Mabuhay Again

Mabuhay Again

Verse 1

Broadway neon flickers like a busted streetlight crown

Ghosts of safety pins still pogo underground

Sticky floors and cheap beer in a paper cup

Every legend started here by screwing something up

Dirk’s voice echoes from the dusty rafters high

“Play faster, you idiots!” — or get off and die

Dead Kennedys still rattle in the bathroom tiles

While tourists walk by clueless, just a couple city miles

Chorus

Mabuhay, Mabuhay — turn the feedback way up loud

History’s a riot when it’s screaming through the crowd

Mabuhay, Mabuhay — ghosts are tuning up tonight

Three chords and a middle finger pointed at the light

Verse 2

Filipino supper club accidentally lit a fuse

Punks and poets crashing like a barroom breaking news

Devo in the corner, Black Flag down the hall

Every band that mattered once was playing to the wall

Someone spilled a PBR on punk rock history

Somebody’s first band was an absolute atrocity

But that’s how scenes grow teeth and start to bite

A thousand terrible songs before you get one right

Chorus

Mabuhay, Mabuhay — turn the feedback way up loud

History’s a riot when it’s screaming through the crowd

Mabuhay, Mabuhay — ghosts are tuning up tonight

Three chords and a middle finger pointed at the light

Bridge

You can’t rebuild the past with vintage leather coats

But you can crank the amps and wake the sleeping notes

Let the weird kids in, let the chaos begin

If the walls start shaking then you know you’re doing it again

(Final Chorus)

Mabuhay, Mabuhay — hear the city start to roar

Punk rock resurrection through a half-broken door

Mabuhay, Mabuhay — let the new bands misbehave

’Cause every revolution starts with someone on a stage