Basti Artadi of Wolfgang

It was a rainy night on December 8th. Although I didn’t get to attend the press conference of Yahoo for the Y! Rocks because of work, I still managed to go to the concert at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds. I needed a break from work and going to gigs is one of my stress relievers.

This is the first time that Yahoo held simultaneous concerts in Cebu and Davao for Yahoo Rocks. As an avid supporter of local artists, I appreciate this kind of support that is being given by Yahoo. Let’s admit it, gone are the hey days of bands during the 90′s. Sorry, I am being biased here but at that time, Pinoy bands were the mainstream and major recording labels were signing them, creating hits one after the other. But now, times have changed. Pinoy bands still exist, only a few of them in the mainstream and more are going independent. In this digital age, independent bands market themselves through online media – I guess one of the easiest and the cheapest form of marketing. The good thing is that Yahoo, one of the biggest online organizations, help promote Filipino music. It also helped that we have Yahoo Philippines which focuses everything about our country.

Gloc 9 and Vinci of Parokya ni Edgar

It is so hard to impose something but instead of us dwelling from the past, my proposal is to look forward and determine how we can keep Pinoy music alive. One suggestion is don’t just rely on what radio stations play. There are tons of artists who are already on the internet. Go to small gig joints around the metro and you’ll surely hear some fresh sound that you can dig into.

Marben Romero of Badburn

Anyway, nuff said. I only caught a few bands during the Yahoo Rocks gig. The audience had their umbrellas up so it was quite difficult to take photos from where I was (Purple VIP). Eventually the heavy rains stopped so I had the opportunity to get some snapshots. Feel free to browse through my Yahoo Rocks photo set in Flickr and the videos I took from my You Tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/rockerfemme.

Franco

Glad to see 90′s bands such as Wolfgang, Razorback, Badburn and Parokya ni Edgar. Only a few people I guess appreciated the heavy rock sounds of Wolfgang, Razorback and Badburn. I still had the urge to sing along with Basti in “Halik ni Hudas” and became my LSS until the next morning.

Kevin Roy of Razorback

“Norma Love” a.k.a Harlon Agsaoay of Tanya Markova

Sarah Marco of Taken by Cars

Raimund Marasigan of Sandwich

Chikoy Pura of The Jerks

Yahoo Philippines wants Yahoo Rocks to be a yearly event and I do hope that for the regional concerts, they let the local bands play and not only the popular ones. I know Cagayan de Oro and Cebu rock scene is alive and it would be great to showcase them as well. Not sure on the other genres but I am sure that there are existing ones!

So we left the concert grounds at around 12:30 am with a ringing sound in my ear. The next day, still feeling deaf, I went to work and returned to my boring job as if nothing happened last night.

* Special thanks to Joey Alarilla for the invitation!

Tags: Yahoo Philippines, Yahoo Rocks