the best night in hk!

august 2, 2007
2100


guys, you wouldn't believe what happened two days ago!

i just came back from china 30 mins ago, but i would not let this day pass without writing about my best night in hk ever!

background: july 31st, i received an email from our university alumni assoc president. he said that some guests from the philippines are coming over and will do a show in a bar in wan chai. i immediately spread the word. and in 10 mins time a lot of friends confirmed that they would also go. i know that it's going to be tons of fun. imagine being deprived of pinoy music for a year. this is like whiskey to a recovering alcoholic!

anyway, i am actually a sucker for concerts and gigs. I am not really a party person, but if you invite me for a night out that consists of live bands, i will surely be there no matter how tired i am. i love live bands! i love dancing and grooving (fine, getting wild) to their music. and the atmosphere is just overwhelming. every body is just having a good time. no one cares if you do not dance well. no one cares if you sing to the top of your lungs. and yes, even if we're close to trading body fluids.

going back, i was set to go to china the following day and the meeting time is 7am. i haven't packed my stuff yet and i just finished work at 8pm since i needed to do a lot of things for my the client that we're meeting in china. it is my account and i needed to do presentations, not to mention the delegation of the tasks that i will leave behind to my colleagues in hk. the event is at 9pm.

i took a cab, grabbed a subway sandwich, which i did not care to finish since i would not want to be late, and headed to the wanch. i was surprised at first because the bar was a little empty and the band in line was a chinese jazz band. i did not see any indication that there will be pinoy performers coming. i was getting frustrated because my friends whom i invited were waiting and i thought that i should have packed my stuff instead and rested for my trip to bloody china.

after an hour of agonizing jazz music, filipinos started coming, and yes i finally saw the performers. from what i have gathered, they watched "the cure's" concert and some pinoys requested them to do a little show (5 songs each band) in a bar. they gave in. sweet.

want to know which bands came over? let's do a guessing game.

this is the first band:

first clue:



hmmm... can you tell now? too difficult, huh? it was only a guitar.

fine, ill give you another one:


hehe, like you can tell with just the rubber shoes! third clue:




sus, you still can't tell? come on, you should have ideas by now.

another one:




the above may be dark, but you can tell here for sure:



ok, last one:


you got it!!! IMAGO!!!





the best opm band with a female vocalist


how about them coming over while i just wrote about how their "sundo" affected me? my entry was just a few days old and they were there singing it live! they also sang "akap" and the best opm revival of all time - "spolarium"!



oh, i haven't described the setting of the wanch bar! it is a very small bar and the performers are situated on one corner WITHOUT a platform. they are as the same level as i am! and the bar was really jampacked. it attracted a lot of attention that even foreigners are checking what was happening inside.

of course i got the best area in the bar! at the front at the center! standing! aia (imago's vocalist) was just 2 feet away from me. no exaggeration. that close! that is so much more than going to a usual gig. i never left my area. i didn't mind if my bladder was exploding, or if people kept on pushing me, or if other people reminded me every 5 seconds that i did not have to get carried away. haha! no one could stop me from my best night in hk.

and since i have not been away from pinas that long compared to the others, or i am still young to recognize imago, i kept singing with them! aia smiled at me a few times since i really stand out. i was really carried away. they were supposed to sing another song as their last, but i really shouted at my lungs so they sing "akap". my effort was not in vain. the feeling was really beyond words.

and you think ill let it pass without getting a photo? i have never done this, even with the freestyle band given the fact that i attended their concerts seven times in a year when they were so big.

pero jologs kung jologs!! tantanan!! this is the fan pic of all fan pics!!




let's include my friends in the photo:




ok, moving on... there were three bands playing. the second band? i am not sure if the band rings a bell in pinas, but it is called "pedicab"..

here's the vocalist:


he is good looking. some are buzzing that he is the younger brother of jao mapa. im not too surprised. they really look alike.

another photo of pedicab, this time with their keyboardist:


i like this shot , it capture the keyboardist's carefree moves.



that's him again up close. but wait, can you recognize him?



you got it! it's raymond marasigan of sandwich! apparently, 3 out of 5 members of pedicab are from sandwich. it was funny when pedicab finished and said that sandwich is performing next. he pointed to the two bassists and to raymond. raymond just switched to be the vocalist area, and then entered imago's myrene and the drummer to complete the group.

and boy, it was jamming in every sense of the word! sandwich is really a crowd pleaser and everyone was having a very good time!



i didn't like sandwich because i am not really into rock music. but i love them now! woot! woot! sobrang galing! oh, and aia was there too when sandwich played, jamming with us in the audience. how cool is that? your favorite singer beside you having a great time as much as you are.

and one more thing, one of the bassists is c-u-t-e. while we were waiting outside when the show finished, i even had the chance to shake hands with him. nice guy, too.



i came home 1am. i slept at 3am since i needed to pack and make sure that i got everything. i woke up at 6am and met up my boss at the station at 7am. i was wasted all day. but it was all worth it. definitely worth it.