL WRITE MORE ABOUT THIS TOMORROW!!! :-)

APRIL 24, 2008: OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: OPENING FOR SICK OF IT ALL!!!

Oh my god...here comes the news that I've been telling you about...the most unbelievable thing that is going to happen to King Ly Chee. I NEVER NEVER imagined that this would happen to us. I never in my life imagined that I would ever get this opportunity...here is the news:

KING LY CHEE IS OPENING FOR LEGENDARY-THE GREATEST HARDCORE BAND IN THE WORLD: SICK OF IT ALL!!!

This is a dream come true for me...I was 13 years old (I'm 31 now) when I was skateboarding with my friend and they told me to check out this band called Sick of it All. They told me it was a band that played "hardcore" music...I didn't know what it was or what it meant. But I listened to it - and I heard the words of the album "Blood, sweat and no tears" - songs like "Injustice system", "friends like you", and of course my favorite Sick of it All song: "My Life" with the simplest lyrics that when I was 13 years old was the only thing I wanted say to the whole world "All my life people tell me what to say...this is my life live it my own way"...These lyrics still mean the world to me today when colleagues ask me why I'm wasting my time with King Ly Chee, when friends and old acquaintances ask me why I waste so much money on my band when I don't get any money back, when my colleagues/girlfriend/friends see me working my ass off for King Ly Chee/hardcore and Start From Scratch and don't understand my passion for something that they don't there'll ever be any rewards from, when band members quit, when it feels like the whole world gives up on King Ly Chee something that I have put my entire LIFE into...any time I feel like giving up or not dealing with this shit anymore - I listen to Sick of it All - it brings me back to the very first day when I heard Sick of it All and when I was first introduced to hardcore. A little Pakistani skater kid who spoke English better then he spoke his own mother-language, but was growing up in a city (Hong Kong) that spoke another language (Cantonese) that he couldn't speak, and went to a school full of rich white kids from USA, UK, etc., and feeling so different from all these people. That's all I was...a confused little kid that didn't know what he was - am I Pakistani? Am I a "Hong Kong person"? Am I Chinese? What am I?

I listened to Sick of it All and I learned many things:

1. The world is too fucked up to worry about yourself. So what if you don't understand yourself? There are people in the world who don't have food, there are people in the world who have been kidnapped from their home and forced into sexual slavery, there are people in the world who deal with the most disgusting of racists actions, there are places in the world where children are growing up without entire families, there are places in the world where 8 year old children are raising their younger brothers and sisters because their parents died to AIDS or were killed...

2. That it doesn't matter if you're different...you still have the strength to change the world. It doesn't matter if you're different and you SHOULDN'T TRY to change yourself because you're different so you can fit in.

3. That I can do anything I want to do with my life. All I have to do is try and NEVER NEVER NEVER give up...persist through EVERYTHING.

I owe this band for everything that I am and especially for all the beliefs and morals I have about hardcore. Everything that I hold dear about hardcore: it's humility, it's DIY spirit, it's never give up attitude, it's fighting for the weak, it's MESSAGE BASED lyrics, respecting other people and especially respecting people who think differently even within this hardcore/punk scene...I learned it all from this band...

They saved my life as a teenager...I am who I am because of Sick of it All and the world they introduced me to through their music and lyrics...

They are my heroes...and I am finally not only going to meet them, but be on the same stage with this band. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT...

This is the big announcement that I wanted to make...PLEASE HELP US CELEBRATE THIS GREAT THING TO HAPPEN TO US...please click on this link and check out the FLYER and please post us a message...CLICK HERE

APRIL 23, 2008: COMECBACK KID PASSPORT ISSUES

Holy crap...what a crazy day I had yesterday...I don't know...maybe it's because I only had 3 hours of sleep the night before...but near the end of the day Andrew (singer of Comeback Kid) called me while I was teaching, and told me that he couldn't get on the plane because his passport had some problems. So we spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what he can do and get to Indonesia yesterday. At the end, there was NO way they could get on the flight because of his passport...

So, now they're in HK for one more night. But the good thing is that they love Hong Kong! hahahaha...so they're happy that they get to stay here again. But early Wednesday morning Andrew will go to the Canadian embassy to see if he can get a new passport given to him right away. If he can get it then it will be no problem and then they can go to Indonesia for their show Wednesday night. But if not, then I have no idea what they're going to do...

CRAZY CRAZY DAY!!! It's 1am now...I thought I was going to be able to go to sleep early tonight! hahahahaa...


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