concert-goer: 2012 in the backyard

If 2012 is any indication, CdeO’s starting to look more like Cebu’s, Davao’s, and imperialist Manila’s little sister in the music scene. Not that I’m actually in the scene (I am so not), but it doesn’t take an insider to see we’re beginning to live a little in our own backyard. And I’m not just talking about TJ Monterde.

I’m talking a great turnout to events like the T5 show in July:

Not just a turnout at that, but people got pretty… interactive.

Rico Blanco likes to raise his hand...

And his middle finger.

Wolfgang apparently had too many D&D guitars, so they gave out one to a random guy from the audience.

Things you shouldn’t be doing in front of a crowd: Eating a banana. Except if you’re Jay Contreras of Kamikazee.

An all-star number

Who’s everyone’s number 1 fan? This guy.

Of course, it helped that T5 had some surprises up its sleeve:

Gloc9 showed up. He wasn’t on the lineup – who invited him? Then again, who cares? The crowd went wild when he joined Parokya ni Edgar for "Bagsakan".

T5 is quite a big deal for a quaint little city like CdeO – there are posters and flyers everywhere, and everyone waits for it every year.

But even for events that were as discreet as J. D. Salinger’s personal life, venues still ended up getting packed. Take the (relatively) secret show that Urbandub staged at Punchbowl in September. Of course, whether or not a recognized artist is playing, Punchbowl is always teeming with the cool kids. But even with only the last-minute Facebook updates about the show, Udub attracted way more than the usual ‘it’ crowd that night (proof: I was there):

Can you count how many Nick Automatic shirts there are in this photo?

I loved that the band hadn’t lost their way with their audience. Gabe spoke Visayan the entire time. And Lalai was awesome, even if she just got married a couple of days before the event.

Dat scar.

About a thousand local bands opened for the main act that night, and I enjoyed and maybe even recognized some of them, but that’s about as much as I can write about them. Told you I’m not in the circuit.

But I’ll be hanging around the edges of the crowd. Maybe when this city’s really jumping off the page (or should I say the stage), I’ll finally wake up to the fact that our local artists are as worth noting. Until then, I’ll just be a listener who bobs her head to the sound in these little smoke-filled spaces.