JAN. 26, 2018 – FRIDAY JAM UPDATE – The law of averages finally caught up on us crushing the upward trend in total attendance garnering the poorest showing of regulars around in comparison to the previous weeks. Most of the regular house band personalities did not show up with just a splinter of them making it over. If not for “George the English bulldog” and a surprise sojourn by the Monotones and their friends plus a few others, the place would’ve seemed like a bad day on an abandoned cabin in Gloomy Lake.

Despite the early arrival of Air Asia fly boy and guitarist Loren Orendain, the jam failed to prosper with just bassist Rick Trinidad and myself around. As if by providence, the youthful Monotones comprising of Ryan Nacino, Rj Palma, Joshua Zamora suddenly shows up after being absent for quite a long time. I encouraged them to participate and jam in an attempt to make things a little bit more interesting. Eventually I stepped down to let the youngsters take over to join Rick and Loren who were still on stage.

Ryan took over playing the keyboards and did some vocals while Rj and Joshua alternated playing drums with Rj on it most of the time. Perfect timing for these kids to show up.

Now on her third consecutive Friday night at the music room, Steph Salazar was back and the last person to participate. As always a trooper, she joined in and sang lead or at times doing 2nd voice for Ryan.

With the limited songs playable in the repertoire, the band struggled to even complete a single tune being handicapped without key musicians around. In fact, the few simple chord progression jams we did to warm up had more success than those songs the band actually attempted to cover. Pretty soon, we eventually ran out of songs to play. By 2am it was all over.

After the jam, the guys still stayed around for some friendly chatter and more beers. Surprisingly, the group chitchat lasted longer than the actual jam with the remaining guys leaving for home at already past 4am. I actually had to make a French exit much earlier when the guys opted to hang out instead at the smoking area to smoke. Well, i can’t really bear the smell of cigarettes even if I wanted to stay around to join them. Dondon volunteered to keep them company until it was time to close and lock up.

My special thanks to Luigi Diano, Carmen, Nikki Segundo and his sidekick Jun, Marc de Asis, Virgil Sagana & friend and Kikoy Ventura for their valuable time and presence. Hats off to you guys!

As always, i praise and thank God for the opportunity and the blessings. We eagerly look forward to a more exciting and productive week ahead of us.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND EVERYONE! GOD BLESS US ALL!