My eyes went wide open after I read the PR article that this is a 5 hours rock fest that will happen tonight in Smart Araneta, because our local concert organizers Dayly Entertainment in partner with Dickies Philippines brought here American rock bands - Dashboard Confessionals, The Cab, Cobra Starship and The Used, its a one big concert that will rock everyone's head and bang to the thin air, our local bands will join them and waves the flag because we are having an awesome night of pure rockdom in Smart Araneta, I'm excited also to see Chicosci, Urbandub, Slapshock and Typecast to rock our souls before blasting our brains to eternal rockdom...omg. I should get ready for this concert.
Expect a photo coverage of this event, because I got invited to do photo coverage of the concert, and I'm excited because this is my come back to music and concerts coverage after hiberating for almost a year. Thanks to the team and friends of Manila Concert Scene and Dayly Entertainment for the non stop support of this blog and also for feeding me with music.
I arrived late at the press con and I am so glad that the press con didn't started on time, I was standing on the registration table filling up those forms then Chris Carraba of Dashboard Confessionals showed up with two body guards, he stands there and talks to the body guards and then went busy twitting with his iPhone 4S, I snatched Jeman and told me, hey! let's have a photo with Chris....while the media are inside the room hahahahah. We joked around after and pretended we are fan bloggers, there's nothing wrong in being a fan blogger, just make sure that doing photo op won't disturb anyone doing their work.
Happy to meet Chris Carraba and then I told myself, okay! its blog coverage time (after stepping inside the press con room, no more photo ops inside)
1st press con session is with Chris Carraba of Dashboard Confessionals, he visited us here years ago and he melted everyone's heart with his songs like "Belle of Boulevard" and "Stolen", his band was dubbed as the grandfather of emo-pop. One of the most popular song is "Vindicated" a song track created for the motion picture of Spider-man 2.
He revealed to us his song writing phases, he mentioned that writing music and creating songs are a part of his whole life and he loves to collaborate with other artists, he shared to us his collab with the R.E.M. and he wants to work with them again and for Chris, REM is the most artistic guys that he have met, he did a cover of REM's "its the end of the world" after he learned that REM disbanded.
Spider-man 2 was mentioned inline with "Vindicated" song, he loves the idea and I think I saw that Chris here loves comics book, because during the meet and greet session, he told this girl wearing that Iron man and Hulk shirt that her shirt is really nice. He shared to us that he is excited for the reboot of Spider-man movie and also Avengers.
Chris shares to us that kids now a days loves listening to music, the age of 12-17 years old are the best times to listen to songs because kids absorbs the song so easily and it will influence them and also inspires, I believe on him when he said, I remember that my tapes and CD collection grew more and on between that age, I started listening to different kids of music - from classic rock, to rock, rap, hip hop, metal and dance music.
Talking about emo side, The Smiths and The Cure was mention as the father of emo and it was mentioned earlier that his band is the grandfather of emo-pop (I dont know where that came from), he shared to us that he likes The Smiths and it influenced his writing skills and style and also for The Cure their music and the sadness side resonates back to him, but then he said that his lyrics is much more closer to Robert Smith of the Cure.
Next press con is with the band....a funny and crazy band on the floor... - The Used, I enjoyed listening to them and like other rock bands...they showed how they enjoy their status as rock stars and the playfulness is still present.
Bert McCraken, lead vocalist of the band...and sometimes his fans shouts.."release the kraken!!!" a line word of Zeus in Clash of the Titans movie. He shared to us that they have a new album that will be released on March 30, he describe to us their band story under a recording label and after learning the loops of to manage themselves, they decided to produce their own and no longer settle with the recording label, from the old story we know from movies and books - record labels didn't give any freedom to artists and without freedom, the artist will just follow the label's decision.
The Used band is having a great first time here in the Philippines, they want to try new things like eating lechon. They were dared to try balut and even dared to meet Manny Pacquiao, the atmosphere changed and they agreed that they love to meet Manny Pacquiao.
Bert shared to us that Michael Jackson's music influenced him more to be a musician and fusing it with his other influences he and his band creates good melody, disgusting lyrics, gross rock and heavy music. He notes that music saves lives, influence and inspire people. They promised that their performance tonight will be at their best and everyone will smile and forget all their problems and love music for just one night here at the Smash Project.
The Cab entered the floor and as the last band to do the press con, they are young rockers and mentioned to us that their music is an outlet to express feelings and creative process. Their first impression of the Philippines is that they know already about the country because of their Filipino fans in their online website and Twitter. Here they know that the people are nice and not snobby and then lead vocalist Alexander De Leon revealed to us that his grand father is a Filipino and there he learned on how be respectful and how to appreciate. "Everyone from the world can learn from the culture" Alexander said.
Alexander De Leon said that writing and creating music and songs is fun and as a band for almost 6 years they learned to believe in their self and try produce on their own, doing it by themselves is the biggest reward as a band.
The press con yesterday is fun, and learning these words from them really inspires any individual, rock stars or not, music inspires them and shares their own outlet, we absorb and then we influence other people. I have recorded a short video of the press con you can view it here by visiting this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHert71A0Fs&feature=youtu.be
John of Kumagcow.com is the blogger star of the day for participating in the Q and A
fans spotted the Cab band in the lobby of the hotel
I'm excited already for this concert tonight....hhahaha read the details below and hope to see you later
Tickets available on sale . Ticket prices: Patron Standing: Php 4,500, Lower Box: Php 3,500, Upper A: Php 2,500, Upper B: Php 1,000 and Gen Ad: Php 500. This event is brought to you by DAYLY Entertainment.
