The year was 2014. Everything was closed in Davao City’s Chinatown. Barely a vehicle or any other person around with the only notable illumination being the fairy lights atop a building. A small green door opens to a flight of stairs filled with stickers, art, and graffiti. Inside, a small stage is in the center and a beaten couch is nestled in the corner. To your right, another door leads to the rooftop where the fairy lights were coming from. A huge graffiti decorates the firewall. Up there, it felt like the chillest smoking area you could find in a smoking ban-imposed city.

The small area felt huge with the varying chatter from a diverse set of patrons. We were the only ones alive in a sleeping city and it felt right. This is how I first experienced Sales Tekanplor.

A Brief History of Sales Bar

I was one of the later patrons and I had no idea then that when you say Sales Bar, you can’t just mean one thing. Opened in the mid-2010s, the very first iteration of Davao’s beloved underground bar, Sales Diner and Moozika, was just an eatery in the morning and a humble music bar by night for the owner’s friends and family. When the music got too loud for the neighboring residents, the owners decided to move to a new location just next door, bringing the stage for performing up the egg carton-proofed second floor of the building, hence Sales Tekanplor.

Flourishing the City’s Underground Music and Arts Scene

Cousins Moshe and Paolo Papica created an avenue for musicians like themselves to perform their own music. When some of the prominent venues closed down, Sales was the place to be for original music and for other musicians in and outside of the city to perform. Sales has hosted a lot of debut performances and EP launches of various Davao acts, including Anne Mendoza and Thea Pitogo.

“The most memorable one for me would definitely be our ‘Escape’ EP launch in 2015,” says Anne. “When we were still in the planning stage for the launch, we didn’t have second thoughts in choosing Sales as the venue. It was the home of the band. It made perfect sense to finally release our music at the place where it all started.”

Over the years, Sales has grown its community, hosting not just performances but events related to the underground arts and film movement. The bar has been host to the weekly Trivia Nights, the first Threadfest in Davao, local merchandise launches, artists exhibitions, Better Living Through Xerography (BLTX) year after year, the venue for nightcaps of several local film festivals, and even before it moved to a different location, Sales housed the Davao premiere of infamous Cebuano Film, Superpsycho Cebu.

Sales has become a melting pot for everybody in the city’s underground scene. That is why it feels as though everybody knows everybody and no matter what subculture you are in, you are welcome.

When asked to describe the demographic the bar has attracted, Paolo beamed to describe them as the coolest kids.

“They are the coolest, very talented, and curious people you’ll meet in Davao”.

Paolo Papica

Introducing Suazo Bar

After years in Sales Street, the bar had to close and move. It may have been devasting for some to have lost their hangout for some time. A lot of musicians had to look for other venues to perform. Everybody was looking for the homey feeling Sales had imprinted on everybody.

On the street just before Sales, the new bar–aptly called Suazo for its street location–opened its doors, with fairy lights still lighting up the rooftop smoking area. Despite the move, it did not alienate its patrons.

“Suazo/Sales is a hidden place so it is hard for new visitors to navigate the place but for me, the place still feels like home, says Thea Pitogo of The Band Thea. “Also, I love that the place feels very intimate and the crowd who goes there are very supportive.”

Suazo Bar has now welcomed a larger demographic, creating a more diverse crowd. “I think the bar is getting increasingly popular as a safe space for creatives. And that’s great. It’s nice to see the local art and music scene continue to flourish,” Anne asserts, who has seen and performed during the early days of Sales Diner and Moozika.

“A safe space” is the best phrase to express why patrons love Suazo and all its iterations. Everybody is free to be themselves. Suazo has welcomed events for the LGBTQ+ community, for the artists, for the new or the old-school musicians, performers of different genres, the filmmakers, and many more communities, all secure in the fact that they have a space to freely exercise and express their creativity.

Suazo is turning three years soon and with all the other new venues that musicians, artists, brands, and film communities can hold their events at, Suazo has stood unmoving and continues to be regarded as a home for the city’s underground movement.

“When we were creating Sales Tekanplor, clearly, we already knew what we wanted, but we never expected it to be what it was then, and of what it has now become to everyone.”

Paolo Papica

Photos by Cedric Van Luspo

Follow CLAVEL on Facebook and Instagram for news, culture, and more.