As officially proclaimed, the month of August was to be Pete’s Place stalwart and my kumpadre Monchie Henares’ birthday month celebration. Precisely dated on August 2nd, the celebration continues unabated with friends and family in cahoots cheerfully making sure it happens. Last night was another successful indication of the festive spirit with the evening full of pleasurable surprises.
The festivity started quite conventional but surely accelerated to delightful frenzy as the night quickly progressed. Gab Villanueva was as usual at the forefront and the early bird. Minutes later, lo and behold, highschool batchmate Allan Flores, after more than a year or two in absentia finally makes an appearance. What a great surprise to see brader Allan back in the room after so long. It was about time for him to catch up and jump into the spirit of things once again. It was a fitting reunion for him as well with co-Bosconian batchmates Jun Bediones and Selo Cruz also around. Hopefully our Bataan based comrade’s next visit will not be too long from now.
Next on the list of arrivals were good friends and music room honchos Richard Parcia, Rick Trinidad, Erwin Dimaculangan and Marc de Asis. With Richard and Erwin was another musician friend (don’t recall the name).
Right about this time the birthday boy arrives. Fresh from last Friday's supply of mouthwatering pancit Malabon, care of Arabelle, last night the celebrant brought along a bottle of schnapps, a bottle of red wine and snacks and then topped if off by ordering boxes of sumptuous pizza officially commencing last night’s chapter of his month long celebration. What a guy!
The jam was fun with balik-musicroom Allan performing and playing his familiar stuff reminiscent of the past to start off the live music. As usual, the band members took turns on stage and sometimes interchanging instruments along the way. Richard, Erwin and company, likewise, had their own stage time playing their own set of song choices as well. Incidentally, master showman Michael Puyat and lovely wife Amar were in the house too.
Among the other regular house band musicians who gamely joined me were drummer Bubui Colico, percussionist Vincent Garrucho and the Catman keyboard lord Kiko Montecillo.
At past 3am, just as when we thought that the jam was winding down and about to come to a conclusion, a group of young talented girls suddenly shows up to perform on stage. Quite a treat for everyone as the youngsters came to their own and surprised the crowd with good entertainment. "Athalie", their band name, they comprise of Pauline Villanueva (guitar/vocals), Janine Flores (keyboard/vocals), Kristella Enriquez (bass/vocals) and Mika Cruz (drums/vocals). Mostly in their early 20’s, the band performed originals and covers arranged in their own superb unique style with nifty vocal harmonies to boot. Very impressive indeed.
Apparently, the girls had invited 2 other guys from another band they had met at their previous gig. Joining them were tenor saxophonist Eric Dimailig and keyboardist Jaris Orobia. The two concluded the jam with some standard cool jazzy tunes on the sax and piano to the delight of the audience. Great job guys!
For closers, the house band took over when the guest band left till 5:30am for the customary night cap jam we had fondly called the “Magic Hour”. As usual, Kiko masterfully took charge of the keys while the birthday boy sang to his heart’s content collaborating along with the rest of us in the band who were still well in the zone. What a night indeed! Praise and thank God!
My utmost thanks to everyone who joined us. Definitely made the evening extra special! We look forward to next week’s gathering. See you all then!
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE! GOD BLESS US ALL!
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