How Side A got Baguio into a ‘party mood’

BAGUIO – I had a preview of things to come a few hours after our group arrived in this City of Pines that sweltering Saturday afternoon. The motorcade that took us around the city to announce that night’s Side A Live In Baguio show attracted more attention than another one of its kind, this time to announce the candidacy of a local official.

Bystanders at Session Road turned their heads to read details of the concert – Side A’s return bout after three long years – on the streamer outside the van. The show was to be held at the 4,000-capacity University of Baguio gym at 8 p.m. Meanwhile, the political candidate’s motorcade, which was moving alongside that of Side A’s, merited only a cursory look.

The hint of good things to come was confirmed that night when our group saw the parade of vehicles parked outside the venue. Local band Brown Flavor, which front acted for Side A, couldn’t keep the audience’s excitement at bay. They were clapping their hands in anticipation and roared with approval as the lean figures of Joey Generoso, Naldy Gonzales, Kelly Badon, Joey Benin and Ernie Severino finally appeared onstage.

It was nice and easy at the start: some sort of warm-up for the big shebang ahead. The quintet sang Westlife’s My Love, among other slow love songs. And then it came: the highlight of the night. Party time! The gym turned into one big party place as bodies of all shapes and sizes – the youngest of which belonged to a boy who looked no more than four years old – swayed and grooved.

You had absolutely no choice but to dance. Otherwise, you would look like an alien from Planet Pluto.

Beside us, a girl in maong pants and halter top held both hands up – not for a hold-up – but the better to feel the beat of the ’80s dance music the quintet of Joey Generoso, Naldy Gonzales, Joey Benin, Kelly Badon and Ernie Severino were playing on stage with wild abandon.

Who cares what tomorrow will bring? Tonight, for just one night, you had nonstop groovin’ music that not only made you reminisce decades back, but made you throw your worries away with a stomp of your feet or a wave of your arms.

In front of where we stood a few feet from the stage, a little boy was jumping up and down, then darting from one end of the gym to the other, as his young parents swayed their heads and rocked to the motion of the Side A sound. Someone from the audience got so carried away by the strains of the sentimental Gary V hit Sana Maulit Muli that he shouted "I love you!" to Joey. Side A’s vocalist paused in the middle of his song and shot back, "I love you, Pare!"

Not forgetting his admiring fan, Joey then asked him, "Sayaw ka, Pare!" before embarking on his medley of popular dance songs.

Baguio was fully-charged with energy that night and Side A had the audience – many of them burned-out Manileños who couldn’t stand the blackout that Saturday – on the palm of their hands.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. April 7 marked the start of a long weekend (the next day, as was the one immediately after, happened to be a non-working day). So the young producers behind Sound Qoncept (where Q stands for quality) decided to make the most of it by coming up with their first of a string of productions.

Call it beginners’ luck, but they hit the bull’s eye on this one. The PMAers, raring to take a break from the rigors of military training, came. So, too, did others who filled up the venue with their collective singing to the tune of Awit Para sa ‘Yo, Tell Me, Hold On and others, with Joey.

And boy, did they really want to hold on to the music and the upbeat, euphoric feeling it gave them the past two hours or so. The band’s encore number, the suave and smooth Forevermore, might as well have been the word of the moment.

The audience wanted to catch this movement and make it last, yes, forevermore. But alas, as in most wishful thinking, this they can do only in their hearts. Which exactly what the audience must have felt as they left the UB Gym, energized and raring for more fun that red-letter Saturday night.