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My band, No Parking, opened yesterday's
TemFRESHure Rising concert at the Bahay ng Alumni of UP
Diliman. As a way of welcoming the freshmen for this year, UP gave
them a top-notch concert with the biggest names in the music scene
today, all for free.
Freshies to the Freshie Concert.
Photographed by Keina
That doesn't mean we're top-notch or big-game too. Not yet, anyway. We
scraped tooth and claw just to crack the line-up. I think we spent two
months looking for connections to the concert's organizing body.
Once we got in I set to motion a plan I devised together with our bassist, Love.
We secured the first slot.
I don't know but I think it's genius.
By going first, the audience, impatient from falling in line outside,
would be most receptive to us. I was right.
We performed D.o.t.A., our favorite heavyweight Langit
Lupa, Belot's MRT and Panawagan. It was the
most explosive we've ever been. I mean, we have been used to the
audience sitting down when we're up. But the crowd was raucous and
rowdy. Just crazy. Even if they're freshies, I'll take it.
My plan was brilliant.
Besides we really don't intend on going after the later slots.
We don't want to be eaten alive.
Kjwan,
Sandwich, Imago, Parokya ni Edgar, Kamikazee,
Sugarfree, Callalily, Rocksteddy, Pedicab, Moonstar 88,
Mayonnaise, Chicosci, just to name a 'few' bands.
See!
July 7, 2007 | 7:43pm | Log 137 |
Yeng also performed there at the Freshie Concert. One year
does sure make a lot of difference.
I was there during last year's UP freshman concert from start to end.
I was in the front row but I went alone so I couldn't get out of my
place in order to eat, lest I lose my spot. I was standing in the same spot for
six hours with not much movement but jumping. Bahay ng Alumni was much
more jam-packed last year (Maybe because this year, Christina Aguilera
shared the date).
Just to get in, I fell in line for 15 years. So to see the first band
perform was a real relief.
(Here is where I got that we-must-go-first idea. Hehe.)
The band was Morning Glory, a female-fronted band. Gothic singing
got the audience stirred up. They did three songs when everybody else did
two. The vocalist looked and sounded good. There's promise here, I
thought.
A month after, we got to play with them via another Bahay ng Alumni gig. I
never got to talk with the vocalist, though. I was much more starstruck
with Urbandub.
Fast forward to a few months and the promise I had noted got fulfilled
inside
Pinoy Dream Academy.
Yeng became a household name. Damn, I should have just chatted with her.
Last year, she was opening the freshie concert.
This year, she is a primetime slot
with a major Araneta Coliseum concert under her belt!
One year does sure make a lot of difference.
So I saw to it that we go first this year.
That's classic Feng Shui.
July 7, 2007 | 8:41pm | Log 138 |
Ronnie Liang and Chad Peralta were also there at the
Freshie Concert. In fact,
they came professionally early. I think they were inside the backstage
for hours.
When our lead guitarist Norman and I
had our picture taken with Chad in the restroom (!!!),
he asked:
"Saan ba dito makakabili ng alak?"
- Peralta, 2007.
... SC? Philcoa?
Eventually, Chad just performed without any kicker.
He performed just one song.
After waiting for so long, yes, just one song! A No Apologies
cover of Nirvana which I don't know if it's the song, but it
alienated the audience. (Or maybe they were mesmerized, for the benefit
of the doubt).
I should have just instructed Chad to go to one of those "Ma-" streets in
Teacher's Village to buy liquor so that he'd have gotten lost instead.
On the other hand, Ronnie turned the concert into a mall show.
Complete with the pick-one-from-the-audience segment.
They could really, really do better.
Both were nice though.
July 7, 2007 | 8:55pm | Log 139 |
Tim Cacho is the lead guitarist of Imago and he has known me since last year.
But only as a text messaging entity.
He once owned 3/F, a now-defunct bar in Katipunan. We had
a very memorable acoustic gig there back in April 2006. I invited all my
neighbors and loved ones to watch us. The proceeds it produced became
our first ever wage as a band.
So in a way, I consider Tim as a boss, although we haven't met each
other.
Back in November 2006, Imago performed with us in a gig at Masscomm
in UPD (The UP Broadcasters' Guild's 'Rock Back to
School' event).
Norman approached Tim for a picture and let him know about the 3/F
connection.
Tim asked, "Are you Bambam?"
We never met that November night.
I was flashbacking all these stuff before I approached Tim at the backstage of
the Freshie Concert.
It was good. We exchanged numbers.
To top all this Imago experience, the four of us got to chat with Aia
backstage. She's so perky and accommodating. I think she knows the
four of us by face already after the chat.
NP with Aia and Zach of Imago. We have traded our bassist for these
two.
I even bid her some good luck before she stepped on stage (as if she
needed it, hehe). She acknowledged with a smile.
Me? Wishing an Aia good luck for a performance?
The world is going to the dogs!
July 7, 2007 | 9:20pm | Log 140 |
At first I hated this band. Their music video for their breakthrough
single Lagi Mo na Lang Ako Dinededma featured No Parking's alma
mater Lagro High School as its setting.
I had been thinking of doing that (that is, if we get somewhere)!
Rocksteddy got to it first.
Anyway, the band has always been proud of its Lagro heritage.
So I urged Love and Norman to approach Teddy, the
goatie-rich vocalist of the band.
As it turned out, Teddy not only lives in Lagro. He studied there from
elementary to high school.
Co-alumni!
with co-SM-Fairview-regular Teddy Corpuz of Rocksteddy. We exchanged stories. There were terminologies that I bet no one in that
backstage could understand or have an idea about except Teddy and us:
Terms like Egay's, Dulo, and Sir Raon.
July 7, 2007 | 9:48pm | Log 141 |
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