coast2coast

Rising sun in the land of the morning

On January 10, 2025, I got to watch beloved Japanese noisegrind duo Sete Star Sept who came to perform in Cebu City as part of their Philippine tour. The gig was held in Azul which is a restaurant and a staple for local music gigs. Sete Star Sept have been active as early as 2004 and the duo consists of Kae Takahashi on bass & vocals, as well as Ryosuke Kiyasu on drums. The latter has also had a history of solo performances in the Philippines, including places such as Cebu, Bacolod, and General Santos in 2024. Alongside them were numerous beloved local hardcore acts such as Vampire State, Jesus Krust, Offals, Septhis, Kick in Da Face, Pretty Flower, Tawo, as well as Bacolod-based DJ M4r1W4r4.

The event also featured numerous visual artists, namely Cypho, Soikee Vomits, Scrawl Off, Siamese Rat, Yung SMTH, Jig Gy, Kristin Dalaota, Mitz Fits, Sam Pipebomb, Dr. Defiler, Mr. Acidic, and Summer Veins who displayed their craft for the audience to either peruse or purchase, including paintings and handcrafted accessories. 

When I arrived at the gig, the venue was fairly vacant as the performances had not yet begun. To kill time, I took a look at the art on display which was situated at the end of the room opposite to where the stage was. The artists were enthusiastic to display their craft and offer their services to the audience. I also got to learn more about some of their work and even purchased a necklace from a group of artisans based in Mindanao who eagerly talked about his craft when I asked questions about it. The necklace I bought, in particular, was particularly striking in its symbolism as it had two images of trees on it. One was black and upright with a yellow background while the other tree beneath it was grey, had dotted lines all over it, and was set against a white background. According to the artisans, the necklace was a symbol of life and death, hence the bright, sunny yellow backdrop against the tree representing life and the cold white backdrop against the tree representing death. Aside from that, there were numerous rings with animals engraved on it, such as eagles and wolves. It was a pleasant sight to see that it was not only the musicians that the crowd was enthusiastic about but also the visual artists. 

Rambunctious renegades

Once the performances started, it was one fiery set of songs after another. The bands delivered and gave it their all that night, and the crowd was equally as energized. 

The first performance of the night was delivered by Pretty Flower, who consists of members of other local bands such as Nervevineturbine, Sephtis, Dog Euthanasia, and Garland. That night, they delivered a fiery and raucous performance that roused the crowd and drove them to mosh and dance. Based on prior experience, the crowd usually doesn’t spend much of their energy during the first act’s performance so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a fair amount of people dancing and moshing while Pretty Flower was playing. If their performance was enough to get some of the crowd moving despite being the first band, then it was a very clear sign that the night was only going to get more intense from there.

After Pretty Flower came M4r1W4r4, who got the crowd dancing and moving with various electronic tunes from mashups of different songs to budots dance numbers. The atmosphere constantly changed during M4r1W4r4’s set due to the different moods that each succeeding track brought. However, his skills as a DJ shone through as none of the transitions felt out of place which resulted in the crowd, including myself, enjoying his set.

The hardcore jams resumed afterwards thanks to grindcore/powerviolence band Kick in Da Face, consisting of Alvic, Elmer, and Carlo Boy on vocals, drums, and guitars respectively. I’ve seen them perform a few times in the past and they never failed to engage the crowd with their heaviness and intensity. The band began their set with a slow and heavy number that set the tone for the rest of their performance. As the performance went on, the intensity gradually built up with the songs getting noticeably faster and heavier. The crowd then followed suit, with some of them moshing and jumping around enthusiastically to the music. 

Afterwards came a shift in sound thanks to noise rock band Offals, whose performances I always look forward to for their uniqueness. What sets this band apart for me is their more unconventional songwriting approach which manifests through repetitive guitar passages and stream-of-consciousness vocal delivery. While I can confidently say that the other bands who performed that night can be described as hardcore punk or metal, Offals sets themselves apart with their take on rock music that, to me, is more akin to Sonic Youth and similar noise rock bands than anything else. Something else that I observed was that the band also has a tradition of wearing certain costumes across different performances, with all of them opting for a shirt-and-tie office getup that night. Since their songs follow a decidedly different structure and progression from the other bands that night, the crowd watched with awe and intrigue at their performance. It was almost as if the audience was hypnotized to watch them intently until the end, which is how I felt watching them. 

Bringing us back to the hardcore performances was Vampire State, who have been part of the underground music community since 2006. The band’s years of experience under their belt spoke for itself as they delivered perhaps the wildest and most intense performance out of all the local acts. The audience was especially rowdy with numerous people crowding in the middle and moshing unrestrained. I was compelled to join the mosh pit and had a lot of fun thrashing around wildly and running around in circles. With that, I can say that Vampire State delivered my favorite performance out of all the local bands.

However, the bands that performed afterwards more than held their own in terms of dishing out a compelling performance. The next band, Sephtis, was similarly chaotic and intense thanks to their brand of grindcore and powerviolence. Similar to Kick in Da Face and Vampire State, they roused the crowd to mosh and dance wildly thanks to their blisteringly fast and heavy songs. While I wasn’t as compelled to join the mosh pit as I was still recovering from the moshing I did during Vampire State’s performance, I still found Sephtis’s performance to be incredibly engaging and fun to witness.

After two consecutive hardcore punk bands, the next band, Jesus Krust, provided a bit of an interesting stylistic change. While the long-running crust punk trio is quite similar stylistically to the other hardcore bands that performed that night, they set themselves apart from the others that night with how they opened their performance. The vocalist kicked it off by playing a flute with the drummer striking the cymbals to add to the hypnotic atmosphere that the melody provided. While it set quite an interesting tone, the rest of the performance was a straightforward and raucous series of hardcore numbers that got the crowd moving and moshing. 

Another shift in tone ensued with the next band Wishfade, who slowed things down with their brand of noisy and mid-paced “Kalunasan darkened emo”, as they described themselves in their social media pages. Their performance served as a much-needed breather from the fast-paced and ferocious hardcore punk performances that came before. The two vocalists of the band traded shrill screams which pierced through the deafening wall of guitars and drums, resulting in an enveloping soundscape that hooked me and the audience to their performance and kept us intrigued throughout.

The last band to perform before the main act was Tawo, described as a nutscore/performance art band. To kick off their performance in an appropriately add manner, they opened with a laidback reggae tune that definitely caught me by surprise. However, it wasn’t long before they brought forth an intense and explosive performance that once again got the crowd moving and moshing wildly. The vocalist stuck out to me as he was wearing nothing but a balaclava with the holes at the side of his head and a pair of boxers, which I assume is in line with their more outlandish image. It certainly gave them a unique character that made them stand out to me.

Lucky number seven

Finally, the time had come for Sete Star Sept to deliver their long-awaited performance. Once the duo were on stage, the crowd and I did not hesitate to flock to the front to get a better view of the performance. While Takahashi was busy tuning and adjusting her bass and amplifier, Kiyasu kept the crowd entertained with a blisteringly fast and animalistic drum solo that I can only describe as inhuman in its relentlessness. After a couple of minutes, Takahashi was satisfied with her bass tone and they began to kick off the performance proper with a whopping 37 tracks that, while very short and brief, were nonetheless engaging in their intensity and harshness.

The crowd and I were mesmerized by the unabated performance by the duo, as they almost never stopped performing in between tracks. If they did, it would only be to check the setlist to check which track they’d play next. While some of the crowd, including myself, were focused on witnessing the chaotic performance unfold, others were more uninhibited as they moshed, danced, and even pushed and carried each other across the crowd. It was a glorious sight to behold alongside the duo’s unbridled performance.

The gig concluded with the crowd leaving the room to head home with some staying behind to take photos with Sete Star Sept. I was extremely spent that night so I decided to leave the venue incredibly satisfied with the show. All the bands that night dished out incredibly entertaining and lively performances in my opinion and for that, they have my appreciation and gratitude for keeping the local music scene alive and well. On top of that, I got to watch one of the most beloved underground music acts from Japan bestow unto me and the rest of the audience an otherworldly performance that I will remember for years to come. I hope to see them perform again in the future, either together or in one of Kiyasu’s solo performances.