Ongaku Rewind – run-through of the event

Posted By Sushi Boi on Apr 30, 2007 | 8 comments

Here’s my take on OngakuSociety’s Ongaku Rewind. As I was busy with taking pictures of the event, band coverage won’t be as in-depth as Flori’s two posts on J Crunch Ripiito. Maybe later she and Kyameel would fill in on the bands.

I arrived at Freedom Bar at around 4 PM. The place was still empty save for one or two OngakuSociety members. I had to wait for other members of Team Sugoi before entering since I had no media pass or ticket with me. Good thing Chelli arrived (she’s also a host for this event) at around 4:30 and I was able to enter the bar.

Seeing that the event won’t start for a couple of hours, I volunteered to help put up the posters around the stage. I also took a couple of test pictures of the venue. Here are some of the better pictures:

I took the last picture after we finished hanging the Cosplay Magazine tarp. It isn’t obvious from the picture but hanging that tarp wasn’t easy. I wasn’t tall enough to reach the top of the tarp even after standing on that plastic chair. Same goes for Robert and X versus Zero’s Shin. We tried using the microphone stand but we didn’t go anywhere with that. Finally, Progeny’s Ria climbed the 5-6 inch wide ledge and was able to stick the top of the tarp on the wall.

The event didn’t start on time for some reason (I didn’t ask why because I was just a photographer). They showed some clips on the projector so that the audience won’t be bored.

I think this is from a Hide tribute video/DVD. (just a photographer… blah blah blah)

“****ng ina, Art of Life!” was my reaction when they plopped the DVD into the Mac Book. I haven’t seen this performed so it was a pleasant surprise for me.

Rock legend Yoshiki on the drums.

We’re just halfway into the song.

They showed a j-rock live performance after “Art of Life” but I didn’t know who the artist was. It was cut short as the event was ready to start.

The hosts, Chelli and Kel, onstage.

The first performance was fom Yumbuh!, an all girl dance group. Keeping with the event’s theme, every band performed at least one song from the 80’s. For example, Yumbuh! also danced to Thriller and Careless Whisper.

(Apologies for the inconsistent brightness on the pics. I was experimenting with the settings so some pics are taken with flash and others without. Can anyone suggest a good manual setting for taking bar pics?)

To avoid dead air during post/pre-performance band setups, OS mods Rotch and Ria would come onstage to raffle off stuff from sponsors (e.g. copies of Burn Magazine). Time would also be given for sponsors for short talks or presentations.

In the case of Yumbuh, OS showed videos from the major sponsors Toei Animation Philippines and Flyff/Level Up! Games.

Daft Punk & Leiji Matsumoto’s Interstella 5555 from Toei Animation Philippines

Flyff music video from Level Up! Games Forgot the band, though (6cyclemind?).

Next up was X versus Zero.

After the regular post performance raffle, Robert came onstage as a representative from Teriyaki Boy. He gave a short talk about the restaurant and raffled away TB goods.

The second pic above is of a UP AME member (pwede ko bang i-mention yung pangalan? hehehe…) getting a prize. tRANCE and other UP AME members were really lucky that night. They won in consecutive raffle draws before they went out for dinner, then they still got lucky after they returned later that night. To top it off, tRANCE also got Teryaki Boy gift certificates in the band raffle draw. They didn’t win the iPod shuffle, though. ^_^

While the Teriyaki Boy segment was running, Progeny was preparing for their performance.

tRANCE was next.

After tRANCE, cosplay veteran Pablo came onstage to promote PSICOM Publishing’s Cosplay Magazine and Hobbycraft Magazine. Some goodies were also raffled off.

Next up was Himitsu Heiki.

The last pic was a test on using long exposure times. Himitsu Heiki was still performing at this point.

The cosplay catwalk proceeded after the post-performance raffle.

NEOtaku played onstage after the cosplay.

We came onstage after that. The plan was to go on stage and play it by ear. I thought it would be easy – I’ve done this thing millions of times in college. How could anything go wrong?

Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account that there were only 3 microphones for 5 people. I guess we came off as a disorganized bunch. >_<

I don’t have pics of this part yet (duh), but maybe later Ninjulius would be kind enough to provide us with his pics.

Anyway, Ethereal Anthem was next.

After Ethereal Anthem was a talk from a representative of Soul Society (I forgot her name… was it Layne?) about an upcoming event in UPLB. They also raffled off some stuff.

Next up was Do’Ahou.

Okay, I’m going to be biased here. Instead of the usual 1-2 pics for bands, Do’Ahou will also get a video clip of their first song.

The song was X-Japan’s ? (Kurenai), probably the first non-anime J-rock song that I liked. In other words, it was more nostalgic than any of the 80’s songs performed that night.

After Do’Ahou was the awarding of the cosplay winners.

PPF All Stars performed after that.

After that was the band raffle. With all these giveaways from sponsors going around, it would just be fair for the bands (who don’t need tickets to get in) to have a chance to win some prizes themselves. PPF All Stars’, tRANCE‘s, and later, Armada‘s names were picked from the envelope.

Next up was Armada.

After Armada was another raffle. They ran out of Burn Magazines at this point so this was for an Ongaku Rewind mousepad.

3DayTrial was setting up in the background as the raffle was held.

After 3DayTrial was the last raffle before the big one.

Uhh.. I accidentally tilted the camera upwards in this shot. Anyway, I included this pic to show that tRANCE and UP AME was winning throughout the night.

The last band for the night was the hyperactive emo punk rock band -0.

Finally, at 1:40 AM in the morning, the moment everyone was waiting for – the iPod Shuffle raffle. OS founder Sonnaqs was called to draw the lucky winner.

All in all it was a great event. There weren’t any major problems aside from the event starting late. The venue was full but not packed enough to be too hot or humid. It was also very accessible and food wasn’t a problem.

Thanks again to OngakuSociety for inviting us to Ongaku Rewind!