Time-warped with Lemonheads at Whitespace

Lemonheads. INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—There was a time when listening to “Into Your Arms,” “If I Could Talk I’d Tell You,” “It’s a Shame About Ray”, “It’s About Time”, “I’d Do It Anyway,” among other Lemonheads hits felt like refreshing citrus drink while nursing a hangover.

Call it soft post grunge, alternative rock, pop rock or whatever terms you’d like to label the music of Evan Dando and his recent bandmates but as Lemonheads, they’d bring you back to the spiraling 1990s.

That’s what happened Thursday night, December 4, at Whitespace in Makati City when Dando and the present lineup of Lemonheads gave their fans what they expected. At least, they played their hits for nearly two hours.

For someone battling college in the 90s—or how we saw it then—Lemonheads belonged to the gentler boys of post-grunge acts. They’re brothers to Gin Blossoms and Blind Melon.

For a time, we thought “As Long As It Matters” and “No Rain” were also Lemonheads songs. But back then our heads were always filled with, uh, gin and other stuff that caused temporary blindness. If you had too much of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam the night before a terrible hangover, there’s Lemonheads or Blind Melon to go with your water therapy.

And that’s one good thing about last night at Whitespace on Pasong Tamo Street. You can drink while enjoying the show. There were booths where you can buy shots or a whole bottle of Jack Daniels, which co-presented the concert together with Origin8 and Pinoytuner (online music portal). We’ve heard that part of the come-on was if you bought five tickets, you’d get a free one-liter bottle of JD.

At any rate, familiar faces of the 1990s “alternative” band scene, or followers of the 90s Pinoy Rock sound, were there.

We bumped into vocalist-guitarist Stephen Lu of Rizal Underground and guitarist Francis Reyes, formerly of AfterImage, The Dawn now with Peso Movement.

Couple Tuesday Vargas, vocalist of Put3ska, and Coy Placido, guitarist of Session Road, were there.

Among the “punong-abala” in the crowd was guitarist Jason Caballa of Pedicab.

We saw filmmaker-rocker Quark Henares dancing and singing and making thumbs-up signs and embracing pretty women in the crowd. (They embraced him back anyway).

Away from the mosh pit, there were Saguijo owners Dan Lim and Angelo Carlos singing the lyrics with the rest of the crowd.

We found the time to ask for audience feedback.

“They stuck to what they’ve been doing,” Francis Reyes told us why he’s a fan of Lemonheads.

“When you know your own style and you stick with it, medyo timeless din,” he added.

Reyes didn’t cover their songs while he was with The Dawn, obviously, but he cited “It’s a Shame About Ray” and “It’s About Time” as his favorites.

Evan Dando. INQUIRER.net/TOTEL DE JESUS

We gathered some Jack Daniels-inspired observations.

“I like Evan (Dando) without the band,” Placido told us outside Whitespace.

“‘Yung register of ng voice nya is so low, na-mamaximize sa café setting (Voice register is so low it can be maximized in a café setting),” he added.

“Yung intimate sh_t, pag nagiging band hindi nagwowork always (It has to be something intimate. If his act is that with a band, it doesn’t work always,” Placido said.

But Placido and Vargas are one in the belief that before there were soft rock acoustic musicians like Jack Johnson, there was Evan Dando.

Stephen Lu was all praises for the man. “Evan Dando rocked tonight. It’s maximum rakenrol.”

Like Rizal Underground, he said Lemonheads was launched in the 90s.

Ergo.

“And just like my band, they’re part of the ‘90s revolution and up to this day they’re my favorite. They’re very raw, super raw and that’s rakenrol! Peso syempre iba pa rin yung American revolution and British revolution.”

Indeed, lemons and Jack Daniels in our heads do mix well.