One Week Ago at Big Sky Mind

This is a long overdue review of the gig that was at Big Sky Mind last July 24. It was TRIBUTES, the 2nd thanksgiving night for the 1st issue of SPROUT Magazine. The night featured SHUFFLE UNION , COFFEEBREAK ISLAND, LADY-I , DREADKNOT USED, and JEEPNEY JOYRIDE. After rehearsals, in preparation for the 1st Manila Skafest the following night, we went straight to that quaint but famous venue of E.Rodriguez, and found that people had already gathered enough to fill the venue and the attached sidewalk that held familiar faces.

For this writer it served as a "Pre-Skafest" gathering ...well at least for three of the bands on the bill, Shuffle Union, Coffee Break Island, and Jeepney Joyride who were also set to play together at the 1st Manila Ska Festival the next day along with the best SKA bands of the younger set. The night was really complete with small talks, and catch up, with a hefty serving of beer and good food (no this is not a food blog), but the food was nice. Jeepney Joyride played first, with Norman carrying on with his patented style and demeanor as frontman, ably supported by the tight playing of the rest of the Joyride.


























After which Shuffle Union took the stage to give the audience a taste of the songs included in our recent release "INVINCIBLE", and staple songs as well for the full length release project. After a break, it was Coffee Break Island's turn to serve the crowd with a very lively set. I also met Vincent, one of the two French broadcast journalists from Paris, who found themselves somewhere in the middle of Quezon City, shooting the performers and the audience. I believe the footages will be shown on French TV sometime in August, I hope that we can see how the documentary will look like.








































After CBI, it was a chance to chat up some more with familiar faces outside. With beer flowing freely, I didn't notice that it was already around 3AM. Nonetheless, it was a night well spent, and the writer personally enjoyed being able to just perform and talk, not minding anything else but the event that was to take place the next night at Cubao X.

























(Pictures: chat group 1, Jeepney Joyride, Jeepney Joytide again, Shuffle Union, Shuffle Union again, Mike of SU, Jr of SU, Nomer of SU, Meng aka Menggay of Loudhouse, Paul of CBI, Jun of CBI, chat group 1 again, chat group 2, the french guy)