On that Awesome Band.

Spitshine. That was the band I was in throughout my Makati Science life. Yes, and needless to say, it was a very legendary experience.

When I entered Makati Science as a freshman, one of my overriding goals was to be in a band, and play well. It was a good thing my 1st year section, I-Pascal, had lots of band members to draw from.

I first met one of the members, Remus, in 1st year. He was one of those guitar players, no other comments to be given for fear of conviction on libel. Yeah, so he was of the same "let's make a band" mindset that I was in. So we started to look for members.

We found Vince, and he was a drummer. He could also play piano, guitar, harmonica, bass, and whatever the fuck else you wanted him to play. Yeah, but we primarily wanted him to play drums. And thank God, he was really good at it.

Yeah, so us 3 were thinking about who would be the vocalist in our band, a concern that lingers on in one form or the other until even today.

But that problem was amazingly hard to solve. Because even though we had lots of guitarists in our section, vocalists were nowhere to be found. But in the middle of that, we found another guitarist.

Thadeus (Ted) was that guy whom you'd first picture as a DotA playing, basketball playing, dumbass white-bread douche who didn't know how to speak english and was all "siga" and sht. (like some other guy we all know.) But in truth, he was more interesting than that. He wasn't that, and that was good. He knew his guitar, and in the first months of first year, beat me hands down in guitar skill. Yeah, so we put him in as a guitarist as well.

So we had 3 guitarists, no bassists, a drummer, and no vocalists. And there was this thing coming up, called Acoustic Afternoon. It was this acoustic performance, and we so wanted to play in it. So we improvised. DA (Marshall), was our manager, since he didn't know how to play any instrument at the time. Yeah, and we put this guy Joshua O., one of Ted's Don Bosco friends, to do main vocals, since there was no one else willing to do so. We called ourselves Alternate October.

So we, I think, played a cover of "Man In The Mirror" by Michael Jackson. DA sang there, since we told him to, and managers didn't have a thing to do there. And since we didn't even memorize the chords at all, we brought a folder with lyrics and chords. It turns out, the others didn't memorize the chords at well, and the singer didn't memorize the lyrics. Needless to say, we trainwrecked through the middle of the song, and proceeded to our next song. It was "Harana" by this Pinoy band, Parokya ni Edgar. We finished it, thankfully, and since we had extra time, we played "Ang Huling El Bimbo" (yes, bimbo) by the Eraserheads. We only finished the first verse and chorus. That was, in my opinion, a prime example of what trainwrecks are. Worst. Band Fail. Ever.

Then, we reorganized our band. We were supposed to play at the Battle of the Bands in December of that year. I think that was the first time we thought of making Ted our vocalist, and he was also to be the lead guitarist. Remus was to be rhythm guitarist. I was to be bass guitarist, though I had no idea how in hell to play bass. Yeah, but I took it. And Vince the drummer. Also, DA was to be manager.

So we came into the registering place, and we saw there were two other bands that wanted to play. There were supposed to be only 2 bands to get in, but we were determined to get ourselves into this contest. So an SSG officer tells us that it would be a race, to see who completed the requirements first. We were supposed to take a band picture, but we never got around to doing it. We were about to, when (my memory is sketchy) we either gave up, or were beaten in the race by both of the bands. So we were pissed. We had a cool (?) bandname, Puroja Call, don't ask the origin story.

We didn't get to play all first year, but looking at it with hindsight, it was a good thing we didn't perform. We didn't have nearly enough experience to play live, and we sucked back then. Plus, our manager DA left for New Zealand in early January, and we thought it would be for good. But, as we know now, it wasn't the case.

We never played live, but we honed our skills. I learned to improvise, while Ted honed his skills in singing while playing guitar. And throughout the summer, we planned, planned, and planned on what to do to improve the next year. We were supposed to change our band, and we made this guy named Paolo G. play drums instead of Vince, making Vince play bass, making Remus play rhythm, and making me and Ted co-lead guitarists.

The next schoolyear, we planned to start practicing early. Ted, me, and our new manager, our bro Matthew dJ, looked at studios in early July. We were to practice starting August, and practice all the way to December. That was not forthcoming, since Remus and Vince were both dormers in our school, and couldn't really go out a lot. Then we found out that there would be another Acoustic Afternoon, only this time, it would be called Acoustic Morning. So we prepared. And we registered on time. But the problem was, Paolo went all traitor on us, and joined another band.

So now we were back to a 4-piece band. Thad on guitar (lead/rhythm) and vocals, and me on lead/rhythm. Remus became the bassist, and Vince the drummer. We prepared for Acoustic Morning, and we made our setlist. As we were preparing, my guitar broke its string, so I had to use the guitar they had there, which was an electric guitar. And I thought, this is Acoustic Morning? Why the hell am I using an electric? Nevertheless, we went throught with our set. We couldn't find a bass for Remus, so we just gave him an electric. We played "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5, which was a crowd pleaser and really good. I remember Ted had a cold that day, or injured his voice in whatever way. But we pulled it off. Then we played "Toyang" by the Eraserheads, which was good, and coincidentally was the first improv solo I've ever pulled off.

Anyway, after that, we got back to practicing for the Battle of the Bands. We tried out lots of songs. But we settled with 2. One original, one cover.

And simultaneously as that was happening, Ted and I had another committment. We went to Robinsons Galleria, so we could practice for my RJ Recital. I guess we learned lots about making band practices work there.

Anyway, we finally got to December, when the Battle of the Bands was gonna be held. We finished up, and readied for the Battle. And we actually had another practice just a few hours before. We got up to stage, and we faced a setback. Ted didn't have a guitar to use. So he went around to look for a guitar. And wires and stuff. So we started with our set.

I noticed that our equipment was sub-par. The bass sucked, according to the other bassists I talked to. The amplifiers were [multiple expletives deleted, and more lines further deleted for fear of assassination.] We started anyway, but I realized the amp wasn't being heard at the back. I pushed the volume almost up to 11, but nothing. The small Roland Cubes weren't holding up. That sucked, since I played amazing solos that day. We started with "The Happy Song," an original composition which was basically a jam in G-Minor. I played a very cool solo, and I did tapping and stuff like that. Ted also did a cool solo, and fortunately, that was heard. After that, we used Joe Satriani's "Always With Me, Always With You" as an intro to "I'll Be," originally by Edwin McCain. That was a cool moment. Even though my guitar was barely heard, we pulled it off. We were AWESOME. We finished up, and waited for the result. Originally, I wanted to win Lead Guitarist of the Year, but sadly, since my solos weren't heard, someone else got it. But to add silver lining, Ted won Rhythm Guitarist of the Year. At least it was good.

2 days after, we were to perform at RJ Bistro for my recital at RJ Music, and that performance was one of our best. Ted's vocals were good, the bassist and the drummer were pros, and of course played well, and I'm actually proud of my guitar playing there. In fact, I have a DVD of it. Whenever I watch it, I marvel at the solo, then see how much I've improved. Oh, and BTW, we played "Knocking on Heaven's Door," originally by Bob Dylan, but played as well by Eric Clapton (Soft Rock), Guns N' Roses (Hard Rock), and Avril Lavigne (I don't give a shit.) My parents libre-d us a dinner after that, Me, Ted, and all the friends we brought to watch the event.

When we got back to school in January, Ted told me that there would be a contest in his former school, Don Bosco. We were supposed to use the old Spitshine lineup, but we used a new lineup instead. From TAY, we got Gerard (G), whom we originally thought of as a DJ guy, but was actually equally adept at drum-playing. We were also friends with this other band called Emergency Exit, where we got our bassist, Aaron. He wasn't a pro, but he could pull off playing bass for our band. We practiced, but we were only given like a week to practice for the event. And making things worse, Gerard's dad didn't approve of Gerard playing, and we weren't even sure if he could go to the audition for the thing. We practiced anyway. We went to Don Bosco, and Ted and Aaron were there, but not G. We were pissed, and I thought I would never forgive him. But then came 2 pieces of good news. 1st: G WAS going. He'd just be a little late. 2nd: Our audition was to be on the day of the contest itself, giving us more time to practice. We got to practice more, and we were at the top of our game.

Then the day came. For details, http://newmodernedition.blogspot.com/2011/01/amazing-day.html

After that, we were looking for more gigs. By this time, DA had already been back in the Philippines for months, and had watched all our 3 performances (Battle, RJ, and Band-Age.) We met him every week, as we practiced for the RJ thing, and we told him to learn bass. That, he did, and we got him as bassist. He also had a recital like me, and we were to back him. We practiced for months with him, trying out tons of drummers, until we almost gave up. Then Sir Benj (my guitar teacher, Recital organizer) gave us a drummer, whom we learned was an amazing drummer. Her name was Erika.

Anyway, we also found another thing with this production, that had a gig in Quezon City. It was gonna be far, but we were gonna pull it off.

Anyway, simultaneous practices again.

We had practices both in RJ Music in Galleria, and in Paranaque, where our drummer lived, and where our studio was.

Anyway, about that. Remember Casey? He had a sister, who knew how to play drums. I had met her at Mang Ben's service a year before, and we were friends. Her name was Carissa, but we called her Ate Ayi. They had a drumset at home, and an amplifier, and a mic, w/o a stand tho.

So we decided to practice there. Anyway, it was gonna be a little hard on Ted and Marshall, since they lived far away. They managed it tho, and I'm proud of them for that. We practiced there a few times, and we brought friends over to practices sometimes. Anyway, the day came, and we practiced a little more, then we drove to the gig place, which was pretty far. We got a pizza in Taguig, and got there as the first band started to play. Anyway, it was a tense wait.

We then went up to the stage to play.

First, we played "Gotten" by Slash (ft. Adam Levine of Maroon 5), which was kinda good but sucked a little 'cause my guit was a little out of tune. Anyway, we proceeded to our next song, an original composition we called "The Dream" for that evening. It was a little Drop D experiment with the most imaginative lyrics I've ever heard. After that, we played "Friends, Lovers, or Nothing" by John Mayer, and it went well until the end of the song,when I fucked up a little. It wasn't a big fuck-up, but it was noticeable. Anyway, we continued to "Harder To Breathe"by Maroon 5, which was fast becoming our signature piece. We played that pretty good. That was the end. And after that, we left the bar. And we got paid in peanuts, to quote my friend Marshall. Not the perfect first gig, but it was quite an experience.

We had another RJ thing, and it was 2 days after. But Ted was feeling a little under the weather because of our performance, and didn't want to go. We got to the place where we were supposed to play, Dusit Thani in Makati, but Ted wasn't there. Me and Marshall were panicking, and we called Ted. Fortunately, he said he in fact would go. But our practice time was there, and he wasn't there, and we were supposed to just play it instrumentally. But as we were setting our instruments, he got there. We played the song, then played it again for the cameras. I have to say, it was Ted's best vocal performance.

After that, no more gigs. I'm now leaving the country, and the band will go on without me.

But I have to say. Thanks for the best experience, Spitshine. You were the best.

2:17PM.