Band on fire!

It was probably the sweatiest and stickiest Pinikpikan show I've ever attended. A few weeks ago, vocalist Carol Bello posted a note inviting people to watch "Pinikpikan's last gig." Of course everybody was like OH MY GOD PINIKPIKAN IS BREAKING UP LET'S WATCH! And all of us descended on tiny 70's Bistro last Saturday for the band's farewell show. Once inside, I kept looking at the low, foam-lined ceiling and the small exit and kept thinking, "If a fire starts here, I'm going to DIE!" The turnout was huge, bigger than the usual Pinikpikan crowd, spilling over to the street.

Indeed, it was Pinikpikan's last gig, because after the first set, they discarded the name Piunikpikan. They are now known as KALAYO, meaning "fire," an appropriate name for the country's best live band. They now have a new recruit, in the person of Mark Escueta of Rivermaya. And the band never sounded better. They were truly on fire, playing their hits more intensely than usual, the crowd and the band feeding off of each other's energy. They played their first song as Kalayo, "Sumigla, Sumaya." Prior to that they gave away CDs of this song by asking people to sing lines from certain Pinikpikan songs. When Sammy Asuncion asked for somebody to sing a line from "Kahimanawari" (my favorite Pinikpikan song), Carol shoved the mic in my direction, and then I said, I don't know, the lyrics are not in Tagalog. And then I later realized that, shit, the song only has one word in it, the title repeated over and over again. Aaaargh! Sayang!

Looking forward to more fiery nights with Kalayo!

(Click any image to see more photos)
(Click any image to see more photos)