Our album launch was held in a place called Purgatory. The place actually was called Peligro eons ago. And was resurrected as Purgatory. The place is much bigger than when it opened as Peligro back in the day. When we scoped the place out a few weeks back, I was actually wondering how we can manage to fill up the place come our album launch.
Our call time as decreed by our fearless band leader, Waxie, was 4:00PM on the day of the launch. I thought that was way too early. But Waxie had all these elaborate plans for the launch. So who am I to question his schedule choices.
When I got there, there were a few band members already there. We checked out all the gear onstage. And ran a few rather painful sound checks. There was bad feedback coming from the mics for some reason. Perhaps it was the placement of the speakers or perhaps the monitors themselves. We eventually got it sorted out. But it meant that some mics had to be lowered in volume. And thus the entire band had to tone down a little. I realized then that a 4:00PM call time to sound check was definitely a good idea.
I don't own any of the pictures that I will embed on this post henceforth.
Waxie had us his sister and Dad take photos of us around the venue. Impromptu photoshoot it seems. They got us to go to this or that corner of the venue making weird poses and stuff. I was just glad that I didn't have to wear make-up (I horridly had to wear make-up for a photoshoot when Jack Daniel's was still sponsoring the band. Que horror.)
After all that, we went out to eat dinner and reconvened in the small part of Purgatory that seemed to be the VIP area. As expected with this band, we can't help but start drinking when we hang out together. So as early as 7:00PM. The beers started coming. Take note, the launch itself starts at 9:00PM. Typical Filipino behavior usually means people won't start coming in until around 10:00PM onwards. So we were drinking straight until people started arriving.
Waxie apparently arranged for press to interview us. So they all gathered around us in the VIP area, asking us questions about the band's backstory, from the meaning behind the band name to musical influences and experience of each of the members. A few of press people were pleasantly surprised to find out that our drummer is Fritz Barth (Dr. Stix). One of them even came out and asked Fritz directly, "You mean Dr. Stix of Spy and Pinikpikan?" When Fritz said yes to the question, all of the press people immediately wrote it down in their notes. That was amusing.
At this point of the night, the venue was surprisingly jam packed. We were surprised that we manage to invite that many people to go. I'm pretty sure I had nothing to do with it. As I only invited a few people, most except three actually showed up. LOL
The place was bustling with activity even before we played our set. Waxie had arranged for artists to do live painting. And he also arranged for DJ to play sets before and after our set. Crazy busy party that night.
When it was time for us to play our set, I can safely say that most of us were extremely trashed. We could function just fine, I could that if I drank more, that I'd probably not be able to play even a single song. So we played our asses off as best we could. The drinker crowd asked for an encore and we gladly obliged. Although, I think we should've opted not to play an encore song because by then the band was already tired from playing. So we kinda flubbed the last song a bit.
Below are the resulting videos of our from my video camera from that night. I'll embed the first video in the playlist I setup in my YouTube channel.
I particularly liked my solo during our jam song, "The Song I Never Finished". My solo somehow fell into place with my bandmates reading when to come back in perfectly. It was equally nice to hear the crowd react to my solo.
The rest of the night was a blur. It's been quite some time since the launch, that I have no recollection on what happened after we played our set. Hell, I don't even remember how I manage to get home with all my gear intact. I think we changed venue and had a post album launch celebration. But I'd have to confirm that with my bandmates, if they even remember. LOL
So there it is. I finally blogged about my band's album launch. The only regret I have about the launch is the fact that I wasn't part of the recording for the album. All the tracks for the album were already recorded prior to me joining the band. Neither was JR, our lead guitarist, and Rodney, our bassist. So part of me, to be honest, wasn't emotionally invested in the album. But I was (and still) glad to be part of this amazing ride called Jack Versus the Crab.
If anybody is interested in buying Jack Versus the Crab's first album, just show up to any of my gigs. I usually bring a few copies of my bands' album with me in my gig bag. Band bias aside, Waxie is a good songwriter. And the album is definitely the result of a lot of time and effort put in by Waxie and the past and present band members involved in the project.
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