Allan and William picked me up at home at around 9:45 because I had to lug the keyboard around. We arrived at Mayric's at around 10 and found the first band, Irony, setting up. They played a good round of noisy tunes, Weedisneys-ish (which wasn't a surprise as both bands had similar roots in Fin) and loud and melodic. After three songs, they suddenly said their set was over, which prompted Allan to tell Charles to tell them they could play another one. This apparently caught them off guard and they debated for a few moments on a good song to play. They settled on one, sang it, then finished their set with another Thank You. They had to leave soon after because they had another gig to go to somewhere else. I think they were happy they got to play at Buzz Night again.
The Manyaks were at Mayric's before the gig started, but they weren't going to play as Popular Days because Eric supposedly couldn't make it and Ian didn't show up. Eric was at work where he was just going to start his nightshift. Charles told us he was thinking of cutting work because a certain band was going to play (ahem), but he convinced Eric to go or he'd face the consequence of losing his job.
Lara came in holding a bunch of pink, peach and yellow daisies, which she picked from a wedding to which she had gone. She put them in our hair, the guys' lapels and we dumped the rest in a used glass to grace our table headquarters with their prettiness.
Blue Stellar then took the stage with one less member. Who should step through the doors of Mayric's but one Ericho Lucas, flushed from a dash from the office? Shouts of disbelief greeted his "they suddenly called off work tonight" speech.
The Blue Stellar vocalist had to play the bass while singing. For some reason, this did not diminish their appeal but increased it. I admit that I'm not exactly the best believer-slash-practitioner of the soft and laid back school of indie singing (oh, man, I sound like Boy Abunda in "Star Circle Quest"… eew) because, well, my voice is naturally big and also, my formative years were spent listening to your run-of-the-mill rock songs, where emotional wailing is the way to go… however, this subdued singing really fit their type of music better than the way she used to sing before. Lara, daisy tucked behind her ear, large dark glasses and serene smile on her face, commented, "Ok sila ah." Allan said the band improved since last Buzz Night. I agreed, but there were some songs where the off-key guitars jarred my senses. At first, it seemed like it was out of tune, but then Allan thought that it must have been intentional like the weird chords that he sometimes does. Hmmm… I think it didn't work on some songs though, but I'll let everyone else be the judge of that.
Next, a new band, Kneel On Nails performed. They had told Allan that their music was emocore/post-melodic, and when I first heard that, I asked Allan what it sounded like. He said it would sound something like Ronald Schlander's band (I still had no idea). So he booked them. Anyway, they came on. I thought they were ok, but I raised a brow when I heard them roaring. "Hindi, ok lang yan. At least iba yung pagka-emo nila." Well, after their set, he asked if they wanted to front for a Backbeat event, so one good thing came out of that.
Then, Superminty performed. We played the staples well, but decided to insert "Little Nothings" into our set, even if we weren't sure we'd gotten it already. Thankfully, we played that very well, too :) I was especially proud of myself because I had been having a hard time practicing the keyboards for that song and during the performance I managed to get by without one mistake.
Sunset Drive then performed their comeback to Buzz Night. It was great to see these guys again because their sets are always so tight and they sound really good. Hopefully, they'll grace Buzz Nights to come. They were so good that night that there's nothing more I can say.
An old Buzz Night band, Easy Mercy (sorry, spell check… I remember reading a different spelling on the Mayric's white board) performed next their 60's music. The Beatle-esque harmonies were refreshing and their little stops and starts endeared them to the audience. It's interesting how a low-fi set-up can still tweak our pleasure knobs every now and then… I had gotten so used to waves of hypnotic guitars in the past months.
Finally, Soft Pillow Kisses ended the night with a 6-song set. I had to sub for Luie because she couldn't make it. I got to sing "It Will Never Last (Forever)"-- I begged them to let me-- and it was the highlight of my short stint as SPK vocalist, even if I flubbed some high parts hehehe. Lara and I sang the last song, "Bathing in the Sun", together and I think we blew everyone's minds with that. And that's how the night ended: brains leaking out of people's ears, people whose last thoughts before the ecstasy of death were, "Oh, maaaaaaannnn, this is gooooooood…"
I thought the floor was a little stickier to the soles of our shoes that night.
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