Building the BAND... and our first gig of Embarassment

Thoughts And Notions Poster featuring the First Official Band Line Up circa 2006 

I will be continuing our origin story from the last blog entry I wrote. This time, it concerns the formation of the first line up of our band Thoughts And Notions. So as per my last story, Praise Music encouraged us to form a band, because we were tasked to promote our album with the intention to do Mall Tours. There was an agreement that we will also do cover songs of foreign bands whose albums are being distributed by Praise Music in the Philippines. So with this suggestion by Praise Music A&R Al Torres, I went home to Cagayan de Oro searching for musicians that would compose our band. The first priority was our Church's Music Ministry. Unfortunately, not everyone could commit because first of all, most of them were still students in High School or College. Fortunately the resident keyboardist, Nelson Dychauco Jr. (we call him Jun2x) offered to volunteer his College band called "Sadhana" to audition since they were also looking to explore a career in music. At that time, they were already a four piece band with a male vocalist, John Fernandez, who also plays rhythm guitars. The other members were Tim Marquez on lead guitars, and Alvin Carreon on Bass Guitars. Nelson, John, and Tim hailed from the small beautiful island of Camiguin down south in Mindanao and have been friends since they were kids while Alvin came from a different province, East of Mindanao, in Pagadian. They were a mix of raw but talented musicians who were looking to break into the music scene in Cagayan de Oro while mostly playing in school gigs.  

Baptism of Fire: The band gig that went down in Flames

With the band in tact and ready, I contacted an old friend of mine who produces concerts in our city, Anne Sepulveda. I was asking around if there were any concerts or gigs that she knows of where our band could play or guest as a front act. Luckily, she told me that she was producing a Bamboo (the band) concert. I asked if she could still squeeze us in on the line up of bands guesting for the concert. And she readily obliged because we've been working together producing concerts for a time. Then I asked her who were the other bands playing. To my horror and surprise, the other bands that we would be sharing the stage were the cream of the crop of Cagayan de Oro's finest and most popular bands at that time. From the top of my head, we shared the stage with Tabularaza, Gasulina, Peachfuzz, and there was one other band I can't seem to remember. It was either Swerve or was it K9. And then there was us. Compounding things was the fact that Bamboo was the biggest Filipino Rock band at that time. So if you were performing that night, you are assured of a sold out crowd and a packed audience. What have I gotten our band into? But of course when I presented the news to the band, they were up to the challenge. So we started doing our band practices and rehearsals in preparation for this gig. Siblings Alexis Ramirez and Angeli Ramirez (who were also part of our Church's Music Ministry) were gracious enough to offer their place for our initial band practices. So we spent a good amount of time honing our craft, hoping that we could prove ourselves worthy to be lined up with such prestigious bands in the coming gig. And on the day before the concert, we went to an actual rehearsal studio and did our final band practice. Other bands that were lined up in the concert with us were also there. At that time, we didn't know each other yet. So while they were waiting for their turn, one of the band members exclaimed "Ah, there's a showband practicing." I can't really forget this incident even if it happened some 15 years ago because I really find his comment amusing. However, I won't be revealing who exclaimed that, because months after, we became friends and had been a constant help in finding gigs for us.      

The disastrous Baptism of Fire

So the day finally came for the band to show their stuff. And to my horror we messed up onstage big time! Maybe it was the inexperience to play in such a big venue. Or the band was pressured to not mess up their respective parts, knowing that a huge crowd was watching the show. I still keep a picturesque memory of that gig. I don't have a video of it, but it probably looked so much like that scene from that Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do! (see video below) where the band was performing in a Pittsburgh Concert, their biggest gig at that time, and they messed up with disjointed parts and pieces of their harmony as a band. That's what happened to us. Tim broke his guitar strings. John and Thrina couldn't hear the music properly, making their vocal delivery off from the music. Jun2x was drumming off beat and too fast, and Alvin could not hear the other parts. IT WAS A TOTAL MESS. IN FRONT OF A HUGE CROWD. As John would later say, he was ready to jump off the stage and not finish the set out of sheer embarrassment. Good thing though that the band was able to get over it. Because we have an album launching and a Mall tour coming up as prepared by Praise Music in two of our City's most popular Malls.  

I guess the lesson to be found here is to be not afraid of failures and just soldier on. It was a big break to play in such a huge crowd but it also became a huge embarrassment. What a debut it was. What a way to introduce ourselves to CDO's music loving fans. But we had fun. And we had GOD to clean up our mess and start all over again. And be a whole lot better next time. Just the same with our life, we all go through mistakes and embarrassments. Some, too tough to get out of. But we should always trust GOD that he can make things better for us as long us we put in the work. That's a promise that GOD WILL ALWAYS KEEP. And we all should trust his plan for us. As we did all those years ago..... until today and tomorrow.