Sugbuanon “Tabi Po”

Cebu is a good place to see the best Filipino rock bands. Last weekend (October 16-19), I went to Cebu for the Visayan leg of the Philippine Blog Awards. I arrived in Cebu at around 10 pm. Had dinner with blogger friends and on our way home, we heard the sound of live bands. I’ve been dying to see Cebu based bands. I’m only familiar with the popular ones such as Urbandub, Faspitch, Shiela and the Insects and Jr. Kilat.

Karla and I came to Mango Square, a district filled with bars and establishments. It was a Friday night so everyone’s out chilling out. We didn’t know that it was a free concert by Tanduay Rhum Rock Fest so we decided to watch just one band perform because we’re really tired.

We got the chance to see Sugbuanon, a neo-tribal band. Their music is actually good. They combined tribal instruments with electric guitars, bass and drums. We only heard 3 songs from them, one of which was a cover of a popular song by Yano which is “Banal na Aso, Santong Kabayo”. The vocalist of the band titled the song “St. Bernard vs. Red Horse”. I didn’t get it at first but when they played the intro, I already knew why he titled it like that. They gave a tribal flavor to the song. I actually appreciated their rendition of Yano’s song.

Anyway, they played mostly original songs. The video I took above was an original song entitled “Tabi Po”. Their music is like a combination of Joey Ayala, Pinikpikan and Yano. Actually, the vocalist reminded me of Dong Abay .

The crowd was relatively “tamed”. There were people dancing and trying to slam but generally, they’re ok. Well, probably because the bands there weren’t really worth “slamming”?

I wish I stayed longer as I learned from a forum just now that Sheila and the Insects and Jr. Kilat were also there. Huhu, I didn’t get the chance to see them live! Oh well, I want to go back to Cebu and just watch bands there because I’m curious to know more about the Cebu band scene.