Tag Archives: pepe smith

kultura

Livin’ Rakenrol!

a version of this was published in the 2Byou section of The Philippine Daily Inquirer on May 22 2009.

You don’t know rock ‘n’ roll – or in Pinoy slang rakenrol – until you’ve lived it. No, I’m not talking about turning back time and living in the 60’s and 70’s. What I’m talking about is going through a day of only surprises, being made to imbibe the enterprise of letting go and letting be: rakenrol! as Pepe Smith has told us countless times.

At the Red Horse Beer Muziklaban Media Challenge, this was the one thing that rang true. Kicking off the 11th Muziklaban amateur rock band competition, the media challenge was an introduction to the new and improved project of RHB. Happening too early in the morning for media people (a 7AM calltime at the Ortigas San Miguel Building), the day began with the realization that we were all participants in an amazing race that would bring us all the way to SMC’s Management Training Center in Tagaytay. I couldn’t help but imagine eating some creature I would rather step on and kill in a heartbeat. (more…)

kultura

pinoy rock ‘n’ roll: dead and alive

Probably the best and the worst that could possibly happen to a rock concert happened this rainy Saturday night. In the midst of an early Flores de Mayo (complete with floats and throngs of people) on the streets fronting the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the traffic that’s expected of any payday weekend in the metro, Fiesta ng Musikang Filipino (An OPM Chronicle) was celebrating its second night of, well, what they made us believe would be pure unadulterated Pinoy rock ‘n’ roll. That expectation of course, has its basis in the fact that the Juan dela Cruz Band had topbilling for this concert series of three nights, and that my friends and I were just giddy at the thought of watching Pepe Smith on stage – a rare treat for those of us who came to Pinoy rock ‘n’ roll when he was already considered a legend. But there was nothing rakenrol about ticket prices (which were steep at P1000 pesos for orchestra seats – thankfully ours were free courtesy of 105.9 RJ Underground DJ Mikey Abola), and that would only be the beginning of an evening that celebrated what seemed to be both the death and life of Pinoy rock as we know it. (more…)