Almost There

Up Dharma Down

If you’ve read the previous entries, all you get is incessant whining about not getting the photos I want, when I shoot. This is different. This is me, crossing my fingers, since I think I’m getting over the creative slump.

First gig shoot happened last Thursday at Route196, when two bands interested me, since I haven’t seen them yet: Techy Romantics, and Gorgoro. The Techy Romantics had Ryan, songwriter/drummer from the now defunct Narda, and Camille, who, if I got my Narda history right, was originally considered to front the band. Now they’re married, and now they do electronic music, the sort that would easily get tagged as chillout-with-vocals.

Techy Romantics

Gorogro is fronted by a puppet, supposedly the bastard son of Animal from the Muppet Band. As much of a novel strategy that is, their output is surprisingly good, as catchy as any Pedicab or Giniling Festival material. And as a photographer, who in his/her right mind would pass at a subject like this?

Gorgoro

See the rest of the bands from the gig photoset here.

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I was excited for the following day, since I’d be seeing what I would consider the great hope of OPM: Up Dharma Down. Days before, they came out with their single Tadhana, easily a modern OPM gem, catchy enough for the masa listener (it was meant for a primetime fantasy soap opera), and undeniably cool enough for the scene kids to bother with. I did what fans over at Twitterdom did as well: the song was on semi-perpetual repeat the entire day.

Up Dharma Down

The gig was held at Kenny Rogers in Katipunan, newly opened/rennovated. Cha was with me, and she hasn’t seen the band play live, but was easy enough to convince to go with me as she seemed to be more affected by the drama from Tadhana, she just had to try to transcribe it. I deemed us being two hours early too early, but it turned out to be a good decision to be there at that time, since the place was surprisingly packed, and the university kids seemed to have the same aim as I did, with about two dozen DSLR camera sightings. The only visible table available when we arrived had to be the table right smack center, and in front of the stage. We were both hesitant, but we were there for the band anyway, so we took it.

They didn’t play Tadhana. Got to talk with Armi after, and she apologized (I requested they play the song on Twitter), and said they were hesitant to play it, since they just released it, people might not know it. If only the crowd requested for an encore. Or if I told them it was Cha’s birthday.

See more of the band from the gig photoset here.