RICO Blanco, in a metallic shoulder gear and feather headstrap, entertains like a face-painted robot to the rhythm of his own music.
The media expected a press con. But Rico Blanco preferred a gig. So, before a throng of adoring fans at Teatrino in Greenhills recently, the singer-songwriter dished out a 10-song set, complete with dazzling laser lights and a marching drumline.
He let the music, and all the feelings that fueled him to make his second solo album, “Galactik Fiestamatik” (Warner), do the talking.
Though the show started more than an hour late, the audience didn’t seem to mind.
New tricks
A video showed Rico talking about the album’s creation process—how he locked himself up for weeks on end in his room, trying out and recording new sounds, teaching the old dog new tricks, as it were.
“This time around I played all the instruments myself and recorded everything in my mixer. It was challenging and exciting at the same time,” said Rico. “I also decided on a few other things. One of those was to not record the way that I was already comfortable with. There was a lot of playing instruments in a different way. There were tons of drums… recorded in different configurations. There were found instruments, stuff from the garage, the kitchen, the neighbor’s yard. There was a lot of programming—designing sounds, shaping sounds.”
French-fry hat
Donning a metallic shoulder gear and feather headstrap (which he called the “French-fry” hat), Rico transformed into a face-painted robot ready to twist, shout and party. And he did, to the rhythm of his own brand of synth-drenched, drumline-infused music—a far cry from his Rivermaya band days nearly two decades ago.
Rico’s audio experiments flowed out through his copious use of the melodica (which he used to open his gig with “Burado”), synthesizer, and xylophones. He played it loud—the drumline made sure that every bass beat thumped chests.
From the first number to his genre-defining “Amats,” to the tweaked medley of old Rivermaya favorites and his finale, “Ngayon,” Rico was alternately dredging the low octaves and screaming his lungs out on the high ones.
Though the music may have sounded new (or historically familiar, as with his homage to the iconic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in the intro to “Your Universe,” or that of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” at the start of “Sayaw,” and even that of “The Godfather” in “Amats”), the voice was unmistakably Rico’s.
He was obviously having fun, at one point calling himself “Fiesto Bandido,” throwing his xylophone stick at a member of the audience, and improvising a line with “Sa bawa’t album ni Parokya” while singing “Hinahanap-Hanap Kita.”
Expletives galore
When he finally addressed the press, it was in the form of a spiel to catch his breath following some pop-and-lock moves in “Sayaw.”
“This crazy (expletive) onstage, is all mine. The songs, the ideas, the (expletive) headgear, the french fry hats, they all started with this song (referring to ‘Amats’). I take full responsibility for the crap you see tonight. It was a pain in the [butt], and I wanted to back out about a thousand times. I’m doing this for you. I don’t want you guys to ever get bored with my (expletive). The songs from the album … This is for the press. They wanted a press conference. I wanted a gig. So this is a happy compromise, I think. I’d rather let the press feel the music than hear people talk about it. That’s what’s been happening these days, talk about music. I said, ‘(expletive) that! Just play, man.’”
Rico played six songs from the nine-track “Galaktic,” starting with “Burado, ” “What It Is?” and “Lipat Bahay.”
Old, older
Next were three songs from his earlier post-Rivermaya solo work (“Antukin,” “Your Universe,” “Yugto”), before he went into a four-song medley of even older hits (“Posible,” “Awit ng Kabataan,” “Liwanag sa Dilim,” “Hinahanap-hanap Kita”). He concluded with three more from “Galaktic” (“Sayaw,” “Amats,” “Ngayon”).
Obviously, Rico wasn’t there to just serenade the crowd. To warm up for “Sayaw,” Rico said: “I have a request for everyone. If it’s possible, let’s leave all our problems, all our fears, behind… problema sa pera, problema sa eskwela, problema sa trabaho, problema sa puso. With the help of a gift from heaven above. A gift mankind has turned to since the dawn of time, that we, too, will embrace tonight. Para makalimutan natin ang mga hassle sa buhay. Para tayo’y lumipad. Kaibigan, hindi ka na tatakbo. Kaibigan, hindi ka na magtatago. Kaibigan, hindi ka na mahihiya. Kaibigan, sayaw!”
And then bodies and feathered heads bobbed up and down, just as when the frontman onstage started doing his thing.
Rico was in complete command of his flock, an eagle with a mean headgear, and a lot of time in his room.