After the cool UpdharmaDown launch in Baguio, Rock Ed proceeded to unabashedly rock out in the heat of Olongapo. Downtown’s main vein, Magsaysay Avenue was our battlefield. Sun Valley Crew opened the night for us with its distinct sound. They comfortably call their sound hip-hop but personally, I think they alchemize their groove, rap, and the voice of their soul singer so smoothly that harder to pin down exactly is which chart it should top.

I don’t mean that they have an indecisive sound, but I do mean that they’re in a niche all their own. The Olongapo skateboarding tribe joined us and performed alongside SVC. The combined atmosphere was like a good scene from a little known indie film. Rock Ed welcomes SVC to its growing army against apathy.

Another new band joined us during this trip. Whatevuritakes played its sound full of infectious hooks and danceable rhythms that any sound tripper will come to expect it, but not take for granted.

At the upswing of the night, Olongapo experienced the Manila sound up-front and personal from Rock Ed’s Kala. Lead man Mike’s introspective flamboyance is irresistible. Kala’s music is a rhythmically funked-out rock joint which proves that there is still ground to break with new sounds from our very own music scene.

The distinctively disjointed mosh pit during their set was a testament to the Pinoy’s true appreciation for the elements of music in the raw. Rhythm blurs all lines and it knows no categories of sound. (Have rift, will mosh pit.) After the manic freak-fest that was Kala’s set, a markedly more decided rock sound emerged from Menaya.

In all their intelligent tough guy sensibility glory, Menaya lured the crowd back to rock mode. Menaya has no pretenses, their sound is authentic yet accessible even to those who are not hardcore. Rock above layers of good songwriting creates an effect that is at once fresh and familiar.

And to end the Rock Ed Olongapo street shebang, is indie-gem veteran band Twisted Halo. Once rulers of the underground, Twisted Halo finally played for Rock Ed with relentless fire and brimstone. What was (at that wee hour) a waning crowd, swelled again with the nasty guitar rifts and the dirty, (and I mean that in a good way) powerful voice of lead man, Vin Dancel. Straight up, lip-curling, blood curdling rock poetry spewed took the new recruits of Rock Ed Olongapo right to where we want them to be – rallying in a no politics zone. Despite their penchant for obscure smarty-pants lyrics, this band manages to keep pretension on zero.

Music rules when it is true. And music is true, when it has a purpose beyond the self.