Sunday, March 18, 2012

Birthday Week Part 3: Jack Versus the Crab at the Rogue Magazine Music Edition Launch



Actually there's supposed to be a Birthday Week Part 2.5. That consists of a last minute J.O.E. gig at Route 196 last February 15, and an acoustic gig with Gigo at the Keg, Fort Strip, last February 16. The only reason why I'm not blogging about those two gigs is because I have no pictures or video of our sets. Those were memorable gigs as part of my entire birthday week celebration. But I feel like blogging about it without any visuals or audio seems too bland.

I'm finally getting around to blogging about Part 3.  It's been practically a month since these events. But I wanted to make sure to post about it before memories of those times fades into the blur of past gigs. This particular gig was with Jack Versus the Crab at the Rogue Magazine Music Edition Launch at B-Side last February 18, 2012. Rogue Magazine were partners with Jack Daniel's. So the top 3 bands of the Jack Daniel's JD Set 7 competitions were asked to play for the event.

There was a good line-up of acts that night. But I'll only recap the bands that I particularly enjoyed. My recap of each band isn't in order of line-up of bands for the night.

(All the fantastic pictures in this post were taken by the beautiful Ninja Queen, Cris Pangan.  Thanks Cris!)

Flippin' Soul Stompers


Flippin' Soul Stompers is a band headed up by Bing Austria. It's nice to see that he continues to revel in the music scene despite the community's continued waning interest in classic soul/mog music. From Technicolor Dreamcoat, Juan Pablo Dream, to this current iteration of Bing's band, it such a pleasure to watch his music retain that old school vibe.

Karl Roy


Karl Roy and his band were very entertaining. Karl still had that rockstar flare from his Advent Call, P.O.T, and Kapatid days. Jun Lupito, veteran guitarist eversince the Cocojam days, jammed during their set. I was a little frustrated with how the sound tech was mixing the volumes of the band. The bass guitar was blaring over Jun Lupito's guitar. But overall, the performance was still entertaining, especially since they were covering some memorable songs of Karl Roy's past bands.


What colors this particular post about my birthday week is the fact that Karl Roy just recently died due to stroke complications. Yesterday was actually the last of the mourning days for Karl. I didn't know him all that well personally. But I have been a fan of his since his Advent Call days. And a number of his songs from P.O.T remain very close to my heart. Karl has no idea how some of his songs have gotten me through some very rough times in the past.

I have gigged in the same events/nights as Karl in the past. I remember quite a number of gigs (SunDownMuse) where we played with Kapatid in Club SEx, Rock Radio Cafe, and Big Sky Mind. Karl was particularly impressed with SunDownMuse back then. He remembers us from Briggs' vintage Hofner guitar (which I'm sure Karl wanted to steal from Briggs LOL). Rogue Magazine claims that this was Karl's last gig. But it actually isn't. I believe he had 1-2 gigs after that night. But regardless, it was such a privilege to be in the same gig as Karl for one of his last performances.

Rest in peace, Karl.

Jack Versus the Crab

Again, it's my blog. So there will be a picture bias towards my band. Just putting the disclaimer out there. ;)


 
Aside from Flippin' Soul Stompers we were also showcasing a band with a lot of members. We were actually significantly reduced down to just 8 members compared to our usual 10-12 band size. This was also the first time the band has played together in over 2 months. So the gig felt like a mini-reunion of sorts.


It was especially nice to gig with Fritz, Dr. Sticks, again. I haven't seen him since he and his wife, Windi, invited me to spend Christmas Eve with them. Both Waxie, our band leader, and Fritz were playfully giving me a hard time for not telling them that it was my birthday early in the week. I'm just really not big on announcing my birthday. And I knew I'd celebrate it with them anyway with the Rogue Magazine gig. Celebrating my birthday with 3 separate bands can be a little hectic. LOL!


The Sarreal brothers were tight as usual. The reduced horn section and the fact that they're all brothers just made the horn lines sound very tight that night.


JR was back in the line-up as the lead guitarist from a brief return and exit of Padz for that slot. I miss Padz's sound a lot. But of course, we all have to ensure our current and future financial stability. So Padz had to, once again, make a life choice for himself. Besides, JR is my bandmate in J.O.E.  So it was nice to have someone in Jack Versus the Crab that I jive with really well.



Now the latest addition to the band is our bassist Rodney. He came in about a week or so prior to replace Derek for that slot. Rodney hails from bands like Fuseboxx, and a whole slew of other bands in the past. Don't let his meek demeanor fool you. The guy tots a five string bass and he wields that thing well.

It was interesting to note that one of the Jack Daniel's organizers came up near the stage to specifically request one of our originals, "I'm In Love Again". The song does have a nice ring to it. And that song seemingly was also the crowd favorite.

It's unfortunate that there was no video taken of our set that night. I did bring my Zoom Q3HD. But didn't really have anybody to take the video.

Kelevra


They're a fellow Jack Daniel's JD Set 7 band. They currently have the top rank in the competitions. So I had to mention them in this post as well. The band garners a current rock genre sensibility the likes of Urbandub.

Hijo


The post-Bamboo band is coming into their own the past few months. I'm just glad that they decided to continue making music past the unfortunate squabble between them and Bamboo (the vocalist). Although I'm not fully sold on Nathan doing the vocals himself, the song writing does mind a lot of the themes in their work with Bamboo (the band). I'd actually like to see Hijo bring on a dedicated vocalist because frankly, it's such a joy to see Nathan do this thing on bass when he's not singing.

Mr. Bones and the Boneyard Circus


Bones is also a fellow Jack Daniel's JD Set 7 band. They currently hold 2nd place in the competitions. What draws me to this band is their commitment to the theme of their music. It's actually very difficult to describe. They have a very horror slant to a Faith No More sound. Their consistent ghoulish appearance both on and off stage just adds to the overall feel of their music.


I was amusingly surprised to see Ria from Paramita coming up to jam with Bones. One particular song she jammed with the band was a songs from the Queen of the Damned movie soundtrack. I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Davis (vocalist of Korn, songwriter for the Queen of the Damned soundtrack) and I'm also a huge fan of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear them covering "Not Meant For Me". Below is a video that the band uploaded of that song. Way cool.



Some of my bandmates and myself remained until B-Side closed. Then we moved over to one of the other places in front of the Collective to finish off our drinking urges.

For a showcase of what's out there in the music scene locally, I wouldn't have necessarily picked the bands that they had playing that night (even Jack Versus the Crab for that matter). I felt like Rogue should've gotten a better sampling of the different genres out there locally. But it was a fun night regardless and I enjoyed the music that was shared. I'd call that a successful Music Edition launch anyway.



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