I wrote this as a tribute to my good old friend Pierre John Cura (or PJ to some of us) who got hitched earlier today to his bride Frencine. Quite frankly, this closes the era of our "childhood rock n roll age" and thus begin our new lives with what he have.
I also dedicate this blog to my former bandmates Alwin Sanchez and Adonis Pabellan (RIP my friend) for the experience that the "childhood rock n roll age" brought to us.
I never thought I'd say this but I miss the band. I miss playing music with those three funny and crazy guys and it never crossed my mind that I'd miss it this much. Yeah yeah, some of you might say that I got this from the movie "Still Crazy" but I would not have known how much I missed it when we saw each other at the lunch reception.
You see, back in '92, when I was still in 2nd year high school, I got to know these guys by accident. I met them when my next door neighbor Christian Ferreras and Carlo James Munoz jammed with them one summer afternoon. Christian played his guitar, PJ and Alwin brought along theirs and CJ played percussion. I still remember that first song we played and recorded on tape and its still fresh in my memory on how we messed up or sang U2's With or Without You. Back then, Nirvana's debut album is still fresh and "smells like teen spirit" was played heavily on 97.1 WLSFM and most of my friends also played it over and over on their tape deck. During that time, Pearl Jam also released their "Ten" album and Soundgarden released theirs a year earlier. Heavy Metal and grunge rock were making money during that time. CJ lent me his Nirvana and Pearl Jam tapes for awhile and began to appreciate it. I appreciated it not knowing that my voice is slowly emulating Eddie Vedder's vocals on tape. Now, while humming a Pearl Jam tune one school day of '92 (I attended Adamson U at Sn Marcelino during that time) and waiting for a BLTB bus headed to Jai Alai (Taft) under the Magallanes flyover. PJ chanced upon me while hearing me humming the "Jeremy" song. He invited me to sing and jam along with Ondie and Alwin on a saturday afternoon. I still remember how they called themselves that time and would you believe that we called our band "Wernicke's Syndrome." I remember Alwin giving us that name and it sounded great. So, quickly I got into the band and played rock music altogether. This is where I started to get inculcated with Glam Music (thanks to PJ and Ondie) and our measly band played Def Leppard tunes and Poison Tunes. One time we played a Motley Crue Song "Dr. Feelgood" and I have to train myself to sing in a higher pitch. You see, Im always the "kluts" or the comic relief for the band with my quick reflexes ( which translates to slapstick comedy to them 3 guys) and being the youngest of them all, I had to bear with it and live with it. Honestly, being the kluts and all didnt bother me at all since playing with them is already one hell of a good time. PJ taught me how to play the guitar differently and gave me confidence in playing in front of people. That experience alone is so worth it thats why I enjoyed the ride. So we continued to play for ourselves and slowly joined battle of the bands on schools, Junior Jam on RJTV 29 and parties. We played for four solid years until college came.
It was a hell of a different story when college came. Everybody in the band were also attending college school. So when I attended Mapua, PJ was the closest guy to turn to when it called for carpooling to go to school since he's in Letran and Im 2 blocks away. Since college asked for a lot of time, focus and attention somehow I thought I should lessen my interaction with the band and it happened slowly. Band practices became rare, countless times have been spent on significant others and making the original songs took the back seat. That same time, they got a new singer. You see, the concept of "side project or side band" was either new or unkown to me during the time and when I heard them practicing with their new vocalist and singing our original song, my ego was hurt. This "hurt" I kept for the next several months while I focused more on school. One Christmas party of 96 or 97, the four of us got the chance to meet on a party held by the community. I dunno what occured to me but I said something awful to PJ and I think I cursed a little too much during the night where they could have called me to sing with them few songs in front. Honestly I hated myself for saying something awful to a very dear friend and God knows how I asked for clarity and enlightenment for the shame that it brought to me.
As expected this caused a rift (a silent rift to say the least) between me and them. It totally ended our connection, communication and our relationship as a band. Three years later, I sought for PJ and asked for forgiveness. A lot of things have happened in between and if there's one thing that I know is that Im only human and I really am sorry for my mistakes.
Two years ago, we lost Ondie when he committed suicide. All of us wept from this loss. It was only a matter of time that we will get reunited and destiny just played a nasty trick. From what was band or four 12 years now became three. Alwin's got a wife and a very beautiful daughter and PJ's got hitched earlier today and me, just plain Me telling you my story which Ive been wanting to tell how blessed I got for playing music with them. For this I'd forever be grateful to them for exposing me to the language of music, for the value of friendship, for the value of respect and communication and humor that keeps us smiling up to this very day.
Rock on fellas till you say some more.
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