Act One: "Against Perfection"; Millennia
Let me explain what happened. Last Friday, during our Deadpan Society gig, Tiffany casually said, "Hey, I heard you guys are playing here on the 15th."
"Huh? I don't think we can. We have a gig that night with The Mongols at Mayric's."
"Talaga? Eh nakita ko dun, eh…" she trails off, leaving me guessing on where "dun" was.
Later, I'm hanging out by the doorway, looking at the posters when I happen to glance at the Millennia calendar. I do a double take. "Hey! We're here on the 15th!"
"Sabi sa 'yo eh!"
"Oh, no… nakakahiya naman kung di tayo sumipot eh kaya naman natin ngayon dahil nandyan si Charles. Sige, lagari na lang tayo on that night."
And so the stage was set for this scenario 2 nights later:
Allan, Mike (of Weedisneys and Chicken Pao Productions) and Charles were sitting at a table and Ayn, Roel and I walk in. I say to Mike, "Ayan, hindi ka na galit samin kasi sumipot na kami ngayon," to which Allan interrupts with, "Sabi niya hindi tayo naka-lineup ngayon," and laughs. Mike laughs, too and says, "Hindi, ok lang!"
"Talaga?? Pero nakalagay dun sa calendar sa------" I whirl around to point at the evidence…. And discover that it's no longer there! Mwahahaha…
I examine the night's poster and see that there really is no candy in the line-up for this night (Mike probably thought we wouldn't be able to make it this time either hehehe). But Mike lets us play anyway, which was nice of him, considering we had just showed up. Also, Twisted Halo graciously agreed to let us play ahead of them so we could make it to our Mayric's thing earlier (but that's another story). One of them also lent Ayn his strap. Thank you.
We did an ok set. I flubbed the song titles due to some misinformation. Ah well. Allan got really tired after it so we had to wait there for 20 minutes while he caught his breath again. Meanwhile, he talked to Diego Cambio about cd production (thanks for the tip… can't wait to "hook up" with the cd guy hahaha) and he gave him previews of our upcoming album, pati na rin yung mga Eps ng Pillow at Minty. Sabi niya, "Wow, thank you! Ba't ang bait niyo sakin??" which caught us off guard and I smiled and said something lame like, "Kasi pamangkin kita!" hahaha. Actually, siguro Allan was just feeling… I dunno… nice and Diego happened to be there and he's receptive to that kind of material. Well, he did give us an idea of where to go to publish the album.
So… Lara dropped by pala because she had a friend who wanted to do a production at Millennia. Soon after, we left for Mayric's.
*
Act Two: "The Mongols and Friends" [title, mine]; Mayric's
We arrived at Mayric's around midnight and Kiko Machine was in the middle of its set. "Wala si Spiderman."
After Kiko Machine, the main act, The Mongols were set to perform. We were to do our thing after them so we decided to while the time away eating. Allan ordered sisig and liempo and rice and we dug in. The Mongols did about 5 songs, I think. I liked them.
Then it was our turn. Well… we did ok, too. I couldn't hear myself over the mic but Allan said he could hear me. I was just praying I wouldn't go flat. But I didn't. It was fun. Allan's back was killing him halfway through the set and he badly needed to rest. He asked Jerome (of The Mongols and Teeth, former guitarist of candyaudioline, too) if he wanted to play on "Flaming Walls"--- he agreed to do so for fun :) It was great, but the dilemma was that Jerome had done lead for the band before, and Allan does rhythm, and Charles doesn't know anything but lead for now. So we had two lead guitarists… and Jerome kept doing different chords for the pre-chorus part hahaha. But it was really fun and he obviously enjoyed it. He was even singing with me and he'd sing "It ain't right" with this exaggerated articulate accent hehe (It aynt rawyt!). Ely B. (or whatever he'd like to call himself now) just had to take a peek at Jerome playing for us. After that song, Allan came up to play the last one with us, "My Silver Chair" and we finished the set. Later, he told us that watching us almost brought tears to his eyes (NO KIDDING!!! He meant this!) because we sounded so good onstage. "We never get to see ourselves actually playing and, you know, I've found that it's a really great experience to be part of the audience while candyaudioline is performing." Awww… *sniff*, *sniff*.
Anyway, Roel and Kerwin had to leave because they had a 5 am flight to Davao that morning, but the rest of us decided to hang out after that…
*
Act Three: "The Grand Exeunt" (or "Angels Can Dance Really Well in Knee-High Leather Boots")
In gratitude to Charles' heroism these last 4 gigs of candyaudioline, we felt like giving in to his innermost (though unarticulated) desires and return to… er… shall we say, an "old favorite haunt" of our group of friends, the majority of which are male. Allan, Ayn, Charles and I hopped into a taxi and sped off to…
As expected, The Ladies were very polite and welcoming--- some perhaps delighted at the return of their prodigal friend Sir Charles, others clucking their tongues in reproach at the newfound detachment (totoo ba yan?) of the magnanimous Sir Allan. We were escorted to our table with a lovely view and given the plastic binder to make our selections for the videoke, which was to happen after the "program". Of course, the DJ greeted the two men warmly, asking Sir Charles where "Sir Jann Faul" was. Also, he asked Allan over the sound system if "it was true"… and then promptly welcomed the anonymous "first lady". Hmm… where'd they hear about that??
And yes… angels do dance well in knee-high leather boots.
It was still relatively uneventful, but fun. Allan sang "Regret"; we did duets for "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Careless Whisper"; Charles sang "Gaya ng Dati" and dedicated it to The Ladies, and he also sang "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get"; Ayn didn't sing at all, but enjoyed just the same. I think The Ladies were sorry to see Sir Charles go.
We needed to wait for Ayn to be fetched so we had coffee, pineapple juice and bread and scrambled egg at Ongpin's along Quezon Ave. We had a good long talk about---- you guessed it.
Then, Ayn and I exited stage left while the curtain fell silently on Allan and Charles waiting to pay the bill as the lights faded.
Bow.
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