fête de la musique 2011

The rainy weather made Gerard sneezy, lazy, and fat. He's glad the typhoon was over...it didn't ruined his weekend gimmick: go to Fete de la Musique*. 

The streets and alleys of Bonifacio High Street were full of people—music lovers, locals, tourists, hipsters, and every kind of music junkie that Gerard could think of. It was a free concert, too! More than 100 Pinoy bands were there, with more than a dozan genres, playing simultaneously in different stages. The Main Stage was located at the Fort Plaza, while the other seven stages were around the Fort Strip area.

Here are Gerard's three favorite performances of the night:

Gerard went first to the main stage where he met Pierre Le Bourdonac, vocalist of the french rock band Merzhin. Pierre is Gerard's first ami francais. They have the same shaved head. He looks like a cross between R.E.M's Michael Stipe and the host of the Crystal Maze. 

It was Gerard's first time to hear french music. He loved it. J'adore! By the end Merzhin's performance, Gerard was saying "bonjour" to greet people, and "au revoir" whenever a friend says goodbye.

Gerard loved the Afro-Brazilian Finale and Escola de Samba de Manila performance directed by Nyko Maca. Every beat of the drums and percussion made Gerard jump and dance like crazy! His arms were swinging non-stop! The girl wearing a fedora hat is Toni Bernardo, the Directoria da Bateria of escola. Gerard wants to be a drum director someday. He wants to buy a white whistle, too! 

Gerard's eyes were glued to the stage when the Samba dancers came dancing onto the stage wearing giant colorful headpieces and began shaking their booty. He panicked a bit when fire dancers started doing their routine. He was worried that the flaming rope might burn or melt him! The heat caused shivers down his metal spine, changing his usual red and green color to white and amber. Good thing he brought a handy fire extinguisher (for his emergency purposes only). 

After the afro-brazilian gig and a few drinks, Gerard transferred to the The Fort Strip where he saw a huge crowd sitting on the ground and chillin'. He particularly liked the Indie/Punk Stage. Kate Torralba's performance was his favorite! She's a great singer and pianist...plus she's cute, too!

And look, Gerard bumped into John Proctor! John is NiMu's former officemate. It's always great to see friends and colleagues having fun on a Saturday night!

Gerard didn't have time to take photos because he was busy getting lost in the moment. There were many bands to watch in one night that Gerard wished he could just multiply like a Gremlin and be everywhere. But even thought he couldn't, he had the most enjoyable time.

Until the next Fete!

* Fete de la Musique refers to a music festival. It aims to showcase the music scene across a variety of genres and generations. Gerard read in Spaceypedia (Robot World's version of Wikipedia...and yup he did a little research) that the festival began in France, but is now an international event.