Gurl at Capitol Park Cafe
Last Saturday, October 23 2010, STOP (Small Time Only Promotions) presented Gurl at Capitol Park Café. As implied by the event title, Gurl gathered together Cagayan de Oro City’s premiere women front acts for a night of rock fest. The songs played were mixed with diverse music rooted from various genres like punk, post-hardcore, ska, grunge, death metal, and rock-fueled revivals including Martika’s Toy Soldier (performed by Swerve). Gurl is an event that proved that, yes, girls can really rock.
The bands that performed that evening included:
- Tweed
- Swerve
- Wiz
- Ditto
- Mishap and Mayhem
- Sugar Coffin
- Adriana
- Worst Day on April
- Murky Mundane
- Nasty Girl Legend
- Hatsheput
STOP’s Gurl rock show followed the tradition of gathering the city’s premiere female-fronted or all-women rock bands that started with Ibay. Just when the whole Cagayan de Oro rock scene was becoming exclusive to long-haired men, the women answered with their own brand of music.
The evening was jampacked with people who saw women singing and banging their heads off ala Riot Grrl. Mishap and Mayhem led the ensemble of heavy rock music.
After the head banging, the audience gathered up front, skanking and hopping with the groove of Cagayan de Oro’s ska legend, Wiz. Familiar sounds were also covered by some of the bands in the evening, including international hits from Paramore, Nirvana, Garbage and Versa Emerge. The people also danced to the music of Taken by Cars in Manila, courtesy of Ditto.
All in all, it was a successful night for CDO’s chic rockers, even though there were technical problems that delayed the event. According to STOP founder Franic Alex “Kokong” Tahud of The Superflirts and First Protest, reviving the spirit of Ibay was one of the inspirations for the event. “I felt it was the perfect cherry on the cream of those golden years of the local music scene.” Tahud also expressed his hope that “there will be more shows like this in the future, because behind every man’s success is a woman.” He also informed us that local underground gigs are usually broadcast by South Culture Radio so CDO music fans will always be updated.
For those who are interested, below are the official Facebook page of two of the bands that performed in Gurl:
- Swerve: http://www.facebook.com/people/Swerve-Cdo/1014150702
- Mishap and Mayhem: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mishap-and-Mayhem/471611700510
Weekly Shows at Capitol Park Café
Aside from major music events such as Gurl, Capitol Park Café also stages a weekly Saturday night gig called Open Mic. Open Mic was founded by Joseph Dela Cerna Agcopra of Tourjack, Loremer Lagrosas Jr. and Bam Roa of Almost Satellite and Tweed. The first night Open Mic gig, which took place last March 27, 2010, revived the local music scene after two years of silence.
-Mark Anthony Daposala-
