Many people were saddened to hear that the instrumental radio station NU107 would be closing down and that the recently held Rock Awards was to be its last.
Nov. 7 was the final day of broadcasting, while the final, or ultimate NU107 Rock Awards was held on Oct. 29 at the NBC Tent. It was a bittersweet event marked by a lot of looking back and celebrating what was, with gratitude, respect and humor.
More than a few of the winners that evening expressed how grateful they were to the radio station and its place in their life, maintaining that their legacy would live on in the music of those they helped inspire.
Videos were shown before the nominees of each category were revealed, showing previous winners of the respective category talking about how winning affected them. This was a nice touch, reminding audience members of winners past and further adding a touch of gravitas to the proceedings.
You can do an online search for the winners, as I don’t want to dwell too much on that. Award shows are contentious anyway, and I want to focus on moments that really stood out.
The two performances that seemed to really stand out and get people talking even days later were Greyhoundz and Slapshock, who performed signature hits Pigface and Agent Orange, respectively.
Though they weren’t my cup of tea when they were new songs, it’s weird to hear them now with a kind of nostalgia, a callback to when more people listened to the radio. Both bands had the audience singing and jumping along.
Another standout was the Itchyworms, dressed as the He-Gods from their Suplado Ka Pala Sa Personal video directed by Galileo Te (which they performed), and featuring bassist Kelvin Yu on vocals.
They even had a pyrotechnics display while free shirts were being thrown into the crowd. Also great was Kamikazee in costume as much older versions of themselves. When Rivermaya closed the show proper (the finale performance is traditionally the Artist of the Year’s to give, and that’s never known until the end), they invited the NU DJs to join them onstage and perform with them, mostly on various percussion instruments.
For my money, though, the performance I enjoyed the most was The Youth, doing their classic “Multong Bakla.” The band was as good as ever. As with Greyhoundz and Slapshock, the crowd enthusiastically sang along to the ‘90s hit.
The show ended with a long, rambling, tearful, heartfelt, possibly-drunken speech from DJ/The Dawn guitarist Francis Reyes, thanking the listeners and behind-the-scenes people and going on to exhort people to continue making music, the kind of awesome music that NU107 played, and whose shared appreciation thereof fostered that sense of community to begin with.
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Ramon De Veyra blogs irregularly at http://www.thesecuriousdays.com, but is more active on Twitter.