~* MOTION IN THE OCEAN TONIGHT *~

Whatever you do choose life
The thoughts on your mind choose life
Wherever you go choose life
Choose life.

~ soul searching {g. alipe} fr. "influence" album

by row: {1} urbandub embrace t-shirt; gabby alipe (vocals); john [john brown] dinopol (guitar)

{2} lalay lim (bass); john [jan] mendoza (drums); urbandub

{3} urbandub {4} reg rubio of greyhoundz jams w/ urbandub

At last! I finally saw Urbandub perform live!

I've been longing to see their gig for the longest time but since Urbandub remains to be a Cebu-based band, their Manila gigs are scarce. The last time I was in Cebu for Ad Congress I was only able to catch a listening party at Kahayag Cafe. Hermmfft. Imagine my disappointment... this one time I tried to catch a gig, it happens to be a friggin' listening party with Urbandub sitting down with everybody else as we listened to their new album. Was supposed to see the Alert The Armory vid there but there were tech problems so we only saw like the first 45 seconds of the vid. Now that they've come out with their 3rd album Embrace, they are making the rounds here in Manila to promote it. So yes, who cares if we didn't have a car for the night. That's what cabs are for ;-) It's a rare opportunity to be able to see Urbandub so I went to Capones together with Tin and my sister (who started to like Urbandub upon hearing A New Tattoo and No Ordinary Love as my blog's background music)

This acid-jazzy band called Sound opened the show. They have this cool Di Na Natuto (Gary V) lounge-sounding version. After them, this urbandub-y sounding band called Angulo performed onstage. They're quite good... I like their sound :) I guess it's because their guitar riffs and vocals sounded like Urbandub. Oh. And their drummer looks kinda cute in an Adam Sandler kind of way ;-)

Fresh from the NU Rock Awards, Urbandub proceeded to Capones. I was surprised to know that I am actually taller than Gabby. He's probably less taller than Yael (SpongeCola) -- if you know what I mean. Nevertheless, Gabby rocks! Actually, all of them rock! Lalay... wow, such an astig gal on bass. She sooo rocks! Jan's furious poundings on the drums is just great. John Brown makes you wanna rock yourself out with all that high jumping up and down while doing killer guitars. Darn it, I would have wanted to snap a pic of him while in mid-air but it's all too fast. Oh well.

They basically sang songs mostly from Influence and of course, Embrace. Oddly though, they didn't play A New Tattoo and Alert the Armory. Gabby was a bit sorethroat-y by the end of the set so he asked Reg Rubio of Greyhoundz (gasp. sya pala yun. he was just in front of me) to jam with them.

Then, I think that was Velcro who performed after Urbandub.

By 1AM, Capones looked like an after-show party for the NU Rock Awards. We spotted Rivermaya's Rico Blanco and Mark Escueta; the drummer of Mojofly (that ___ Alejandro guy); Jr. Kilat; Boogie Romero of Dicta License [hmm. funny how everytime I see him he's like walking in slow motion. ya know, like in the movies. nakakatulala. damn.]; The Dawn; and, no less than MiG Ayesa [with wife Simone (if i remember her name right)]. Thus, an impromptu jam session with Jr. Kilat [Yep. Sya si M-16. At your service, bai! Dang. Why oh why do I know the lyrics to this song?!? Ackkk.] I didn't understand what the heck he was singing but anyway, the reggae-rock sound of Jr. Kilat was quite ok with me.

We were supposed to leave already after the Jr. Kilat set but then The Dawn played and called on MiG to jam with them. They performed U2's In the Name of Love. I think they started with Unbelievable by EMF. MiG performed in true RockStar INXS fashion. They requested MiG to try the bongos and he graciously granted the request. Hmm. That didn't fly though.

mig ayesa jamming with the dawn. aww, there's buddy zabala. sniff. i remember the good ol' e-heads days again...

Wow. And to think the entrance we paid at Capones was just P120. One friggin twenty for all those bands who performed. That was so sulit!

So there. We left Capones around 3:20AM. I think I got home around 4AM.