Buzz Night, July 31, 2004 :)

Having to accompany some Backbeat bands to Lucena last Saturday, Allan gave the reins for Buzz Night to me and Charles. I told Charles that I might be late because I had made plans to visit Ayn right before Buzz Night. He said he'd take care of it until I got there.

I took Edwina with me to Ayn's. She and her law school friend Trina were just getting ready. They had their matching iBooks open on picnic tables in Ayn's room. They seemed to have been constantly working right up until they started dressing. It was great to see Ayn again and meet Trina. We were all excited about Buzz Night.

Ayn brought Tristania into the room and I was surprised at how much she's grown in the past few months. She's so round and pink and healthy, like a pretty little ball, and I teased her that she was getting to be like her Ninong Allan. At first, she was a little reserved, but with the help of some jumping on Ayn's black satin sheets, she became playful and hyperactive. Then she would kiss each of us in turn and hug us tightly; she did that over and over again, much to our delight. She wailed when it was time for us to go, so her lolo and lola decided to take her with them as they drove us to Mayric's.

I think Charles was ready to panic by the time we got there, though it was only 10 pm. I guess he was nervous being alone and having to talk to all the bands, which I wasn't so keen to do, either. Thankfully, most of them were there already and Charles had them settled into a good sequence that everyone agreed upon. I was impressed that he had handled all of it without my help, and it seemed that there were a number of walk-ins, too.

Ralph was there and it was great to see him. His hair was longer and he was wearing his red sweatshirt. He said he was sorry but he had run out of invitations to Charmaine's baby shower. He told us that this was one of the few times he was out of the house as he's been swamped with work-- he has at least four major projects he needs to work on simultaneously. All he does to battle insanity is download stuff from Soulseek (he also told us a pretty funny story about someone's opinion on who to ask about indie if you're from the Philippines).

Suddenly, Charles said that someone wanted to talk to me. It turned out to be one of the new bands, Switch. They had called Allan the night before and he told them to talk to me or Charles when they arrived at Buzz Night. But everything had been settled, so what did they want with me? Anyway, I faced the two guys and they actually just wanted to know about Buzz Night… was it a regular event? Was it a club? Haha… I was really nervous because I didn't feel like I was the person to ask but I told them some basic stuff they needed to know and said they should ask Allan himself when they meet him. I asked them what they played and they said, "Industrial," and I said, "Great." They seemed intrigued by the whole thing.

Ok, no critiques here, just observations.

So Five Leaves Left started the night early minus their curly-haired bassist, plus their pretty boy floppy-haired bassist. Now Allan can't form a band with them and call themselves The Don't-Mess-With-Us band. They seem to be getting better and better and I noticed a lot of heads moving to their music. Next followed the industrial pair Switch. The more aggressive audience members liked them and they gave a heavy touch to the night.

It was then that my friends Dottie and JV arrived (they actually paid entrance!)… they wanted to see Charles perform, having met him during several nights out before, and they also wanted to catch a certain band (secret, hehe). Edwina was sleepy, but Trina graciously entertained her with some parlor tricks so she could stay awake. I suddenly had a bad asthma attack, having left my inhaler in Ayn's van, and so I had to step out with my friends and buy an emergency Ventolin at Mercury Drug ("damn, there goes my chicharon bulaklak money!"). When we returned to Mayric's, it was already Blue Stellar's last song, so I wasn't able to catch much of their performance.

Ralph disappeared around that time, but I hadn't noticed when exactly. He might have still caught some of Sunset Drive, but I'm not sure. Anyway, before he left, he told me that he had an interesting experience while waiting outside Mayric's at 8:30 pm (I don't know why, but he decided to go there really early--- probably to soak up enough Mayric's tugtugan vibes to last him a month of seclusion, hehe!). He said that some people passed by and read the line-up for Buzz Night and one of them commented, "Ay sayang, hindi tutugtog yung Candyaudioline." Ralph just sat there chuckling to himself.

Next came Sunset Drive's strong performance, and then Children of Eden. I remember watching the latter before on the night of my first Mayric's gig… Ayn had brought me with her to Klub Fluid to help her friend's band and they played that night. I was surprised that they were lined up for Buzz Night; I think someone recommended them. Their music did sound right, but I wasn't sure about the vocals as it seemed a bit mainstream. Still, they went with the flow, and people liked them. By this time, since it was early, Charles had already asked them and the remaining bands to play 5 songs each.

Tether took the stage, minus one of their guitarists (the one with glasses). Joel, their bassist, was forced to sub for him and they got someone else to do the bass; these would probably account for the guitars' super loudness later on. I approached them, remembering they only used to have four songs before, so I could request them to play their Heavenly cover for the fifth, but they assured me they could play 5 songs. Their guitars were really loud and there was no one to manipulate the sound system that night, which made it very, very difficult for their diminutive vocalist to keep up, but this did not mask the coolness of their 2 new originals. I was impressed at how much they've grown since they first played Buzz Night. My friend JV, who doesn't really listen to much music, later on commented that the bands he liked best that night were Tether and Popular Days, and that says a lot about those bands. JV generally doesn't like anything that assails the ear, but in spite of Tether's absolute love for volume, he appreciated them. That says a lot, believe me.

Next, Popular Days performed. Once again, they proved to be the darlings of the night. The crowd was charmed by them and I couldn't resist calling out a fond shout of "Manyak!!!" or two. One funny thing happened, though. Charles was nervous in between songs and so he suddenly said, "Pasensya na, wala si Allan ngayon. Meron siyang… proyekto." I was coming from the bathroom and heard one of the walk-in patrons say, "Anong sabi niya?" The girlfriend said, "Si Allan daw…" to which he replied, "Si Allan? Sinong Allan? Maraming Allan eh!" Haha! I remembered that question by one of the Switch guys on whether Buzz Night was a club.

Bagetsafonik sealed the night with pleasing melodies interspersed with electronic beeping. I think it was a fitting end to July's Buzz Night.

After the gig, we were sitting around waiting for people to leave when this old guy went up to Charles and said, "Galing! Sa Tuesday ha!" Charles said, "Salamat, sige." When the man left, I asked Charles what he had meant by that and he said, "Hindi ko nga alam eh!" Haha! Whatever the case, I think the man had been impressed by Popular Days and probably had assumed that they would be playing at Back to The Edge, a New Wave production coming up at Mayric's. I told Charles how much I appreciated him single-handedly manning Buzz Night. It was a pity Allan wasn't there, but I'm glad it was successful anyhow.