“Napapasigaw sila kahit hindi nila alam yung kanta eh!” - TopicsExpress

“Napapasigaw sila kahit hindi nila alam yung kanta eh!” This is what Raims enthusiastically tells me after our show last night. It’s 11:30pm on a chilly Saturday night and we’ve just finished playing a 10-song set at Antipolo’s Montessori Integrated School. It’s the High School’s annual fair and we’re on the bill with friends Pedicab and Moonstar 88. We’re back inside one the school’s classrooms, one that has been designated our holding area, and its also where our routine of the post-gig analysis begins. I suspect this is a ritual most bands do after shows, and one we’ve been doing since we began playing together over 15 years ago. This process has made it possible for us to change some songs arrangements live, figure out the sequence of songs in our sets, and if we’re road testing new material, to discuss which new songs we felt went over well with the crowd or even why some at times turn out to be trainwrecks. Hehe. I mean, you can only do so much at rehearsals, but gigging live is where it all comes together. Tonight’s crowd consists of mostly kids, maybe 13-16, ones I affectionately call the Youngins. I’ve notice that the its thinned out a bit since an hour ago, as parents come and go picking up their kids. I’m fully aware that most of them still in attendance are here to hear “Sugod”, “Betamax” or maybe even “Selos”. Songs I love, and am very proud of. But like the past 6 or 7 months, we’ve been doing songs almost entirely off our latest album, which I’m pretty sure not too many of the kids present tonight are familiar with. But this is where it’s about to get exciting. We start the set with the opener on our new album also called “Fat, Salt and Flame”. It’s a song that we use as our soundcheck of sorts, making sure all the levels of our instruments sit well with one another. It starts off with Raims and Mong playing off each other doing a simple repetitive hypnotic riff followed by Maps and Mike D laying down the groove to which all three guitars will follow. I tap my delay to Mike’s Hit Hat’s to make sure I’ve got the right tempo and we’re off. The songs slowly builds to its chorus as Maps and Mike D propel it to its 2nd gear. This is the point where it get’s interesting… Right before we hit the chorus, the kids up front start screaming, as if they know, or rather they feel we’re about to go to another part of the song. You can see their faces changing right as Mong and I are about to do the crazy dual guitar bends. It’s an awesome feeling. One that you live for if you’re a musician. I guess it’s sort of like that toe-curling moment I get when I watch my favorite bands live. It’s such a high to be able to play a singular piece of music and elicit such a response. In case you kids have never heard that song before, it’s an instrumental. Meaning there are no lyrical cues for the tune. It’s just that primal feeling that music has on all of us. It’s ability to make us move, both figuratively and literally. As if theyre literally ridding the groove of the song. This was what Raims was taking about in classroom. It set’s the tone for the whole show as we feed of the crowd’s energy. We launch into “Kidlat” and the same sort of reaction happens when the chorus and outro parts kick in. By the time we get to our new single, “New Romancer”, we get help with a chorus of high school kids doing high-pitched versions of “No shames”. Awesome. During the show I look at Mong and I see a large grin on his face as he pushes his Jazzmaster to it’s limits while simultaneously tap-dancing with his effects, Mike D has that same look too, eventually gritting his teeth as he hits the crash cymbal, Maps is doing that move where she shifts her weight from her left to right leg, like a boxer doing her shadow dance and Raims… Well, I know he’s on since I can barely keep track of his movements on stage. Sometimes catching a glimpse of his hair moving in unison to the end part of Kidlat. We end with the show with Beta, Sugod and Procas, and just like that, we’re done. I look out and Raims is high-fiving the kids up front and everyone has smiles all around. I think to tell myself, That was a such a fun show! as I head back to the classroom. “This is the best job in the world!” A statement Raims says with regularity in almost every interview he gives. And of course he is totally right. There is not a day I don’t feel so incredibly lucky and fortunate that I get to do this for a living. I mean, really? I get to do this infernal racket I call guitar playing with four of my best friends… My family? And you want me to pay me??? =) But obviously it’s more than that. It’s that ability to connect with people, to move them, as they in turn, move us. My favorite aspect of being in Sandwich is playing live. It’s a communion, a celebration. It makes you not only discover your humanity, but your connection to it. Music, since the dawn of time has been integral in our world’s culture as a way to celebrate, both the good and the bad. Whenever people come together for any reason, music is always present. It’s one of the most primal and fundamental aspects of human culture. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once observed that “…. music is the universal language of mankind”. Which is kinda ironic since he was a man of words. But I know exactly what he means, as I’m sure we all do. As I was looking out at the crowd before exiting the stage, I realized that I was around the same age as the kids who were watching tonight when I began my own musical journey. I remember seeing bands like Violent Playground, Deans December and The Dawn at my high school and having my own toe-curling moments and high pitched screams as they played. Making such an impression that they set me off on the path I’m still on today. As we wind down our little post-gig analysis, kids from show are now in the classroom with us having CD’s signed and taking pictures. One kid comes up to us to have his guitar strap signed, he looks to me no more than maybe 14 or 15 years old. Raims and I ask, “What sort of guitar do you play?” He answered with a resounding, “It’s a percussive acoustic.” Raims and I look at each other kinda dumfounded. As the kid leaves, Raims tells me, “Baka mala- Michael Hedges?” A guitar player known for using the body of his guitar like a drum to create percussive sounds, I offered up a weaker theory, “Baka parang ala Nuno Bettancourt?” We both smile, realizing we didn’t really know what in the world that was. But on my way home I thought that maybe that kid already knows the secret. He’s got a guitar to make people move. He might just be well on his way to making his own celebrations with music. Raims! We gotta get ourselves one of those guitars ASAP! Thanks again to everyone at Montessori Integrated School of Antipolo!