A Silent Scream of Humble Dreams

"Though no one else will see/Nothing left for sympathy/A million flights to crash/Like a silent screams of humble dreams to me"
---from "I Stand With You" by the Dawn

A whole lot has happened since I got to see Tulad ng Dati and wrote what sort-of passed up as a review. The movie went on to win as Cinemalaya's Best Picture and had a couple of screenings at UP Diliman. Talk of hitting the mainstream was high at that time but "Donsol", a movie about whale sharks starring Angel Aquino (not as a fish, silly! and oh, she actually won Best Actress for this) beat them to the punch.

The band played three songs for Rockestra 2, sharing the stage with the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra. I saw it with Goo, one balmy Friday night at the FAT. I still think they should've played either Dreams or Love (will set us free) since these are the best pieces that would benefit most from the rarefied ambient punch only a 50-piece orchestra could provide.

The band also re-released an 18-track re-working of their staples ("Tulad ng Dati"), the merits of which will be discussed in another entry.

And in between all of that, they joined some young bands for the Apo Tribute (giving a spacey jive to "Bawat Bata") and twanged off some classic chords for the, ahem, Alaxan jingle (3...2....1...flash photo of Manny Pacquiao, shadowboxing...)

Sandejas' rock biopic is far from perfect. I still find the Mr. Holland's Opus sequence with Jett and his daughter too melodramatic. Predictably enough, when that segment played, as if on cue, it got the whole theater gushing and teary-eyed. Pucha, panlasang pinoy nga naman.

The Ratbu feat Karl Roy vs. The Dawn finale was hilarious, sure but it was somewhat lame and "pilit" as a finishing kick to the movie. It's tough to not use the words, "the Dawn" and "institution" in the same sentence because after 20 years and countless hits, that's just what the band is to Pinoy Rock: their presence (persistence?) in the industry matched only by their love for music and dedication to their craft.

So really, the face-off with Ratbu wasn't warranted at all.

I could go on and on about why they're good for the industry and why I'd kill, cheat and steal to get copies of their older works but I'd much rather leave you be, hit the play button, turn up the volume, make you listen to "I Stand With You" and wink as you join me in air-guitaring Teddy's signature solo...