By Clarence Yu
Contributor

BEING a club show band is a delicate act, and in most cases, we only see the performances of these bands, but we never get to know them in depth.

In most situations, audiences like them for what they play on stage and, after awhile, start to slowly think no more of these bands than just mere entertainment.

These bands, and their collective members usually play for a living, and it’s easy to discount the fact that they have their own lives, experience, frustrations, and most of all, opinions.

Meet Shayne and Brown Union. Think of the real Rhythm and Blues, Pop, Motown and Funk. Hark back to Chaka Khan, Diana Ross, Earth Wind and Fire and Angela Boefill. Led by lead vocalist Shayne, the band performs to standing crowds regularly at Aruba Metrowalk, Tropezz at Greenbelt, and the recently closed Bagaberde in Pasig. Rarely will you see such an excellent caliber of musicianship since the days of Music Hall in Greenhills in the 1990’s.

Highlights of their set include cool renditions of 70’s and 80’s standards. “We usually play Top 40 music,” says male vocalist Tobey Padilla. “We call it ‘Chopsuey’ in short,” he adds.

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By Clarence Yu
Contributor

THE scene is all too familiar for me: take any known club in the mainstream nowadays that features a show band. The band is composed of veterans who don’t look overly familiar, yet they play a blitzing repertoire of 70s, 80s and 90s pop standards, get a rousing ovation for the night, and disappear.

If the club owners happen to like them because they bring in the customers, I’ll likely be able to catch them again next week. If not, and I happen to like them, you’ll have to search high and low for their next gig, and at the next club.

Such is the plight of session musicians — virtually virtuosos (pardon the pun) at their instruments, oftentimes with years of experience under their belts, yet unable to find a steady gig, a record deal, a good name for themselves or a steady flow of income from playing their instruments.

I would think that with the years of experience that they have, most of these session musicians will have some sort of livelihood going for them now. Having known many session musicians myself, and for a time, playing the part of a wanna-be session musician, the surprising thing for me always or whenever I get to meet up with some of them I can call my friends is most of them still play to eat and live. This is both admirable and pitiful at the same time.
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