Reason why Baguio felt scary tremors that night.
Your Imaginary Friends were all set to be the last to perform. We got there at half past 8PM and already Jethro Sandico’s band Skydive Academy were on. A fusion of acid jazz and classic rock, Skydive Academy also featured Jeth’s beat poetry. The man’s got animalistic chops and rhymes, man. His band is so tight it reminded me of my work schedules.
Our friends from Flying Ipis and Dirty Hate were already there, as The Wilderness stood on, watching, in their calm reserve, their wildness reserved for later.
Despite all the negativity their name suggests, Dirty Hate’s set was neither dirty nor repugnant that night. We were pounded with an awesome barrage of multilayered guitar licks, deeper-than-profound basslines, and a blitzkrieg of drum rolls. Their first single One Track Mind is now officially a favorite.
Dirty Hate: Not dirty. Not hatin’.
Flying Ipis, already an established crowd favorite in the Manila gig circuit, just showed Baguio folk how it is to heat things up. Just to be more graphic, when the band strummed their first note, they already sent the crowd airborne. Baguio even got treated to new songs, like my favorite Talon, Lipad, Sayaw. Damn. Who’s flying now?
Baguio’s so clean these are probably the only ipis found in town. Deng said it.
And now, The Wilderness, a crew made up of 84 musicians all playing at once, or at least that’s how they sounded. Their powerful set made me want to go up the mountains on my lunch break and hunt for wild beasts, eat its meat raw, and drink its blood fresh. Then go back to my air-conditioned office as if I just had lunch at the pantry. I kid you not. That’s how trippy their music is. It grabs you and throws you around without knocking you out. With that set, I had to admit that I didn’t know how we could match that.
But we did. At least I think we did. Man, we went all out on a 12-song-or-so set, and I could see that the Baguio represent in Ayuyang were stunned. Wow. The free-for-all jam on our cover of Come Together towards the end of our set is something I want to happen again. But next time, Imma hand my sticks over to Pat Sarabia. (Makes me wonder all the time: What is this prolific musician eating, really?)
We capped the night over at the rest house. I was so exhausted I just grabbed some sleep while the rest of the world grabbed more drinks.
I better photoshop myself in this pic.
First thing in the morning, the rest of the entourage went to Good Shepherd to buy ube and see more sights. They also checked out Mine’s View Park. Where was I in all this? Probably still asleep. Not so cool to be me, I know. Already an old fat fart.
I will really photoshop myself in this pic.
Sadly, we all had to get to the sad trip back to the equator. We had to catch our afternoon bus, and we didn’t catch it. We were late and had to take another bus as chance passengers. We were late and skipped lunch. Yeah, we were in slow motion. Probably it was because part of our body weight wanted to remain there. It’s Baguio, man. Who could possibly not want to live there? — Eric Po
professional wallflowers
Nice one!