Music and Memories

And the band played on...and on and on! What a great night! We had prepared two encores but played two more that we hadn't even practiced after last night's amazing concert at Club Phi. It was Half Life Half Death's reunion concert after 15 years or so. A group of high school classmates who loved New Wave music used to spike their hair and wander around their conservative Catholic high school with drum sticks in their back pockets - even though they didn't play the drums - and ended up fairly successful with one recorded album as college students. Then they got haircuts and real jobs, but never stopped making music. After frontman Alfie Mella left for the frozen prairies of Manitoba, Canada, Rain Paggao, the phenomenal guitar player with magic fingers, continued to play in a band called The Rain, and bassist Ramil Aznar formed Dream Kitchen, a fairly successful indie band - with other Half Lifers, Joel Reyes, Aldrin Cardona, and Gilbert (Bebet) Tiongson.

The different faces of Half Life Half Death: from left, Ramil Aznar, Carol Pobre, Rain Paggao, Joeyl Reyes, Christine Mazur, Coy Sta. Agueda; front: Rupert De Jesus, Alfie Mella. Missing: Aldrin Cardona & John-John, percussionist and Gilbert "Bebet" Tiongson, drummer.

Thursday was our last rehearsal and last chance to work out any kinks. Infinitif Studios is a great place with fans and airconditioners blasting away the Manila swelter. There's always lots of us in a room since we clock in at about 9 musicians on stage at a time, sometimes 11 with everyone. There was tension and nervous anticipation in everyone's face and some excessive goofing around but we held together without a pre-performance blow-out. After practice Ramil and Lovelle treated Alfie and I to Dim-Sum - we were starving!

Friday morning we slept in so there wasn't a lot of time before the 3pm sound check. I had to find 9-volt batteries for my DI box which up to this point had not worked properly. Blank stares met me everywhere along Pasay Road until I got to Pure Gold, the department store across from the Libertad LRT station. Of course, 3rd floor hardware. Also had found extra A-strings the other day at Lyric Music in a Mall called something like Power Plant where Inna met her high school friend for lunch.

We had the idea to rent a hotel room as a green room for the band and luckily found a room at the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza - a discount got it for us for 5000 php - a lot but a great thing to have to rest and wash up in before the gig. Sound check was really good - a rarity and luxury when there's other bands also playing - and we had three opening acts! But we did get in a nice long sound check from about 4pm to 6pm and got to run through about 4 or 5 songs, especially the epic Radio Madness, which featured bot classical moments and an intense metal guitar solo from Rain.

Sound check at Club Phi with Aldrin and Carol.

Have Fiddle will Travel at Club Phi.

Rain and Joel soundchecking with Coy on drums.

Ready to Rock and Roll.

When we arrived, The Gentle Isolation was playing - we had already missed Your Imaginary Friends. The Camerawalls followed so we got to see Clementine with his whole band this time after having a preview on Wednesday when Rain, Alfie and I played an acoustic set at Gwielo's.

The Camerawalls in action 

Me with Clem Castro from the Camerawalls

Nerves fell to the wayside when it was time to hit the stage. Everyone was so focussed: performing is definitely hard work and you need to really be on your toes to deliver a good product. I still panicked before the songs I wasn't familiar with and didn't know what to play for "If All Sleep Tonight" until Alfie looked at me and conducted me in. Then memory hit: "oh THAT" and my fingers worked. The Pan Within by the Waterboys is a very difficult song that - according to Alfie, is not covered by a lot of New Wave bands so when we played it I needed to really nail the violin parts. Here's the version we were striving for:

Monx Moncayo, one of the producers from Requiem Rising of Singapore asked me, "When are you coming back to the Philippines?" No one had asked me that yet - everyone's asking when do I leave. He explained: "I produce shows every two months in Singapore and I want you to perform at one of them." Also, Clem asked if I could return or at least collaborate with him on some recording projects in the future. While this project was a reunion and an ending for some, it's a beginning for me! Many new friends made and more adventures to be had.