Some of the Philippine industry’s sought after bands performed again at the Magnet High Street last October 22, 2008 to pay tribute to Gary V.’s 25th year of existence in the OPM scene. This recent event is already a follow up to the first tribute gig that happened last August 2008. As we all know, Gary V. played a big part in promoting Filipino talent here and internationally. The tribute gig was to promote Gary V’s upcoming major concert that will be held on November 14 to 15 at the Araneta Coliseum. Gary V.’s guests will be some of the country’s promising rock bands such as Rivermaya, Sugarfree, Bloomfields, and Salamin.

The bands that performed at the Magnet event were Sandwich, Imago, Pedicab, Salamin, Reklamo, ChicoSci, Severo, Greyhoundz and Spongecola. Each of these bands showed their version of a Gary V. song. Salamin, lead by Gary V.’s son Paolo Valenciano, performed “Babalik Ka Rin”, the song that was used on an ad in the 90’s dedicated to the Overseas Filipino Workers. Paolo Valenciano even imitated the movements his dad made for this song that made the audience laugh a bit. Imago performed a heartbreaking love song “Paano Ko Sasabihin”. Aia de Leon of Imago even asked Gary over the mic on how he was able to sing this heartbreaking song. Next on the bands that performed was Reklamo. They added their funky and witty guitar riffs on the song “Shake It”. Yael Yuzon of Spongecola, having lost a bit of his voice still managed to pull off another love song of Gary which is “Sana Maulit Muli”. The melancholic mood of Gary’s original rendition turned into an angst driven mood as Yael was singing the bridge of the song “Kung ako’y nagkamali minsan, di mo ba mapagbibigyan…” and still even managed to return to the melancholic mood by toning down his vocals. Severo performed “Looking in Her Eyes”, which gave the band a funky ‘Incubus’ sound. Read the rest of this entry »