There’s a lot to be said for tribute nights: done right, they can be a perfect collision of differing sounds and dovetailing sensibilities, of the old and new, of the sweetly surprising and the fantastically familiar. Generally when you have acts interpreting songs by other people, motivated by nothing more than sheer love of the material, you’ll spark off a fun night at the very least, and quite possibly something more.
We’re in for such a night tonight, Friday, July 8 at SaGuijo in Makati, because tonight is “Space Oddity,” which is, as you may have guessed, a David Bowie tribute night.
Thrown together by Dig Radio.Ph and Revolver Productions, the gig will feature performances of Bowie’s best songs, done by bands like the Blue Jean Junkies, Hilera, The Purplechickens, and The Strangeness. All worthy acts, but most interesting — and most anticipated — of all, however, is the one-night-only assemblage known as Ely Buendia and The Diamond Dogs, which will consist of, naturally, Ely Buendia himself (Pupil/Eraserheads) on lead vocals, Nitoy Adriano (The Jerks) on guitars, Wendell Garcia (Pupil) on drums, Jesse Grinter (Gaijin) on guitars, Micaela Benedicto (Outerhope) on keyboards, and Mayo Baluyut (Revenge Avenger) on bass.
We talked with Cris Ramos Jr. of Revolver about how this gig came together. “It all started with (last February’s) Bob Dylan Night,” Cris said. “It was the brainchild of (Purplechickens lead singer) Aldus Santos and Ely, and Aldus brought me in to co-organize it. That gig turned out to be a fantastic show, so it was natural to do something like it again. There was a cosmic element to it, because during the Dylan show the vibe was so great that me and one of my partners in crime in Revolver, Chuckie Balbuena, were talking about how we should try to do something like it again, and he suggested that it would be awesome to do a Bowie Night. Then after the show me and Ely were discussing doing another night, and without me giving any hints, he also thought: Bowie Night.”
How did the Diamond Dogs come together? “Forming a band around Ely for Bowie Night was tougher than for Dylan Night because for the latter he had The Purplechickens and JJ Amante, so virtually isang block lang sila. For Bowie Night, it was harder to coordinate, because Ely’s playing with people from different bands and backgrounds and schedules, so yeah, I was close to using an Ouija board to coordinate for rehearsals!” Cris said with a laugh. “Ely already had Wendel, Jesse and Nitoy Adriano on board. Nitoy is on hiatus from The Jerks. Wendell, while being a bandmate of Ely in Pupil, has a busy schedule because he also plays for a lot of other groups. He might be pulling an additional surprise band member or two for Bowie Night as well. Jesse is a natural, having been a real audiophile, folk singer back in the States and Bowie fan.
“While looking for a keyboardist, I remembered one of Ely’s prospects passing because he thought he wasn’t more of a piano-based keyboardist, which the prospect thought was how Bowie’s keyboard players were, and I also remembered Ely wanted female backing singers, so I thought of Mick, who’s such a great keyboard player and has great singing chops and definitely knows a thing about vocal blending, seeing how great she blends with Mike (Benedicto) in Outerhope. And I love how she studied the songs first before confirming to do (the gig).
“A bassist proved difficult to find with the first rehearsal session coming real close, so it was a relief to find out that Mayo knows how to play bass — I’m only familiar with the dude playing guitars. I asked him because I also know him to be a big Bowie fan. He told me it was so cosmic because when I texted him on the fly about it, he told me he was actually wearing a ‘Ch-Ch-Changes’ shirt.”
Mayo, the youngest of the Dogs, had this to say about rehearsals: “I intentionally didn’t ask who else I was playing with besides Ely so that, in a way, I would surprise myself. And then when I finally met them, I was like, ‘Wow, nice!’ They’re really some of the best in the industry right now, some of them even are ‘living legends’ already. You kinda pinch yourself at first, but then as it progressed, in the end it’s really just about musicians playing great music. Everyone was really kind, focused and driven to get the music right — no egos whatsoever. Plus, I believe everyone had a great time, too.”
They won’t be the only ones having a great time, either: as Cris said, “Don’t expect this to be the kind of gig where each band does one cover and that’s it.” The lineup will be for real Bowie fans, by real Bowie fans. “The Purplechickens and Hilera are real Ely favorites and know their Bowie, so it was only natural to have them. Blue Jean Junkies have been known to have Bowie songs in their setlists, so it was natural to have them too. Having seen how great The Strangeness are in gigs, I’ve always wondered if they could do Bowie, and it was a real blessing that they could.”
If you’ve read this far it’s not farfetched that you’re a Bowie fan, too — whether the hardcore kind who bought the “Station to Station” deluxe edition last year or the casual kind who remembers Modern Love fondly from the ‘80s. I’ll see you there tonight.