The World of Hastang

Practice makes perfect. Well, almost.

Apart from a couple of technical glitches, our one-hour set at the Plugged-In Party at Handuraw was a success. I guess we should be grateful that the glitches didn’t occur when we were playing our original songs—it would really be a shame if the RCTV crew caught it on camera. Speaking of which, we still don’t know the exact date of the airing on Channel 36, but it’s something to really look forward to.

Anyway, I must say that we were impressed with Tessa’s performance. She nailed her notes right, interacted well with the audience (dang, I’m beginning to sound like Randy or Paula from the American Idol) and even shared a joke or two. She even displayed a few of her showmanship skills. Her antics, however, didn’t escape the “himantayon” eyes of Roy who now ceaselessly teases her with a hilariously dead-on imitation of her patented “diva” moves (complete with side-winding motion of the arms and some sophisticated footwork). But I’m pretty sure the audience had a kick out of Tessa’s playful delivery of “Like A Virgin” (we played this outrageously mischievous version of Madonna’s hit song after “Virgin’s Orgasm”—it’s not everyday you get to hear two successive songs mentioning virginity hehehehe).

As usual, Mark displayed his hard-hitting skills and even did back-up vocals for some of the songs in our set list. And I must admit his latest drum set-up is a step-up from the customary. It certainly has given him a lot more choices to play around with and it’s working well (especially for our original material).

Guitar partners Roy and Jayson both deserve more than just a pat in their backs for their seamless interaction—both complementing each other’s sound with a wise amalgam of chords and counter-melodies (even when they jump, they jump together). I love playing with these guys.

So anyway, it’s back to songwriting for us. Last night, Tessa and I conceived a new melodic structure for “Oblivion”. I guess we’ll be working on giving the song the full-band treatment in the days to come.

And before I forget, thank you to all the people who took the time to watch the gig. I hope you had much fun as we did. Thanks also to Zarah Smith for giving us the chance to play.

Oh, and by the way, the pizza was great.

~Guile

Hastang is a Cebu-based, female-fronted indie band composed of members Ria (vocals), Guile (bass), Gaw (guitars), and Makoy (drums).
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