My Second Gig

Thursday night was a party, in spite of the morning's exhausting prelims. Jade, Ching, and I headed to BKB (Black Kings' Bar) Bar at around 6 in the afternoon after having our last minute practice. We arrived an hour later- thanks to the cavalry left to us by the construction sites at Quezon Ave. What was more of a real pain in the ass was that we rode a taxi from Espana to West Avenue because jeeps would only welcome smokes into our nostrils, and cabs would really take us to quicker routes to get to the gig. Unfortunately, all shortcuts are clogged. Trucks, vans, and others poured into every intersection just to avoid the heavy traffic, and that left the taxi driver no choice but to drive forward into the bottleneck attempting to get ahead of the other cars, while the meter continued to spike up every time. Moving on, there were ten bands that enlisted, and we were the fourth (supposed to be the fifth because the band ahead of us couldn't make it.) There, the gig went without a hitch. I wasn't able to do much warm-ups on the drums. But still, our performance went well, even though there were slight mistakes that Ching (even I) had committed. We started with our original song titled "Wag Kang Maingay", and its pop-rocky melodies and beats had set a groovy mood to the musically "heavy metal" environment. Well, it's nice to play a different genre among the common hard rockers. At least we were able to catch their attention and put on a different feel for them, to say the least. There was this portion of the song that I did a sub-vocal on. I remembered that my pipes itched all the sudden, leading me to choke on my part. I'm not so sure though. but I think I slightly stalled on my drumming part because I also did a sub-vocal part and when I got lost, then my drumming would also be affected. Anyway, what mattered the most is that I kept going on the drums, (since that's my main concentration for the band) and I realized after our performance that I sped up on my drumming, making the others catch up with me. Hehe. It was really cool that they managed to catch up with me regarding my sudden increase in tempo, but I think that was because of the lack of warm-ups before playing our songs. Anyway, we played three songs (actually four, if our experimental sound check counted). We first played our sound check, then two of our most-favored-to-play" songs, then a cover of Flyleaf's "Breathe Today." We received comments from the other bands that we had nice original songs. Hehe. It was another achievement for the band to receive such a nice comment from others. And yeah, we will continue to make much better music for our next coming gigs. After our performance, we sat on our tables to just chill with san-mig lights and watch the other bands play. Uhm, I wanted to sleep after our performance because I was physically worn down, but I had to keep my eyes wide open- of course, its a social event especially to other bands. Hehe. I tried to talk to others, but I couldn't think of anything to talk about. Besides, I was also mentally exhausted that time. So, I just sat there with band mates and have more pictorials (just to keep me awake- for my part. Hehe.) But I was too taciturn during that time and I forced myself to talk and respond attentively to what asks for a response. Hehe. But it's a really comforting thing that they allowed me to be me that time. Hehe. I was too quiet, and that's very evident to them, and yet they let me be. So, there it is: my band's second gig! It was exhausting, but it's enjoyed! Ayt! Blog again soon! :)