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MAN
ON THE SIDE
By Paul John Caña
Sugarfree and live
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In the new album Sugarfree Live! with the Manila Symphony Orchestra,
there is a moment during the third-to-the-last song “Makita Kang
Muli” that singer Ebe Dancel’s voice breaks ever so slightly.
For an almost two-hour show filled with his impeccable, unmistakable
vocal acrobatics, highlighted in soaring, lung-busting numbers,
it’s no biggie. How many bands do you know can handle being backed
up by a full orchestra, who can rise above the swirl of instruments
and not be swallowed whole by it?
For the record, this isn’t the first time that
the three-piece band rocked out onstage with a full orchestra. In
2005, Ebe Dancel, Jal Taguibao and then-drummer Mitch Singson helped
break boundaries and shatter genres when they first performed with
the MSO at a gig called Rockestra along with several other bands at
the Folk Arts Theater. Such ambitious collaborations are
hit-and-miss; you’re never quite sure how it would turn out, and,
more importantly, how audiences would react. I was part of that
audience that night and I can remember being genuinely impressed at
how Sugarfree’s music was able to hold up and even blend so well
together with a classical orchestra treatment. And even then, as
now, it was Dancel’s clear, honey-sweet singing that carried their
set far above that of the other acts on the bill that night.
Fast forward to 2007. With a new man pounding
the skins (Kaka Quisumbing), the band chose to celebrate their 8th
anniversary with a full-on concert featuring the 33-piece MSO. For
those like me who weren’t able to get a seat to the show, that
night will live on in the band’s latest album, only recently
launched by their label EMI. I popped the album in the CD player in
my car while I drove up to my parent’s house over the weekend,
and, expectedly, I thought it was a thrilling aural masterpiece.
From “Burnout,” “Mariposa” and “Telepono” from their
debut “Sa Wakas,” to Dramachine’s “Prom” and “Tulog
Na” all the way to “Tala-Arawan’s” “Kung Ayaw Mo Na Sa
Akin” and “Dear Kuya,” all their hits are brilliantly
delivered in this recording; they’ve never sounded more alive. An
additional, surprising treat is their stirring cover of the Ben
Folds original “Still Fighting It.”
Ebe’s soul-squeezing delivery of the song
“Tulog Na” encapsulate what Sugarfree as a band is all about:
tender but forceful, delicate but sturdy in depth and meaning, and
most of all, emotional to the degree that all those so-called emo
bands could only dream and cry about. Anyone not a fan of Sugarfree
will be one upon hearing this album and anyone who professes to be a
fan can’t afford to not add this to their collection. It’s one
of the year’s most fantastic releases and very much worth its
price tag.
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