Thursday, December 22, 2011

Laughing About the Difference Between Men and Women

I blogged about a pastor/comedian, Mark Gungor, amusingly touching on this subject some time ago. The link to the post is below.

http://sundowndos.blogspot.com/2009/11/nothing-box.html

Mark, in a very positive and funny way, essentially explained how men and women think differently. The hope is in the midst of that explanation, couples would gain insight as to what drives the other. I'll post the video again below. So that you can watch it.



But the reason for this post is how full-on comedians take to the same subject. Below are video performances of Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle on the very same topic.





Too funny. I ended up looking for and downloading Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock's shows. And I'm still laughing until now.


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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

K-Pop Rocks Out

I'm drunk as hell. But I just wanted to share Taeyon from SNSD's performance of Devil's Cry. It's the rock intro to their song Run Devil Run.



I'm so in love...

\m/


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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Jack Versus the Crab at JD Set Long Sets in Casa Nami


I really have to hurry up and get current on my gig blog posts. The longer it takes for me to blog about any one gig, the more chances there is for me to forget what actually happened during that gig. This post is about what essentially was my last experience with the Jack Daniels' JD Set Philippines tour for the year. This one was set in November 11, 2011 (yes, 11-11-11) in Casa Nami.

(All pictures in this post belong to Jack Daniel's Philippines.)

I dragged my good friend Joseph along with me to this gig. He's gotten to be a really good friend this past year. And I can safely say he's my only friend that I look to hang with on any given weekend. We got there relatively early than the rest of my band. My favorite band out of the JD Set 7 bands, Paramita was playing when we arrived. The Jack Daniel's organizers greeted me as I stepped in Casa Nami, and offered to bring in the band's complimentary bottle. I politely refused and said I'd rather wait for the rest of the band to arrive before hitting that bottle. Otherwise, it might very well be half empty by the time my bandmates got there.


So I headed over to the bar and kept ordering Jack Cokes for myself and Joseph. Since we weren't allowed to vote for ourselves for the entire span of the JD Set competitions, I just poured my votes into Paramita instead. That band with its rather large following ironically doesn't do well in terms of event votes. That's probably because the demographic of their fan base really can't afford to spend a lot of money on expensive Jack Daniel's drinks. Knowing this, I wanted to support my friends (since I know these guys from my other band SunDownMuse playing Blaster production events).


My bandmates arrived about an hour or so later. I found out from Waxie that a good number of our horn players couldn't make it to the gig. So we essentially only had 1 trumpet player and 1 sax player. The two horn players just had to adjust.

I do remember seeing a group of guys that were from my batch back in college. They used to be basketball heads and looked down on me for being such a geek. It's just funny because now they're just in Casa Nami to get drunk and I'm actually playing at this event. What sweet revenge without even doing anything. LOL!


Whatever else happened from when I got to Casa Nami and when it was our turn to play was largely a blur. I know I just kept hanging out at the smoking area and kept drinking with Joseph. We were waiting for Fritz, our drummer, to come in from his gig with Snafu at a different venue. And while I was sharing with Waxie in our frustration that Fritz was taking so long to get to Casa Nami, at a certain point I just shrugged it off and just enjoyed drinking.

Fritz finally arrived on a full sprint from downstairs. Below are some videos that Joseph took of our set that night.

"I'm In Love Again"


"The Song I Never Finished"


I was particularly proud of my solo during our last song of the set. I still get uber nervous when it's my turn to solo given the cumulative skill of the band. But I think I did pretty well that night. /gives himself a pat of the back

I also like our guitarist's, JR's, solo. He picked up his wine glass of Jack Daniel's and used it as a slide while playing his guitar. The horn players, particularly Enzo stepped it up a notch that night. It was the first time I saw Enzo really pull out how good he really was. Our drummer Fritz and our sax player Fred were awesome as usual. Derek, our bassist, was a barrel of laughs during his solo because he was amusingly copying JR's George Benson-esque/stecato solo-ing. That was hilarious and the crowd loved it too.

Park that gig in the history books of what's been a rollercoaster ride of music for me so far.



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Friday, December 16, 2011

Awesome Weekend Part 4: Jason Mraz Live in Manila


Continuing to slowly chip away at the ever increasing heap of events to blog about, I finally get to the ender of the weekend. This post is about Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera doing an acoustic show at the Araneta Coliseum last October 30, 2011.

Briggs, Carol, and I bought tickets for this show about a month prior. And even buying tickets that early didn't provide as with front row seats. But regardless, we wanted to see Jason Mraz play so we settled for lower box seats. Compared to when Korn played in the same venue, the Mraz/Toca show was packed to the brim.

Jason Mraz's musical skill goes without question. But I was particularly interested in seeing Toca play given he was a percussionist. Toca's percs playing was simple and straightforward. His skill came in with his vocal blending with Jason's vocals. This in itself was the other half of the duo formula that just works perfectly.

Below are two videos I took from that night.

"The Remedy"


"I'm Yours"


I know I made a mistake in the title screen of the "I'm Yours" video. I'm just too lazy to correct it and re-upload.

Apparently Jason is seen as extremely attractive to females. You could tell from the primarily female crowd singing along with him. This obviously signified hundreds of pairs of panties dropping for the duration of the concert. I wish I could have that effect on hundreds of females too. But alas, I'm no Jason Mraz. LOL!

It was such a pleasant way to end the weekend coming off a string of nights worth of gigs. And to think it was a holiday the following day. So Monday gave me the opportunity to sit down, relax, and ponder on how fun much the weekend was with a big smile on my face.


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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Pinoy Couple Jams "Blackened" with Metallica

Deej, percussionist of Julianne, Kalayo, and a whole slew of other bands posted this video on Facebook. Least to say, I was floored to see a Filipino married couple asked by Metallica to jam with them onstage at their 30th Anniversary concert at the Filmore. You just gotta watch this video.



I am so dying with envy. You guys rock! \m/

Oh and their baby, Lightning, is soooooo cute!


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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Awesome Weekend Part 3: SunDownMuse at Capone's


On to the third part of the musical weekend. I had a gig with SunDownMuse at the Sari-Sari Sounds event at Capone's Bistro last October 29, 2011.

Drinking and gigging for two nights in a row prior left me in a haze and exhausted. But I still didn't want to pass up a gig. I was surprised that there wasn't a whole lot of people on a Saturday at Capone's. I guess the event wasn't marketed all that well. The number of people there came very close to just the organizers, the bands, and friends. That amounted to a decently sized crowd but nowhere near packed, of course.

Bands of note from that night were Cheeba and Severo. Severo has been lurking around the scene for as long as we have. They also went on haitus for a while and just resurfaced recently like us. It was funny that the vocalist mentioned that he remembers us from the Club SEx days. Club SEx being short for Club Sound Experience, ehem. Those were the days when I first joined SunDownMuse. So the Severo vocalist's memory of us was obviously from eons ago.


Below are a few videos from our set that night. Ela was nice enough to wield my Zoom Q3HD to record our set. Carol surprisingly was taking video of us playing too. The audio gain on my Zoom Q3HD was set to high. So the audio didn't come out so good. So I ended up splicing the audio from Carol's Flip video recording to the video from my Zoom Q3HD.

"Khattamshud"


"The Writer"


I suppose my snowball hangover and exhaustion from two nights of boozing and gigging got to me when we didn't play our last song "Unfuck" so well. I got instantly annoyed and acted a little crabby to my bandmates. Of course, that was uncalled for really even though I did have valid points to make about how badly we played our last song. Our drummer had problems with his kick pedal kept getting dislodged from the kick drum. Our bassist kept negotiating with us on stage on which song to play next. That and a few more other trivial things nabbed at me. Regardless, I apologized to the band. Carol talked to me about what was wrong with me. I guess it came down to exhaustion plus anxiety about my situation at work. It's nice to have bandmates who are your good friends to boot. It allows for some slack to be given to you when you have moments of weakness like that and act immaturely.

 
I was able to shrug off whatever abstract issue(s) I was having and enjoyed the company of my bandmates and some of their +1s for that night. Gigo and I stuck around to watch the jam of the Sari-Sari Sounds organizers. It was not bad at all to be honest. The vocalist was from a band called Out of Body Special that I remember watching back in the day. His melodic rapping/singing rang nicely in my ears. But alas, after a while Gigo and I felt it prudent to head on home as well. I did take video of them jamming. But I just haven't gotten around reviewing it and possibly editing and uploading it on YouTube. Perhaps some day I'll get around to it when I have time to kill.

Third night in a row of gigging and my chick-like tampo-spree at the end of our set left a slightly bad taste in my mouth so to speak. So I knew I had to make it up to my bandmates some time. I was having too much fun I suppose, yet my musical weekend had one more day to go. I got it in my head to at least try to snap out of it and enjoy the rest of that weekend.


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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Mario 30th Anniversary Fan Made Music Video

My friend Chris from Japan showed me this video today. For anybody who has been playing every iteration of Mario through the years, this is a must-see.



30 years, damn. I literally grew up with Mario given that I'm just slightly older than him. LOL!

It's a long video, 18+ minutes. But I loved watching every minute of it. Kudos to the 40-some people from Japan who put this together. It warmed my geeky heart.


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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Awesome Weekend Part 2: Jack Versus the Crab at JD Set Fright Night


On to part deux of this weekend. This night was my gig with Jack Versus the Crab at the Jack Daniel's Fright Night event at Eastwood Central Plaza last October 28, 2011. I was so stoked to do this gig coming off a hectic work week.

My crafty suki cab driver, Bert, actually got me to Eastwood earlier than my band's meet up time. So I actually over-estimated the amount of time I needed to get there because I was afraid traffic would delay me significantly. So by the time I showed up near Blue Onion at Eastwood, none of my bandmates were there yet. Luckily our band PA was already there. So Waxie instructed him to come over to where I was to help me carry my gear. Phew!

(All pictures were taken by Maritoni unless otherwise noted.)


The backstage area was just as awesome as the last time we had a Jack Daniel's gig at Eastwood. Each band had their usual designated tables. It was cool that our table was actually right beside Urbandub's table. So I was quietly fanboying over Urbandub the entire night.


One by one my bandmates started trickling in and of course the boozing started soon after that. As always with these Jack Daniel's gigs, there was an inordinate amount of alcohol on our table. There are a lot of us in the band. So the amount of Jack Daniel's required for the night had to be multiplied equal to the number of people wanting to drink. That's not even counting the +1s, like Maritoni, Windi, etc.


Instead of the usual host Roanna, I was amusingly surprised that Hank was hosting the event. Hank was donning his full-on Jack Sparrow costume coupled with his Jack Sparrow antics. It was a Halloween party after all. And Hank was definitely a good choice to host that particular event.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Awesome Weekend Part 1: SunDownMuse at the Keg

This is a long overdue series of blog posts. To be honest, the gigs keep coming week after week. And while each gig is uniquely fun, it's starting to become a blur. So I'll probably end up not blogging about a gig or two if it wasn't all that memorable.

This post is the start of the 4 night musical weekend I had starting from October 27 to October 30. This was one of those very tiring weekends where I pushed it once again because I know if I didn't, I will regret it for the rest of my life.


I played with SunDownMuse at the Keg, Fort Strip, for an H2Rock event. The first time I played at the Keg was when I jammed with my bandmate Gigo during his acoustic gig back in September 29, 2011. We were just a duo back then. So we were definitely in for a treat this time around since we are playing with a full band.

(All pictures and videos on this post belong to the management of the Keg)

Reklamo


Out of all the bands that played before us that night, I'm a fan of two of them. Although not part of the original band line-up for the event, Reklamo was invited to play. Like I've mentioned before, I've known these guys for quite some time now. I continue to be a fan of their music. Their gigil/loud/rock-out vibe has always been entertaining.

Turbogoth


Admittedly, I started paying attention to this duo because of Sarah Gaugler. Half of the reason why I'm a fan is because Sarah is really attractive. But of course, the other half leans towards my taste of industrial/electronica beats much like groups like Drip, etc.  It was a shame though that the sound techs didn't really know what they were doing. So either the beats, guitar, or vocals would be drowned out. It took 2-3 full songs before they could figure it all out. But by then, Turbogoth was already down to their last song. I still enjoyed their set. But the regular listeners that night probably didn't appreciate it as much as they should've.

SunDownMuse


It finally came around to our turn to play. Now, the Keg has a weird floor area that doesn't really lend well to full band set-ups. It's really just a long curved corridor with a "cul de sac" of sorts at the end. Normally they would try to cram a full band set up right before that "cul de sac". But for that night, they actually moved the band set up back. This gave the bands more room. But also kind of cut off the vision of the crowd to be able to see the bands. This means only the people in front can really see the bands play. The people at the tables near the bar, couldn't.

Despite how the venue's area is structured, I was relieved that the band set up was further back, and that there was actually space. As always, finding myself a chair to sit on while I set up my stuff has proved to be difficult regardless of venue. So I decided to plant myself on the banister/bench on the side. Now that made me more hidden than the rest of the band. But I didn't really care at that point. I just wanted to play.

Below is a video that the owner of the Keg took of us playing. You'll notice there how tucked away I was that night. LOL!



The set was so short-lived given that the production had a lot of bands in it. But it was a lot of fun, nonetheless.

Briggs used to be neighbors with Sarah Gaugler and her boyfriend. So we hung out with them and even treated them to a few drinks. Yes, drinking on a Thursday night. This was really the start of a very boozy, yet musical weekend.


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Monday, November 21, 2011

Chuck Norris World of Warcraft Commercial

I just saw this video and I just had to repost it on my blog. As many WoW players have either experienced or revelled in, Chuck Norris jokes have been amusingly setting the ingame standard of strength and power for ages. This kinda tops all the past WoW commercials (Ozzy's WoW commercial comes in a close second in my opinion).



Hilarious! A melee hunter is a nice touch with his pet doing absolutely nothing. And the fact that the Chuck does mostly roundhouse kicks. LOL!

"There are 10 million people in the World of Warcraft... because Chuck Norris allows them to live!"

:))


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Saturday, November 19, 2011

STOMP! - SunDownMuse Gig - Blizzcon

I just finished watching this movie called "Friends with Benefits" and now find myself with nothing to do. So I decided to cut into my blogging backlog again. This post is about the awesome triple header night I had back on October 21, 2011.

My company's Office Admin Manager, Joy, was so nice to score me two tickets to watch STOMP! that night. So I invited Charlene to come along with me. Charlene took the day off from her work and offered to pick me up and head to CCP to watch.


Now CCP is a little strict when it comes to taking pictures or video. I'm sure I would've been able to sneak in a few snaps with my Blackberry or take a few minutes of video. But to be honest, STOMP was just so breathtakingly awesome, that I was just so engrossed in their performance to think about taking pictures or video. So my apologies that I do not have anything visual to show you.

STOMP was fantastic to say the least. They're a group that focuses on alternative percussion rhythms first and then dance intertwined second. I was mesmerized with all the different things they used while performing. They used broomsticks, newspaper, garbage cans, fire extinguishers, etc.

For a few moments during STOMP's performance, I was even thinking perhaps I should try out for that group and see if I could get in. I'm sure I'll get all the rhythms down no problem. But I'm no theater performer. There was a lot more going into their performance than just the rhythms.

After the performance, Charlene and I shared ear-to-ear smiles on our faces after being so entertained. I do hope I get to watch STOMP again some time. They're just too good.

Charlene was so nice that she even volunteered to drive and come with me to my gig with SunDownMuse at Last Home. When we got to Last Home, the rest of my bandmates were already there except for Islaw. Islaw also watched STOMP that night. So he had to follow to Last Home after. This band called Mistress was gracious enough to invite us to join their event in Last Home. This was also the first time that the vocalist has seen SunDownMuse play because the last time we played a gig with Mistress, she left early.

Briggs' partner, Carol, was kind enough to use my Zoom Q3HD to take video of our set that night. Below are the resulting videos she took. Thanks Carol!

"Khattamshud"


"Flesh 'n Bone"


Saturday, November 5, 2011

Jack Versus the Crab at the JD Set 7 Long Sets Event at No. 38


I was holding out blogging about this particular night because I was waiting for Jack Daniel's to release all the pictures they took from night on Facebook. But it's been weeks and they haven't posted them still. So I'll take the time to blog about this now.

This post is of my gig with Jack Versus the Crab at the JD Set 7 Long Sets production at No. 38 last October 14, 2011. We skipped Jack Daniel's Birthday event. So this was the first time since the JD Set 7 Tour Launch, that we've played for Jack Daniel's.

The gig venue was a little bit of a concern for the band days prior to the gig. Some have been to No. 38 and noticed how tiny the space is for the band. Most bands that play there usually just play acoustic, or would bring a junior drum kit because of the limited space. We were a large band, minimum of 10 people at any given gig. So space was always a concern at any gig. Fortunately, Jack Daniel's knew this and actually segmented out more of the floor of the band. Phew!


My good friend Joseph and I got there early to catch "Stories of Now" play. That band really minds a very "Smallville soundtrack"-esque style to them given their pop sensibilities. One of the Jack Daniel's promo girls was trying to sell me into buying a bottle of Jack Daniel's. I found this amusing because JD Set 7 bands are provided bottles and are discouraged from buying and voting for themselves during the entire span of their competition. After she made her very compelling pitch, I identified myself as being part of Jack Versus the Crab. She immediately sprang with a dozen apologies in a row, and I just politely laughed and told her it was okay.

Photo taken by Patricia Pelayo

While the rest of my band was slowly trickling in. We feasted on crispy pata and drowned ourselves with Jack Cokes. We were practically complete after a while, except for our drummer Fritz, who was playing for Snafu at another venue in Makati. We tried to stall the organizers for a bit.  Although the organizers were very accommodating, we couldn't just keep pushing back our set start time.  So we started setting up and even started playing a song that could be pulled off acoustic. This kinda of made me nervous because my congas part had to carry the rhythm. Luckily, mid-way through the song, Fritz arrived and headed straight for the drum kit. We then started our set.

Below are videos that my friend Joseph took of our entire set that night. He used my Zoom Q3HD to take the video as usual.

"Your Smiles"


Sunday, October 16, 2011

Last Minute Gig at Capone's

I'm getting a piling backlog again of what's been happening lately that I want to blog about. This only means things are looking up in the personal aspect of my life. This particular post is about our spontaneous SunDownMuse gig last October 7, 2011.

It was a Friday then. And I was making plans with my friend Mari. However, our drummer Andrew texted asking if we wanted to gig at Capone's Bistro, A Venue Mall in Makati. We just had band practice the previous night, and the thought of when our next gig will be was lingering in our heads that night. So all the band members agreed, and made arrangements with our respective jobs, so that we could make the gig possible. I had to bail on my friend Mari for that night. Sorry Mari!

(All photos in this post are from LC of Reklamo)

Two comedians around the scene performed that night. I personally found the first comedian not all that funny. I was pleasantly surprised with the second comedian, Mike Unson. I remember gigging at a nice bar called Sanctum Unmasct in Intramuros years ago. And at times, Mike would be there to perform stand-up. Back then, he'd be reading jokes from a notebook. He was funny back then. But it depended on the joke he was delivering. Mike seems to have improved his craft since then. And although you don't expect to be literally rolling on the floor laughing while watching someone like Robin Williams, Mike's very current and Filipino flavored humor got me laughing quite a few times.

Reklamo


A band called Reklamo played soon after Mike. Back when 6Underground was still running in Makati, we were booked to play every Saturday for a year. Most of those Saturdays, LC would be playing. That act was the makings of the recent GBOB winner, Reklamo.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Diablo 3 Beta Envy

As most gamer geeks know, Blizzard has opened the beta for Diablo 3. They've invited mostly media at this point. But hopefully they will soon invite random players (like myself) to try out the beta version as well. Rather than regurgitate all the details about Diablo 3 that's already everywhere else on the net, I just wanted to share the 4 part walkthrough video that IGN.com posted on their YouTube channel. They run through the entire campaign available in the beta. Which is really just a portion of the 1st Act, with a max level cap of around 13 or 14.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


/wipe geeky drool off face


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Saturday, September 24, 2011

SunDownMuse at Last Home


Our SunDownMuse gig at Last Home last August 26, 2011 was also symbolic of many "firsts". This was the first SunDownMuse gig sporting our new lead guitarist Gigo. I was the one who suggested to Briggs to bring Gigo into SunDownMuse. Gigo was a perfect fit not only for his guitar skills, but because he had very little issues with himself and others. Gigo was already playing with us for another band, Rolling Paper Soctiety, which is a cover band of 70s classic rock tunes. So we already knew how he approaches music and how he meshes well with myself, Briggs, and Islaw both as musicians and as friends.

(The next pictures in this post are from Dash Lee of Plasma Graphics.)


It was also the first time in a very long time that we felt the band was "drama-free". Everybody was comfortable with the style and skill of each band member. We were also all relatively settled in our personal lives, and therefore didn't bring any major personal issues into the band.


Andrew, our drummer, was especially excited to play this gig since he got the gig for the band. The event was a Blaster Productions event, who are all essentially friends that he grew up with musically. Given that most of them have continued music when he went on a haitus post-Mindbender, the excitement was shared by himself and his peers to see him strut his stuff again behind a drum kit.


Below are videos taken by my good friend Joseph using my Zoom Q3HD of our entire set that night. Apparently the bassist of Mistress was smug enough to just keep putting his beer bottle in plain view of my video camera. However, the guy was apparently on to something because the beer in the foreground gave the videos a beer-stained bar feel.

"Khattamshud"


"Nothing"


Friday, September 23, 2011

Mari's Wedding and my Jack Daniel's JD Set 7 Tour Launch Gig



I coursed through this day (August 19, 2011) through sheer willpower given the day involved traveling to Batangas, to Tagaytay, and then to Eastwood. I had to attend my good friend Mari's wedding in Batangas. Then head to his wedding reception in Tagaytay. Then head to Eastwood for a Jack Daniel's JD Set 7 gig with one of my bands, Jack Versus the Crab. This entire day affair was coupled with bringing a lot of percussion gear, and battling through cluster headache attacks in between.

That morning started off with me waking up early to a mild cluster headache attack. Luckily it was just a lingering headache and not a full blown attack. My suki cab driver picked me up at my apartment. I loaded my 2 congas, and a gig bag with my rig, chimes, and toys contained within. I got to Roland's place and he seemed just as sleepy as I was. We loaded my percs gear into his car, and just chilled at his place while having some much needed coffee. Roland was nice enough to offer to drive me to the wedding and to the gig, and even help me with all my percs gear. The coffee and some medication helped my headache. So I was momentarily encouraged that I will actually pull this entire day off.

(Photos from Mari's wedding were from my Blackberry. The Eastwood photos, except the Urbandub picture, are from Shaui Padua, Joanne Salas, and Leo Dimaano)

We first had to head to Tagaytay, the venue of Mari's wedding reception, to dress up into our formal wear. The drive over to Tagaytay was pleasant. I got to talk to Roland about the latest that was going on in our lives. And he seemed relieved that despite all the heavy things happening in his life that I was relatively understanding and non-judgmental.


Arriving at the hotel of Mari's wedding reception, I stepped out of Roland's car and breathed in the fresh and cool Tagaytay air. I was thinking to myself that I should move out here some day. It would be a pleasant place to retire in. As I was part of Mari's entourage, I had to have a barong made by his fashion designer friend. So that I would have the same style and design barong as the rest of the entourage. Roland being not part of the entourage wore a stylish suit that Millet put together.


After some awkward feeling picture taking at the hotel grounds, everybody started proceeding to the church where the wedding was slated to take place. The church was small, yet cozy. While I was waiting for the ceremony to begin, I would get slight spikes of head pain possibly signalling a headache attack coming. I would cringe my eyes each time and just hope that it wouldn't get worse. The ceremony began and throughout the ceremony, I was swimming between the area of pain and slight pain. The wedding ceremony was your standard ceremony proceedings. The string ensemble up in the church rafters was a good touch in terms of musical accompaniment for the wedding.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Urbandub at 19 East Once Again

After the fun-filled bustling week in my personal life prior to this particular night (watched Red Hot Chili Peppers and Korn), I felt like my Saturday night would be utterly boring if I didn't go out and do something. I decided to watch one of my favorite bands Urbandub at the SonicBoom event at 19 East last August 13, 2011. My friend Joseph asked me what I was up to. So I invited him to come along to 19 East with me. He brought his wife, Sarah, along, and the three of us die-hard Urbandub fans headed to 19 East after meeting up at my place.

19 East has always been a pleasure to hang out in given how nice the place is, and how good the gear and acoustics of the place sounds. This particular night was no exception. We got in soon after of the crowd piled in the place. We were lucky to even get a table at the back when we arrived.

We watched a few bands prior to Urbandub. One band of note is a new band by former Dicta License vocalist, called Malay. The frontman had so much rockstar pull that all of Urbandub along with other known musicians like Audry of General Luna, etc. all piled in from outside just to watch the band. Malay's music was certainly a big departure from how Rage Against the Machine influed Dicta License sounded back in the day. It wasn't all that bad for a 3 piece band.

Below is a video of Urbandub's performance of "Gravity" that night. Janjan, Urbandub's drummer, couldn't make it for this particular gig. So the band got Subscapular's drummer to fill in again. It was getting odd that I've been watching Urbandub's gigs with the sessionist drummer more often than the regular drummer. The sessionist was started to seem like the regular drummer. This is the only video I took that night that I'm gonna post because the other videos had too many protruding heads, or macking couples obstructing my Zoom Q3HD's view. LOL!

"Gravity"


Joseph, Sarah, and I were busy getting drunk off of Red Horse bottles and Cuervo shots while watching Urbandub's set. There's really just something about their music that makes you want to drink some more. Before we knew it, we were singing all the lyrics to their songs up loud aside from Sarah incessantly fangirl screaming. The people around us couldn't help but notice. But we didn't care about the people around us. We went to 19 East to have fun, and that's what we did.

After Urbandub's set, we went over to the band to get some pictures with them. Sarah most especially wanted to have pictures with the band because she kept missing out the last times Joseph and I watched them perform.

Personally, I just wanted another picture with Lalay, the bassist. /sigh


Another fun night. More to come.


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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Korn Live in Manila

I had to break this one up to a separate post because it plainly deserves a post of its own. This is about part 2 of the concert double header, Korn live at the Araneta Coliseum, last August 10, 2011.

Tired but still high from the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, Briggs and I took a short nap that afternoon when we got back to Manila from Hong Kong. Briggs drove using her Tucson. We surprisingly found parking near Araneta Coliseum fairly quickly.

We could really notice the difference from AsiaWorld Expo in Hong Kong and Araneta Coliseum. Araneta Coliseum felt old and was litered with throngs of security guards.

We made sure to buy Korn concert t-shirts already. The t-shirts were nowhere nears as nice in material and printing as the RHCP shirts we bought in Hong Kong. But then again, this is the Philippines after all. Again, we were definitely back in Manila.

The venue didn't fill up all that much especially between the lower box and bleacher seats up above. The hefty tickt prices were probably the biggest deterrent for a large audience attendance. The standing floor area below and the bleachers filled up quite nicely, however.

Slapshock fronted Korn for this particular concert, which was only fitting as that band was heavily influenced by Korn from the beginning. I was a fan of the band only on their first album back in college and lost track of them ever since. Below is a video of one of their old school songs that I liked.

"Agent Orange"


After Slapshock, this DJ sporting a midi trigger and Macbook came onstage mixing tracks from Rob Zombie, Prodigy, etc. Although he performed sufficiently adequate, the crowd didn't really get into his performance much. Poor guy.


Korn came on stage soon after and that breathed life back into the crowd. Below are videos of some of the Korn songs performed that night. Briggs and I were much closer to the stage this time around compared to the RHCP concert. So the videos I took were much clearer and the sound came out fantastic.

"Here to Stay"


Monday, September 19, 2011

Red Hot Chili Peppers Live in Hong Kong

This post is one of the longer posts I will put up in this blog sheerly because it's the only overseas trip I've taken since 2008. This is about my trip to Hong Kong to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers from August 8 to August 10, 2011.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were supposed to have a concert in Manila. But for some reason, for the nth time, they cancelled on Manila. So instead, my good friends Briggs and Carol, and myself decided that if RHCP won't come to us, we'll go to them. So about a month in advance, Carol started booking our flight and hotel reservations. And we all filed leaves from our respective day jobs (albeit difficult). This was actually all our SunDownMuse bassist, Islaw's idea in the first place. He called and texted us after he had already bought his concert tickets online. He was excited at the fact of seeing us and a number of his other friends all converging in Hong Kong for the concert.

Briggs and Carol suggested that I sleep over their place on Sunday, August 7, 2011. So come Monday, we all can leave for the airport together. I was so stoked that Sunday. Waking up real early the morning after was a chore but willpower prevailed, with the help of coffee at the airport. Thankfully, our flight arrangements were at NAIA 3 airport. Therefore, we didn't have to toil with how chaotic things are at NAIA 1. Only in the Philippines would you have to pay airport tax AND an airport terminal fee, when most airports only had an airport tax or even none at all. That's the Philippines for you.

The flight was not really memorable since it only took about 2 hours at the most. I put on my noise-cancelling headphones and listened to my iPod the entire time. The Cebu Pacific stewardesses were running these games during the flight. But I didn't really given them much attention.


Arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport ushered in the realization that we were indeed in a different country. The airport is expansive and very well maintained as I remembered it.


Sunday, September 18, 2011

Don't Panic

I haven't posted about a random song that I like in a long while. I figured I'd wedge this here in between posts about my actual musical or geeky life experiences.

I woke up about an hour or so ago, and was thinking of what I wanted to do. This song popped into my head since I've been meaning to learn to play this song on guitar and sing it. The song is Coldplay's "Don't Panic" from their "Parachutes" album. It's a really simple song yet I've always been drawn to the vocal melody, particularly during the choruses.

Below is official music video of the song along with the song's prose.



Don't Panic
by Coldplay


Bones sinking like stones
All that we've fought for
Homes, places we've grown
All of us are done for

We live in a beautiful world
Yeah we do
Yeah we do
We live in a beautiful world

Bones sinking like stones
All that we've fought for
Homes, places we've grown
All of us are done for

We live in a beautiful world
Yeah we do
Yeah we do
We live in a beautiful world

We live in a beautiful world
Yeah we do
Yeah we do
We live in a beautiful world

Oh all that I know
There's nothing here to run from
'Cause yeah, everybody here's got somebody to lean on

As always with songs I post here, below is a live version of the song.



The song is amazing. My only comment about this song is that it's way too short.


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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Urbandub at the Kerplunk Anniversary Party

This is actually part 2 of the night when I watched Caren Tevanny's acoustic gig at No. 38 last August 2, 2011. This is actually the reason why I couldn't catch Caren's 3rd set. /hides from Caren

My friend, Kenny, had to go meet up with his wife and head home. But Joseph and I wanted to gamble and see if Urbandub hadn't played yet at the Kerplunk anniversary party at Casa Nami. It was drizzling/raining when we got out of No. 38. So it took a while for us to get a cab. When we got to Casa Nami, Urbandub was setting up for their set. Joseph and I looked at each other and gave each other high fives and raised our fists in the air in triumph. Yes!

Below are videos of their entire set that night. I couldn't get the whole band in one shot because I was close to being right in front of the stage. I couldn't back up either because if I did, I wouldn't have gotten a clear shot of them. Janjan, their regular drummer, wasn't able to make it for the gig. So they employed the mad skills of Subscapular's drummer to fill in for the night.

"Soul Searching"


"First of Summer"


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Acoustic Caren Tevanny

This is actually a span of two separate nights. But I figured I'd roll this into one post. Caren Tevanny of Sanctus, General Luna, and a slew of other bands, has been doing acoustic gigs the past few months. She usually has one other guitarist and at times a drummer. She plays acoustic covers mostly from the 90s, anywhere from Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" to Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer".

Her vocals and guitar playing on her acoustic gigs aren't as good as opposed to her Sanctus or General Luna gigs. But I do appreciate that she goes for high notes even if it's just shy of her vocal range. The sheer effort to go for it vocally, added to the fact that she's very pleasing to the eyes, makes her acoustic act entertaining.

Below is a video of one of the cover songs she performed at Cafe Alfonso. The venue is extremely close to my apartment. So I headed over there alone to eat dinner and wind down the work day. This cover song was from Guns 'n Roses. So I couldn't pass up uploading this to YouTube.



Admittedly, I was too shy to approach Caren in between her sets. Yes, this is a typical fanboy reaction of mine. I was happy enough just to get to watch her perform.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

SunDownMuse and Julianne

A lot has happened that's blog-worthy since the last time I posted in here. But I just got caught up with everything between work and my increasingly busy personal life, that I really haven't gotten around documenting all the highlights the past month and half. Rather than get into the recent woes that I've been going through, I'll just play catch up with the good things that have happened since my last post.

I actually skipped over this particular night. But I'll get into it in this post. This night is about SunDownMuse's first gig in a long time. Not counting the gig we had at my company Christmas party last year, this band hasn't gigged in over a year. We were fortunate to be invited by Sari-Sari Sounds at their launch party at B-Side last July 1, 2011.

SunDownMuse

There were a few "first"s and one "last", about this gig. This was the first gig of the band in a long time. This was also the first gig with our new drummer Andrew. We only had about 2 practices with this new drummer. So we weren't as tight as we should be. However, the band wanted to gig so badly. So there we were, we took the gig invite without hesitation.

This was also the last gig of our lead guitarist Charles. I am saddened by this more than he knows. But I've obviously lost track with the guy despite my attempts every so often to keep in touch. But all that is another story entirely.

Below are a few videos that my friend Joseph took of our set that night, using my Zoom Q3HD.

"Khattamshud"


"Nothing"


Sunday, July 31, 2011

Incubus Live in Manila 2011

I actually had one other thing to post first prior to this one. But I think I'll skip that one for now and get right to blogging about the awesome Incubus concert I watched back in July 28, 2011.

I took a halfday leave from work that day just go to the concert. Joseph, Sarah, and I got into my trusty suki cab driver's chariot around 7:00PM to head to Araneta Colliseum. When asked Bert (the cab driver) if he thinks we'll make it to the concert venue by 8:00PM (music start), he looked at me and said "matrapik eh". But Joseph told me to not despair as concerts always have a opening act and they never start on time anyway.

We were so excited to watch Incubus that we didn't even wait to pull up to the gate of the venue yet. We got and started walking instead of putting up with the last leg of traffic. When we got to the entrance, the guards apparently do not allow cameras to be brought in the venue. This presented a problem for Joseph and Sarah as they just bought a DLSR. I brought my Zoom Q3HD which fit nicely in my pocket. So the guards didn't bother flagging me about it. I headed inside and stepped out to the smoking area to talk to Joseph through the metal barricade. With all the confusion of other people trying to get in, I told Joseph to just hand me his DSLR. So that they can get past the gate easily. That worked. LOL!

Joseph and Sarah were about to head to the entrance where our seats were the closest. But I stopped them saying "Okay, I need to buy a shirt before going in. They'll run out for sure by the time we come back out after the concert." So that's what I did. Luckily, the shirts being sold were actual concert tour t-shirts. I'll be wearing that shirt proudly to work tomorrow. ;)

By the time we got seated. The opening act just started playing. To my surprise, it was "superband" Franco that was fronting for Incubus. No wonder Gabby from Urbandub was tweeting that he was already at the venue watching Incubus do a soundcheck. That was the first time I have ever seen Franco play live. And I became an instant fan. I've been crunching over their song "Castaway" obsessively since then. The sound of the band was similar to Urbandub given Gabby and Jan-jan were at the helm for guitars and drums. But the difference is the vocals. There was something smooth about the vocals that makes the vocal melodies permeate in your head.

After a short break, Incubus finally came on stage. This is when I realized that the venue was sold out and packed, because of all the cheers, shouts, and screams when Incubus came up. I readied my Zoom Q3HD so I can take video. I also prepped my Belkin Tune-Talk/iPod combo so I can record audio for the entire concert for good measure.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

My Fête de la Musique 2011 Experience

I was actually waiting for my good friends Roland and Millet to send me copies of the pictures they took that night before I blogged about it here. But it's been a few weeks since this night already. So I figured I'd get around to posting this today on a rainy/gloomy Sunday afternoon.

This particular post is my experience gigging at Fête de la Musique 2011 at Bonifacio Global City last June 25, 2011. This is an exceptional double treat for me. I got to gig with a very skilled big band called Jack Versus the Crab. AND I got to play on the "main stage" of Fête de la Musique. The few times I got to play at a Fête de la Musique event was always on the "alternative stage". So being able to gig up front and center of the main stage was a dream turned reality.

I only had 1 studio practice with the band 2 days prior to the gig (first practice with them ever). We were planning on playing 5-6 songs. So I had to practice during the afternoon of the gig day itself just for added measure. I was already nervous early that day. If I wasn't practicing along the few songs that I either had recorded or the band posted on the net, I'd just be listening to those tracks while eating or surfing. I got to a certain point that late afternoon that I just told myself that was the most prepared I was ever going to be given the lack of time to completely immerse myself with the band's music.

My good friends Roland, Joseph, and Sarah came along with me to help me with my gear and cheer me on for that gig. Joseph volunteered to bring along my Zoom Q3HD and camera stand because we both knew that handshakes are very evident when taking video with my Zoom.

Finding parking was surprisingly a lot easier than in Fête de la Musique's of the past. I guess that's because the main stage was a little further away from the rest of the stages that night. When I got to the artists' lounge, I noticed that the band was already in full force. All 9 of them were already there. We gave each other high-fives when I entered the room. Waxie handed me my artist's ID/pass so I can easily get to the artists' lounge or backstage without any hassle from security. One more Fête de la Musique Artists' ID for my collection. Yes!


Monday, July 4, 2011

Wolfgang Live at the MET

This post is long overdue as is the increasing backlog of things I'm supposed to blog about.  So I figured I'd cut into that backlog once again.  This particular post is about the awesome night I had with my friend Joseph and his wife, watching Wolfgang live at the ol' Metropolitan Theater last June 18, 2011.

Although the venue itself was old and in severe need of repair (to the point that the upper deck was closed off because it couldn't support the weight of people to be watching from that area), the production value of the concert was surprisingly one of the best I've seen for any local band.  The lighting was well choreographed with spot lights on each of the band members to highlight them when it was their time to shine (i.e. a guitar solo).

Below are videos I took from that awesome night.  My trusty Zoom Q3HD really pulled it off well especially in the audio department.  I posted these videos on Facebook as well and got instant praise from a lot of Wolfgang fans on the clarity of the video and the audio.  It's too bad some idiot named Danny Matta decided to rip off my videos and upload it on his Facebook as if it was his own. The guy obviously can't even spell since he works as a "BRODBAND Retention Coordinator" at Smart.  But most Wolfgang fans knew the videos were mine. Anyway, on to the videos.

Left Alone



Hiwaga



Monday, June 20, 2011

Acoustic Guitar Trance Six String Samurai

I'll take a break from my own personal experiences in music to share a song by Ewan Dobson. This is the first time I've never seen a guitarist pelt out trance rhythms with an acoustic guitar, until now. I was so floored when I saw it that I wanted to post it on my blog right away.



I want to try to learn playing it. But unfortunately, my minuscule guitar talent probably can't do it. I'd need a thumb pick (not your conventional guitar pick) just to even try to play this song.

I've seen drummers post their own YouTube videos while playing over it. Perhaps I could make a video of my own playing percs over this song. That would be cool.

Amazing.


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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Unsaid

Catching up on my blogging backlog once again. This time, I'm just reminiscing the awesome birthday weekend I had in Naga back in 2009. I blogged about that weekend. You can read about it on the link below.

http://sundowndos.blogspot.com/2009/02/naga-licious-birthday-weekend.html

I dug up the bootleg audio recording I made of Julianne's set that night. I isolated one particular song of her set that I absolutely loved. Below is the YouTube posting of that song in my account. Surprisingly, Julianne (or perhaps the marketing resource that's assigned to manage all her SNS accounts) noticed that posting and reposted it in her official Tumblr and Twitter accounts. Apparently that particular live performance of that song is a rare extended version. Aside from the YouTube video, I've included the particular Tumblr post containing the lyrics of the song. The lyrics in the Tumblr post isn't exact. But good enough for you to follow along. Enjoy.



From http://thisisjulianne.tumblr.com/post/6445279898/check-this-out-guys

CHECK THIS OUT GUYS!

_______________________________

“UNSAID” - LIVE (EXTENDED VERSION)

[Words and Music by: Julianne Tarroja]

Do I have to lose you now
So I can gain you some other time
Do I have to take a bow
End the show before the curtain call

Do I have to look the other way
Coz we just got too much to say
Did it even have to be like this
For you and I, I wanna know why


Even if I know what I’ve been told
To let go means to surrender my control
But it isn’t easy to have loved and not survive
Was is for the wrong reason?
Or maybe the wrong season

Coz I wanted this love to grow
I wanted to see it soar
I wanted to give a chance for the Sun
To kiss our eyes
So maybe we could see the light
Behind our hearts desires

Do I have to be broken one last time
So I can be made whole again
Do I have to be chastised
To be saved and rescued from the fire

Do I have to be reminded of all this
That I didn’t even own a thing to begin with
No right to claim
No right to put the blame
On anyone or anything

Do I have to watch you go ahead
Leaving me with out a word said
Do I even get the opportunity to say my plea
I hope now you’re hearing me

I wanted to see the light
I wanted you to see the light
I wanted us to see the light
… Open up your eyes

Time to open up our eyes…

_____________________________

Julianne - Unsaid (Audio) (Live in Wharf Galley Rock Cafe, February 14, 2009) (by SunDownDos)

(Julianne Tarroja on Vocals and Acoustic guitar, RJ Manese on Bass, Kakoy Legaspi on Electric Guitar, Benjo Robles on drums, Nino Hernandez on flute, DJ Rodriguez on Percussions)



EDIT:
I watched Julianne last night at B-Side. I got to talk to her and actually confirmed that it was her who saw my bootleg audio post of one of her live songs in Naga. She still wants a copy of the audio track. Yey!


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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Jack Versus the Crab Gig

Since I'm thrust to be an absolute bore tonight due to my wisdom tooth extraction recovery, I figured I'd catch up more on blogging the more fun-filled weekends I've had the past weeks. This time it's about my awesome gig with a kick-ass band called Jack Versus the Crab at B-Side, last May 28, 2011.

I've seen the band play a few times before, mostly during Jack Daniel's Set Nights, and I've always admired how they are able to come together despite having such a large number of members in the band. I believe the actual number of members is 10 (1 guitarist/vocalist, 1 guitarist, 1 bassist, 1 drummer, 1 blues harmonica player, and about 5 people as their horn section). I actually blogged about them already before. I even posted a bootleg audio recording I made of one of the songs they played that night (http://sundowndos.blogspot.com/2011/04/jack-daniels-set-reveal-night.html).

Windi, Fritz "Dr. Sticks"'s wife, asked me if I was going to jam with Jack Versus the Crab through a comment on this blog about two weeks prior to the gig. I actually didn't think she was serious until she followed up with me 2 days before the actual day of the gig. I was fortunate that Fritz followed up with Windi to ask me about it. Of course, I giddily accepted. To be given a chance to jam with with Dr. Sticks and the rest was a dream. And I wasn't about to pass that up.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend their band practice that Friday. So I only had the three songs that they had posted online, aside from the song that I recorded from the last gig of theirs that I watched. I listened to those songs a few times come Saturday, and that was all the practice I would ever get for that gig. LOL!

I begged my good friends Joseph and Roland to come with me as moral support and to help with my gear for the night. Before I knew it, it ended up the usual full posse with Sarah (Joseph's wife), Dave (Roland's brother), Millet and Guy also coming along. That made me more excited and equally even more nervous about the gig.

I showed up with my friends at the gig venue very eager-beaver early. Apparently, I was the only one that showed up for the call time on time. The actual band were all late. I found that amusing. So there I was getting all nervous going practically blind on yet another gig. They only served Red Horse beer at B-Side. I think it was a sponsorship thing. But I like Red Horse. So that was far from a disappointment. It actually helped calm my nerves.

People started trickling into the venue, and the band members of Jack Versus the Crab started arriving as well. Apparently, they were 4 horn players short for the night. So that actually made sense as to why I was invited to join them for the gig. Fritz and Windi finally arrived after a while. Fritz came over to me and talked to me about some of the other songs I wasn't familiar with. Luckily all their songs were conveniently in 4 counts. It was just some of the sudden breaks that I had to worry about. Fritz knew Guy from around the music scene from way back. So it was pleasant for such a rockstar like Fritz to hang out with us for a while to chat. I always get starstruck with Fritz's presence.

(Photo credit goes to Roland and Millet for pictures taken during the Jack Versus the Crab set. Thanks friends! The rest of the pictures are from my Blackberry)



Thursday, June 9, 2011

General Luna and Wolfgang

It was an odd day at work last May 26, 2011. I felt a tad indifferent with the people around me except for my good friend Joseph that day. When I took a break from the the big pile heap of things I needed to work on, I noticed that Saguijo had a good line-up on for that night. I was primarily curious about how a band called Toi sounded live. But there were other kick ass bands scheduled for that night, the likes of General Luna and Hijo.

On a whim, Joseph and I decided to go and catch some of the acts at Saguijo. And it turned out to be one of the most fun fanboying nights we've had ever. We stopped over my apartment first to drop off my laptop bag and headed out for Saguijo. The cab driver of the cab we got into was hilariously "ngongo". But surprisingly, I understood about 90% of what the cab driver was saying. I suppose both my and Joseph's brains were hopelessly turned off that night, as we got lost with the cab driver trying to locate the venue. I've gigged in Saguijo so many times in the past years. But I usually hitched with a bandmate and never really bothered to know where exactly Saguijo was located.

General Luna

We eventually arrived at Saguijo and found it bustling with people. How all these people manage to go watch bands every weeknight perplexes me. Apparently we just got in just in time for General Luna's set. They were setting up as we entered the bar. Our eyes lit up and gave each other high fives with "perfect timing" etched in our respective thought bubbles.

I specifically brought my trusty Zoom Q3HD to take videos of the bands that night. Below are a few videos I took of General Luna's set. I had trouble toiling with all the would-be photographers totting expensive DLSRs and rudely bumping you for position. That's actually the reason why I only took videos of 3 of their songs and not the entire set.



Saturday, June 4, 2011

Nimbus 9 Gig

I have a lot of catching up to do with my blog posts. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of music that I haven't really taken the time to document them all in this blog. So I'll start with one of my gigs last May 14, 2011.

My friend Paul, messaged me on Facebook that Saturday around noon time, asking me if I wanted to join his band's gig at Saguijo that night. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to join them for practice. So I told Paul that I'd have to wing it at the gig itself. I asked Paul a little more details about the band. Apparently, Nimbus 9 is technically both the band name and the rapper (Gino). So it was pleasant surprise to be invited to play for a rap/funk band. Fortunately, Paul told me all their songs are straight-up 4/4 counts, meaning they're largely predictable in flow.

I asked my closest of friends, Joseph, Sarah, Roland, Millet, Guy, etc. to join me at Saguijo that night. It was a Barangay Tibay Anniversary event. So Saguijo was little more packed than usual given Barangay Tibay's entire band line-up was scheduled to play that night.

Millet was kind enough to take some pictures of me playing that night. Below are a select few from the pictures she took.



Sunday, May 22, 2011

I Miss Sunday Jazz Nights at 19 East

Just as the title indicates, Jazz Volunteers stopped gigging every Sunday at 19 East in Sucat for quite some time now. Given it's a Sunday right now, I just miss having something to do at any given Sunday to end a weekend on a high note. Below is bootleg audio recording I made of one of the last times I watched Jazz Volunteers play in 19 East last May 3, 2010. That night was especially a treat given that Aya Yuson (my friend Paolo's guitar teacher), and Karel Honasan were there to jam.



So much talent and skill in one band. And to think they attract some of the best jazz musicians in the country to jam with them. Sundays used to be that pool of crazy mad skillz.


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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Nykó Macá Presents Gafieira

I've seen this band twice now and both times they have managed to blow me away. Nykó Macá is an awesome singer whose sound minds very soul tones the likes of Erykah Baduh and Jill Scott. She's been around in the scene for quite some time now showcasing bands that mesh well with her sound. This time she's been associating with herself with Gafieira.

I was lucky to catch her last May 13, 2011 at B-Side, at the Collective in Makati. My friend Joseph and his wife Sarah were supposed to meet up at my place before heading out. But they were running late. So I thought I would not be able to catch Nykó Macá Presents Gafieira's set. When the pair arrived, we got in a cab and started heading to the Collective (where B-Side is a part of). I remember the cab driver distinctly because I wasn't sure whether he was playing dumb or really was just having difficulty understanding directions being given. That and the fact that he was severely ngongo made the trip to B-Side hilarious.

Luckily Nykó Macá Presents Gafieira hasn't played yet when we arrived. Sarah ingeniously was able to work up a table for us and seats closest to the stage despite the place being packed. We watched a band (the band name escapes me at the moment) with a French singer who despite saying his Tagalog wasn't so good managed to sing an entire song written in Tagalog. His two chick singers were kinda useless. They didn't provide any harmonic back-up to the vocalist really. Either that or the tech just really sucked and kept their mic volumes low.


After a while, Nykó Macá Presents Gafieira started setting up. That was the only time I found that they haven't played their set yet. Definitely a pleasant surprise.


I dug the percussionist's technique. She's not so glitzy with her fills. But the tone of her strokes we full bodied. It's either her technique skill, or the fact that her congas were really nice (expensive LP Tumbadoras) that made her sound that way, or both.

Below is a video I took of one of the songs they played that night.



Obviously the band's mission is to not stop until Kakoy (the guitarist) says they're done with any given song. LOL! I love the Deep Purple riff they stuck in the the song for flavor. They be good. I can't wait to watch them perform again some time soon.


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Thursday, May 5, 2011

Elevator Etiquette

This was meant to be a series of tweets. But I decided to put it all in one blog post instead. Below are all the elevator pet peeve behaviors that I have given that I always use both my office building's and apartment building's elevators.


Scenario #1: While waiting for the elevator.

Pressing the button repeatedly over and over again.

Waiting for the elevator can be annoying especially around lunch time or around 6:00PM when people end their work shifts. But the elevator really won't move any faster no matter how many times you press the button.

Pressing both direction buttons.

Same thing with this one. Pressing the opposite direction of where you're going only delays the elevator further. Why? It's because the elevators now will have to open up on the floor you're on going the opposite direction before coming back to head towards your direction.

Standing right in front of the elevator door.

The last thing you want to do if you're in a hurry is delay the people getting off making it take longer for you to get on. It's funny how people continue to block the doorway and shuffle right and left. When it's just plain easier to step back let those people out and then go in.


Scenario #2: While riding an elevator.

Pressing multiple floor buttons that are above your destination floor.

Kids do this a lot. But I have seen grown men and women act this juvenile. Although it doesn't delay them from getting to their destination floor, it definitely delays everybody else whose destination floors are higher up. Some elevators have the ability for you to cancel a selected floor. However, not all elevators have that (i.e. my apartment building's elevators).

Jumping up and down while the elevator is moving.

Kids do this a lot too. And that's fine since they're small and lightweight. But when grown men or women do this in an elevator, you feel the impact. Now most elevators can probably withstand that. But it sure does freak out certain people, and annoy others.


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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

My New Toy and the Jerks

I recently bought the Zoom Q3HD from JB Music in Park Square. I have a Zoom H4n. But the thing is bulky. So I would end up just bringing my iPod and Belkin Tune-Talk combo instead. I also found myself taking video with my Blackberry or crappy video camera. Which I would then have to splice with better sounding audio before uploading it to YouTube. Therefore, I decided to buy something that could handle recording live performances in one unit, with a form-factor that fits in my pocket. I bought the Zoom Q3HD because it has the same twin condenser mics (a little smaller) of the Zoom H4n. Other video cameras have their audio as an after-thought. So the same audio recording technology, at as high as 1080p video resolutions. This beloved gadget was really made to record live performances.


So I was excited to road test my new toy. I had two choices last Friday. Either test it out on the Jerks at Handle Bar or Julianne in Saguijo. I love both bands. But found going to Handle Bar more convenient. I met up with my good friend Roland and his brother Abe. We got to Handle Bar in time for the Jerks' second set.