ADMIT ONE for the Road at Saguijo, 9/18/04

What a perfect way to end my birthday week, and what a perfect way to start my blog...

I've been heartbroken ever since Rock Radio Cafe in Alabang closed down. The place was just like 10 minutes away from my house - a very convenient gig place for me, since pahirapan ako usually sa pagpapaalam. No more RRC, no more Southern ADMIT ONE gigs :(

Enter: Saguijo Cafe in Makati...

Seems like ADMIT ONE has again found a home in the (sorta) Southern part of Metro Manila. Saguijo Cafe - isang Cafe sa Guijo Street sa San Antonio Village - is one rockin venue. Been there only twice (July and September ADMIT ONE prods), but I'm lovin' the place already. Aircon's chillin' even if the place is packed, restrooms are clean and functional, beer is priced well, and the crowd is just great. And the bands just love to bring the house down everytime.

So enough of the blah. The following shots are from last Saturday's ADMIT ONE for the Road at Saguijo Cafe, featuring Jazz Kidding (sorry, no pics of them), Twisted Halo (my favoritest!), Cambio, Sugarfree, and Urbandub.


Twisted Halo: My favoritEST band in the local indie scene today =D

Last Saturday they started off their set with "Hiram", a tune I've been longing to hear live for the longest time. Last time I caught them at Saguijo (also at an ADMIT ONE prod last July), I had to leave in the middle of their set because it was my darn curfew. I only realized they were playing Hiram as I walked out the door. Sayang! But this time, they were the 2nd band to play, and this was their first song. Ayuz! =)

What followed after Hiram didn't quite make up the 'steady set' they initally planned on playing. But what the heck, Twisted Halo rocked that night (as they always do in all their gigs - biased? maybe, maybe not) with songs like Irene, Hostile Takeover, Breakable, #36 (with Aia - whew!), Again, Miron, Closed Captioned, and Cut to Commercial.

Yup, pretty long set, 'cause Cambio was up next but Ebe still wasn't around since he was coming from his 5th gig that night (Saguijo was his 6th & 7th!). But that's another story.



Cambio played a really fun set, with coupla covers here and there, and Raimund occassionally morphing into Slipknot mode courtesy of his headgear =P I TOTALLY love "Patlang", so I was really glad when they played that last Saturday. Badtrip lang kasi my Cambio CD recently went missing, although my cute cousin Kai (o diba, sumipsip pa) has promised me a new Derby Light CD for my birthday hehehe =D Too bad wasn't able to take much pictures of Cambio though 'cause I spent almost half their set outside.



Yep! That's Mitch on the mic!!! Yan na siguro yung MOMENT of the night - Mitch, the drummer, takes on vocal duties for "Telepono", with matching sayaw pa! Didn't matter na di niya kabisado lyrics, andyan naman si Ebe na laging handang tumulong sa kaibigang nangangailangan =D

Sobrang saya ng tugtugan ng Sugarfree at last Saturday's ADMIT ONE in Saguijo! They played a really extended set made up mostly of songs from Sa Wakas! Ebe, Jal, and Mitch were lagaristas for the night, having come from Rockista and 3 other gigs before finally ending up at Saguijo. That's why Ebe was only too happy to oblige to requests from the first album, since their previous gigs were basically to promote the new album, so sawa na sila sa new songs by then.

TELEPONO must've been the song of the night, as Raimund took over the drums and Mitch found his way to the microphone! Sobrang game si Mitch, he was even dancing as he sang! Sabi nga ni Ebe, sa limang taong magkasama sila sa Sugarfree, dun lang niya nakita si Mitch ng ganun =P Lucky me I got to 'film' a short portion of Mitch's song and dance number using my digicam ;)

Sugarfree also jammed with the other musicians, doing a couple of covers such as Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" (together with Vin of Twisted Halo) and the Smashing Pumpkin's "1979". sandwich was in the house too, and of course "2 Trick Pony" got the crowd on their feet - everyone was really having a darn great time!

With the next band, Urbandub, still nowhere in sight (another one of em lagarista bands for the night), Sugarfree just jammed on until Ebe finally decided to call Gabby's cellphone to tell him that Saguijo was waiting for them - everyone in the room was eagerly awaiting the Cebu-based band who was somewhere in Makati still finishing up a previous gig (grabe, hectic!).



Finally, what everyone had been waiting for that night - Urbandub!!! The guys and gal from Cebu were back, running through a string of gigs that night and playing for Manileños who were really thirsty for that Urbandub sound. Since John D was still recuperating from his unfortunate accident a few months back, the band had a friend take over John's guitar duties.

Being the last on the list for Saguijo that night, the crowd was really hyped up by the time Urbandub took the stage. But by then, it was time for me to go home. So after 3 songs and a couple of pics, I was on my way home with Andrew. Didn't matter though, because that was really one rockin night and I was only too glad that I was there to enjoy it =)

Pics from last September's ADMIT ONE for the Road at Saguijo can be viewed here =)