Rockestra (ro-kes-tra) – [1] An event happening at August 19, 7:30pm at the Folk Arts Theater. [2] Defined by the summation of Cambio, Imago, Sandwich, Silent Sanctuary, Sugarfree, Twisted Halo and the Manila Symphony Orchestra. [3] With tickets priced at PhP 975, PhP 630, PhP 350, PhP175, and PhP75. [4] Tickets are available at the CCP Ticket Booth, major National Bookstore branches, Robinsons Department Store (Malate, Galleria, Cavite & Pampanga), Tower Records (Makati and Alabang), Music Museum (Virra Mall, Greenhills), Ayala Center Inc. Greenbelt 1 Ticket Booth Cinema Lobby, Glorietta 1 Ticket Booth Cinema Lobby and on the TicketWorld website.
I can vividly recall when Rockestra was being conceptualized a year ago. I was at Starbucks Taft that time digesting what needs to be digested. My jaw dropped down to the ground as I was thinking of how would a rock band and a full orchestra would sound together. Of course I already have had an idea for Silent Sanctuary and Up Dharma Down have a strings section. But when I was thinking, what if the other instruments were added, my jaw dropped even 6 feet underground. I’m very sure that it will be a tough production because coordination is the only key to harmony. Try to imagine Hari ng Sablay (of Sugarfree), Two Trick Pony (of Sandwich), Anino (by Imago), Divisoria (by Cambio), and Public Service Announcement (by Twisted Halo) with a full orchestra playing with the respective bands. Then, recall your high school music class and your lessons on the classical instruments. Can you imagine how the hell would they put the arrangement for the timpani, triangle, trumpet, and trombone? As Kristine Lim have put it in her article ROCKESTRA: When Two Musical Worlds Collide, it’s indeed “a mind-blowing collaboration”. Songs from Silent Sanctuary are not that hard enough to imagine with a full orchestra playing with them since they already have a strings section present in their line up. Same thing goes for Up Dharma Down.
About the Bands
Sugarfree is a top-caliber triothat has released two albums under EMI namely, Sa Wakas, and Dramachine. They popularized the songs Mariposa, Telepono, Kwentuhan, Hari ng Sablay, Kwarto and more.
Imago is a female-fronted band with a lady bassist as well. Their sound has distinctively evolved from the more mellow Probably Not But Most Definitely (Viva Records Release) and Take Two (an independent release). They popularized the songs Idlip, Rain song, Akap, and Anino.
Sandwich, who’s now back with its three-piece guitar orchestration with Mong of Chicosci as Marc Abaya’s replacement, is indeed ready for this event. Like Imago, Sandwich was backed up by a major record label (BMG Records) who turned indie.
Cambio is a pool of talented musicians where two of its members (Raimund Marasigan and Buddy Zabala) were co-founders of the NU107 Hall of Famer, Eraserheads. Ebe of Sugarfree, Kris of the now-defunct Fatal Posporos and Diego Mapa of Monsterbot completes the line-up.
Like Sandwich, Twisted Halo has a three-piece guitar orchestration. The only difference is that, their sound is heavier. However, their songs describe of what’s happening in our society. Heavy sound plus heavy lyrics would give you the Twisted Halo bomb attack special.
Silent Sanctuary, who was originally a three-piece band and has made the line-up very intriguing with their addition of the strings section, is indeed a great addition to the repertoire.
This event will indeed rock Manila and with the formidable line-up, I’m sure that this event will be rocked by the audience and in return, the audience will get orchestrated.
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