It wasn't all about Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 7107 Music Fest
“Ah man, it was just luck.”
Kjwan’s Marc Abaya is being modest.
“No,“ you respond, “you spoke and played from here (pointing to the heart).”
Kjwan just finished an extended and crowd-rousing set on the first night of the 7107 International Music Festival; they played the so-called “local” stage while a pumping house set (probably Dutch act Deejay Alvaro—and no, not the one who did “Maginoo Pero Medyo Bastos”) was happening a quarter of a kilometer away on the main stage.
Earnest performers, earnest partying
“We write songs,” he says at one point during their performance. “Not everything we do is a hit. But we make the effort… we love making music.”
Kjwan pulled out all the stops, and the relatively more “serious” side of the Global Gateway Logistics City exploded with as much energy and fervor as the more crowded dance music-oriented area has been since mid-afternoon.
A balance of sorts is achieved, and the festival spirit is now in full swing. Local stage: earnest performers, and a mellow but attentive audience. Main stage: let’s party, earnestly!
We can’t believe we’re here
The local stage (on Day 1) featured a host of indie bands including the Santana-meets-Mars Volta frenzy of Wilderness, emo-influenced Runway Crimes, synth pop dance trio Techy Romantics and Taken By Cars (with Camyl Besinga of the Techys filling in for Sarah Marco).
The stage design, a sun in the back framed by giant carabao horn-shaped cones in front, may have served the performers well as they all expressed, in their respective ways, the we-can’t-believe-we’re-here-let’s-keep-supporting-local-music sentiment.
On the main stage, hip-hop and house beats pulsed from inside the massive Philippine sun-like canopy. Local duo Motherbasss impressed with their turntable/live drum kit exchanges and LA rapper Kid Ink delivered excellent hip-hop.
Portalets galore
The revelers of each stage differed in attitude but hey, it’s a music festival, and the more open-minded folks traveled from one side to the other… and somewhere else in the world, the hot pants and jorts industries are celebrating.
Eventually, most of the festival-goers (including Abaya who was followed by a handful of fans to congratulate his herculean efforts earlier), partied to Day 1 headliner Kaskade.
There were many food concessionaires and, equally important for a massive festival, enough portalets that reduced queuing time.
Diversity
On the second day, the local stage lineup ranged from the hauntingly beautiful (Skymarines, the Ringmaster) to frenetic melodic indie-pop (Cheats). As with the previous day, the performances were earnest, the energy onstage and off very positive.
By early evening, Loonie and Abra, the Radioactive Sago Project, electrohouse chanteuse Luciana and Sponge Cola performed for the enthused crowd.
If you had stayed for the entire local stage schedule, you would notice the diversity and wide range of musical styles. But to be frank, calling it the “local” stage stated nothing about the performers and, in a way, was misleading (Luciana is English).
UDD owned the audience
On the main stage, the Itchyworms delivered their trademark catchy and humor-laden pop-rock set, injecting funny medleys and asides, followed by Rocksteddy’s pop-hard rock.
It was UpDharmaDown, however, that owned the late afternoon audience, with a fine balance of Armi Millare’s admitted eternal nervousness and impassioned singing over sophisticated loop-laden textural yet punchy rhythms.
The one-two pop-punk punch of Malaysia’s Scarlet Heroes and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus seemed to put the vibe delivered by UDD askew… but it’s par for the course for any music festival. Kendrick Lamar also played the main stage.
'Are you ready for the Red Hot Chili Peppers??'
From a production standpoint, it appeared as if Australia’s Empire of the Sun summed up the festival’s over-the-top tone. From guitarist/vocalist Luke Steele’s trademark headgear to the LED-accented instruments to the gaggle of costumed dancers, Empire of the Sun felt like a combination of Kaskade’s deep house and rock band and looked spectacular.
But Empire’s Luke Steele, like most of the other performers during the past two days, conceded that a large portion of the massive audience came for, ultimately, one band, “Are you all ready for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers tonight??”
That was it… the stage is cleared, and the crowd cheers as Chad Smith’s drum kit is rolled on to the stage. The long wait (the Peppers’ first scheduled Philippine gig was cancelled due to the 2002 Bali Bombings) was finally over.
This is how it’s done, folks
The Peppers’ muscular soulful rock funk and what seemed to be a nonstop set of hits simply obliterated any swagger or bravado present in all of the other performers.
While Flea occasionally took to the microphone for a few spiels and asides, the Peppers simply play with so much conviction, energy, and focus that they made Empire Of The Sun’s cyber-cabaret seem superfluous, albeit unintentionally.
The hits were there: ‘Can’t Stop,’ ‘Under The Bridge,’ ‘By The Way,’ ‘Higher Ground,’ ‘Give It Away’ (the final encore), but they have performance down to a science. They could play one note and one beat and you know you can groove to it. They never verbalized it but they played as if to say: “This is how it’s done.” And nobody will disagree.
Excellent sound system
The excellent sound system (which the local stage also had) was loud yet nuanced and clear. If anything, the 7107 International Music Festival was a technical triumph.
In a multi-stage festival situation, you simply have to make specific choices especially if performances are happening at the same time: Red Jumpsuit Apparatus or Radioactive Sago Project? (Or you can just head for the food concessionaires or line up for drinks or visit sponsors’ tents if you can’t decide… omnipresence is impossible anyway.)
Either way, the sonic reproduction for all performances was amazing. And the music fan (whether indie pop to pop-punk to hip-hop to electronica to rock, local or foreign) wins.
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Day 1: Scenes from the 7107 Music Festival
