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Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Scene Around: Tagaytay Art Beat 2

02/25/2017 08:08:50 AM


After seventeen months, the biggest arts and music festival of Southern Luzon was back and it just got bigger as Museo Orlina and Docdef Productions staged the second Tagaytay Art Beat last Saturday, 4 February 2017 at Museo Orlina in Hollywood Subdivision, Tagaytay City. 

And it probably got more people to hop on to the Metro South's nearest chillout city as almost a thousand people were in attendance – with more and more people coming in during the late afternoon hours, and more personalities like critically-claimed movie director Brillante Mendoza and cinematographer Jason Magbanua dropping by the venue.


Rob and The Hitmen, Dante and Amigo, Banna Harbera, and Conscious and The Goodness kicked off the concert at high 1 in the afternoon. The sun may be out but the music brought ore scorching heat as the latter two bands debut new songs at their respective sets. Heck, the Wanderland-bound youngsters were the obvious favorites, much to the crowd's clamor. 

Rob and The Hitmen

Banna Harbera. (Photo credits: Darzi Pinga Photography)
The TAB2 art exhibit staged at Reflections Gallery was opened to the public since the opening of Museo Orlina. However, it was only 3:30 in the afternoon – 30 minutes later from the originally scheduled 3:00PM – when it was done with formality.





Back at the amphitheater, indie singer-songwriter Reese Lansangan took over the stage, as well as Bullet Dumas. It was a laid-back afternoon that made the ambiance as if were on a small-scale bar gig where the artist and fans are making intimate connections. Indie folk and pop music at its finest time.

As sunset approaches, we move to the other (and ecletic) side as Tagaytay Art Beat 2 also showcased electric and hiphop musicians crwn and Ninno took over the stage by the early evening. Speaking of the latter, this young rapper as he will unveil another album soon and he will unveiling the third single from his digital release TCK.

She's Only Sixteen followed suit as the indie garage band keep the momentum going despite playing in-between the electric musicians for Tagaytay Art Beat 2. Tandems '91 and Moonwlk (in their full band setup) has turned Museo Orlina Amphitheater into a moshpit area again – and we're just hitting the halfway point of the program!

This is where things slowed a bit down when Fools and Foes and TheSunManager took reins of the stage for an hour. Afterwards, Apartel hit the stage and it was lit as fuck. Well, why not?It's THE Ely Buendia on the vocals and this six-piece crew evolved into a super-band by the numbers. Solid swabe music for a cold, breezy night in Tagaytay!

And certainly the soul-jazz-fusion madness doesn't stop there as Jack Daniel's Chosen One Farewell Fair Weather performed after them. From there, Motherbasss turned up the tide once more with a DJ-and-drums set that lasted nearly an hour!

Ninno (Photo credit: Darzi Pinga Photography)
Ethan, Jin, and Mark of Farewell Fair Weather (Photo credit: Darzi Pinga Photography)
It was midnight and six bands left to perform in front of a jam-packed amphitheater. It was six of the present's favorite names in the music scene right now, and they all delivered spectacular acts to cap the evening. 

Post and math rock trio Tom's Story proved why they are one of the big things on making instrumentals rock – and keep everyone dance even if it's already late. The Ransom Collective, the Wanderland 2014 winners, were clearly the crowd darlings for this kind of atmosphere. Certainly, their sound of indie folk (with bits of alternative and pop) says it all.

Scheduled at the latter part of program, Autotelic made a switch in their set, playing Laro at first and Gising on last. Still, the iyak-sayaw makers delivered and it was the usual kind of reception from their cult followers.

Sud launched a new song during their set. At least, there could be more Tagalog songs to this sultry alternative crooners other than the popular Sila. Mayonnaise rocked the stage as if the night is still young and they were still in the mid-2000s. Funny how Jensen Gomez and Carlo Maraingan got ito act when Monty and company played their version of Laklak and bits of Narda.

And Jensen and The Flips capped the evening with a bang – a collaboration with Tandems '91 for two songs Crazy and  Slow as Tagaytay Art Beat 2 came to a close.

Christer de Guia of Tom's Story (Photo credits: Jeremy Caisip)
Sud Ballecer of SUD
Monty Macalino of Mayonnaise
For 15 hours, it was a night full of debut songs and collaboration for some bands. Despite the technical difficulties midway, the concert was a hands-down show with a crowd that were solid in attendance since 12 noon. For most of the time, the amphitheater was packed to the rafters and some even flocked the upper floors of the vicinity. Well, this probably made up for their pricey tickets and criticisms that TAB2 would've make it big like those music fests in the neighboring countries as well as following set times. (Still fun to notice the event culminated by almost 4AM, but really lagged behind their prompt 2AM schedule.)

The art exhibit was truly welcomed by the crowd despite the sudden decision to move the ribbon cutting ceremony on a later time. And if you have time to check out the exhibits, please do so as they will run for the rest of the month.







On the additional side notes, entertaining performances from Magic Manila and DJ sets also graced Tagaytay Art Beat 2. Heck, Mike Constantino (of Conscious and The Goodness) spinned tunes that made everyone at the roofdeck groove – and even pull off sets of Trip to Jerusalem cameos. And with Mr. Ramon Orlina offiically annoucing that TAB will be a yearly feat? Expect artsy nights ahead of you, guys!

Definitely Tagaytay Art Beat 2 was worth the very long wait despite the high price and a very inclined road. They delivered the goods; emerging from the indie-folk-ish self to a more variety of offering plus fun hosts, magic shows, more food stalls. Talk about a mini-festival; an art-packed Saturday affair to kick off the heart month.

Some of the photos in this post are made by Darzi Pinga. Do check his album of Tagaytay Art Beat 2 through his Facebook page.

Author: slickmaster | © 2017 september twenty-eight productions

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