So before I forget, let me tell the handful of you reading here what I did last Friday.
It was my off from work, and I had two gigs I intended to shoot: the Bagong Banda: Awit Ni Sampaguita Tribute Album Launch, and the Club Dredd of electro-jpop duo Miami. Both will be held in Eastwood City, literally around 50 steps away from each other.
Chubibo
I wasn’t all too familiar with the bands for the first gig, but seeing Paramita on the roster made up for it. However, after telling a friend I was going, he got me an update if Sampaguita will show up as promised: she wasn’t. This was apparent doom for the concert, but if a good number of people will be watching, I don’t think it would be an issue anyhow.
Having learned my lesson from previous gigs, I was intentionally late by more than an hour: the gig starts at 6PM. I would’ve missed a band or two, I thought. Mari Arquiza, locally heralded as the top rock photographers around, was there already, and I asked her is she was early: she was and its been almost two hours since.
Cherry Cornflakes
The gig started at around 9PM.
Tracks from the tribute cd was being played over the speakers in between sets, and from what I heard, it was a hard-sell for me. See, all this tribute albums are fine, since local bands can show what they can do to other people’s songs. The APO tribute franchise had Up Dharma Down’s wonderful deconstruction of Kaibigan, Imago’s radio-charming take on Ewan, and Paramita’s grand resurrection of the bland-ish Isang Dangkal. Paramita’s take on Sampaguita’s Bonggahan? I’m obviously a fan, but sorry, its like the band didn’t try very hard this time.
Sugar Hiccup
I was glad to see some acts for the first time, though: Chubibo was pop-rock lively and hella magnetic, and the new Sugar Hiccup wasn’t as bad as I thought. Oh, and if I liked prog-rock, I’d like Fuseboxx, but as much as I’d like to go into Dream Theater territory, no, sorry, not my thing.
Continued on next post.