Where Acoustic Dreams come true

How lucky can these guys get? Two of them haven’t graduated (from a music course), but they’re having the time of their lives performing like there’s no tomorrow, and earning good money at that. The three-member band Acoustic Dream – composed of guitarist Jerome Rico, flutist Anna Santos and vocalist Ria Victorino – all come from UP College of Music. Of the trio, only Ria has graduated (major in piano), and only recently at that.

This makes Acoustic Dream practically a fresh-off-campus band, full of youthful zest, and an ear for what today’s generation of music lovers go for.

The campus camaraderie is weaving magic at Tapika, a homey restaurant located at 220 Katipunan Avenue, Blue Ridge, Quezon City, where they perform every Tuesday.

The crowd turns Tapika into a mini-version of a packed moviehouse where a Sharon Cuneta film is being shown. It spills over to neighboring restaurants, which by then had closed shop for the day.

And, as barometer of just how much the audience responds to them, the Acoustic Dream trio has kept the piles upon piles of paper napkins on which people have scrawled their requests. Topping the list are the romantic Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang and Power of Two, easy-listening songs the group can perform at the drop of a hat.

But what about requests for difficult songs with complicated melodies?

No problem. Thanks to their background in classical music, the curly-haired Jerome, svelte Anna and versatile Ria can keep their poise. They can dish out unfamiliar songs, too.

"It’s easier when you have a background in classical music. You already know the progression of melody," explains Anna.

That ear for music has brought Acoustic Dream (they didn’t even have a name then) from one gig to another. As former showband members frustrated at their inability to "express ourselves" as part of group with as much as 10 to 13 members, Acoustic Dream decided to seek their musical destiny elsewhere.

They have since performed at Jazz Central Makati, where they did the front act for Ana Fegi. Sprinkle this with corporate shows, a wedding here, a party there, and you have something the trio can get by with to maintain their expensive musical instruments and tide them over.

The Acoustic Dream is just one of the six performers who bring in the crowd nightly at Tapika, where showtime – dubbed Strings and Rhythms – start 9 p.m., Mondays to Saturdays.

Joel Jacobe, a 27-year-old graduate of architecture who admits he passed the demanding course partly by listening to music while studying, auditions the performers Mondays to Thursdays, 8 to 9 p.m.

His main criterion: the performer must be able to improvise songs. So Tapika has the talented Paolo Santos, who knows over 300 songs, and is so flexible he can deliver tunes meant for a male and female voice.

In a place where clients – mostly in their 20s and 30s – go for songs ranging from pop, to reggae to adult contemporary music, versatility is a must.

Paolo holds court every Friday, while Revert goes onstage Mondays; Fiddler’s Green every Wednesday; Neo on Thursdays and Hour Glass on Saturday.

Paolo and other bands may not ring a bell to music buffs yet, but Joel and the owners of Tapika – Jess and Joji Jacobe, Tess Cruz, Ed and Elvie Santiago, Al and Armi Santos, Erwin and Bambi Temena, Lito and Gladys Jacobe – don’t give a hoot.

It’s enough that these group of young, budding musicians make their place the homey hang-out it’s meant to be. In one corner, a huddle of yuppies are enjoying their seafood platter, and before that, chicken lollilop, pork sisig and other appetizers.

In another corner, a group of Ateneo students (the top feasts university is a few minutes away) on grilled tanguige while humming along to a Destiny’s Child song the band is playing.

Going acoustic was an experiment at first. Based in the premise that entertainment and dining mix, Tapika started with a band of graduating music students playing ballads last January. Tess Cruz, one of the owners and an expert when it comes to entertainment (she’s president of Viva Entertainment), rooted for the idea right away.

She got a karaoke and rented other kinds of sound equipment for the first of the acoustic nights. When sales jumped, it was time to add more speakers and bring in better microphones.

Today, six months after the "experiment," Tapika’s Strings and Rhythms have kept the highly-visible strip along Katipunan where the restaurant is, humming with activity way up to the early hours of the morning.

The best part is, budding musicians have a regular place to practise and enjoy their craft, while getting paid for it.

The novel idea has worked. Will neighboring restaurants follow suit?