09.04.2007

THE PARTY IS THE SECRET

REVOLVER TURNS THREE AND WE TALK TO CRIS RAMOS JR., THE MAN BEHIND THE POPULAR PRODUCTION NIGHT

by Luis Katigbak

This week, the Revolver production night celebrates its third anniversary, and they’re doing it in a big way—with excellent acts like the Chillitees, The Dawn, Nyko Maca + Playground, Pedicab, Sandwich, Sino Sikat?, Taken By Cars, Ciudad, Corporate Lo-Fi, Itchyworms, Queso, Salindiwa, Urbandub, and more, playing on four different nights and three different venues, spread out through September. Great!, you say. But what’s a production night and what is Revolver?

“A production night is basically a night where you get to showcase bands in a venue, which most of the time is a bar,” explains Cris Ramos, Jr., the main driving force behind Revolver. “Basically, a lot of bands do this so that they can have a regular gig and at the same time book other bands that they would like to help.” Cris is a familiar face on the local music scene; he used to write a music column for the Manila Times, and was the co-manager of Narda. He has also contributed to publications such as BURN and PULP magazine, and describes himself as an “ex-major label hack.”

Revolver started simply enough: named after Cris’ music column, which in turn took its title from his favorite Beatles album, it started out as a one-off gig that Cris organized “just to find out how it feels like,” as he was “inspired by two of my fave prods—Admit One and Play4Serve. And before I knew it, it had turned into a regular prod that I do with some of my friends.” Revolver used to take place once a month at SaGuijo Café and Bar in Makati City, but has since become even more frequent—it’s closing in on its 50th gig by now, I believe—and has been held at different places such as Route 196 and Bar 42.

“The concepts behind it, I guess, would be a). To have some great bands play and b). To have fun. Since I don’t have a band, I just have a roster of semi-mainstays who play approximately once every three months.” The lineup is quite fluid, but in the past, these mainstays have included the Chillitees, the Itchyworms, the now sadly defunct Narda, Pedicab and Salindiwa. “As far as the lineups and show concepts go, the main idea is ANYTHING GOES.” For example, “We bring a videoke machine to SaGuijo and have some bands cover videoke classics once a year.”

Cris has some words of advice for people who might want to start their own production nights. “Getting financial sponsorships would be great, but it’s a long shot… You have to be fair. One must realize that it’s hard work too, but at the same time, if you ain’t getting any measure of fun out of it, it’s not worth doing at all. Never stoop down and require bands to bring X amount of people or sell tickets. Make sure everything's ironed out with all the people involved—the bands playing, the venue's management so on and so forth. And please have food and beer for the bands playing, especially if it’s just a gate share gig, make sure they enjoy as much as the people watching.”

“And yeah,” he adds, “Do not take your audience for granted. While making hakot your friends is one effective measure, it will only get you as far as a few more gigs if you don't give them other reasons to go to your gigs. Have some pride—put some quality acts in your line-up!” That’s a principle Cris takes to heart, and which he follows almost to excess—some Revo prod nights have been so packed with acts that it’s almost overwhelming.

“And one last thing: this one's the most important, this is something that has been handed to me from the people behind the productions that I admire: THE PARTY IS THE SECRET.”

Asked to recount some high points in the history of Revolver, Cris says, “We are proud to have featured great bands such as Up dharma Down, Hale, Drip, Urbandub, Sugarfree, Cambio, Twisted Halo, Sandwich, Imago, Color it Red, Dong Abay, among others. We are also proud to have brought some bands to SaGuijo for the first time, such as Betrayed, Greyhoundz—back when SaGuijo was apprehensive about having "metal-oriented bands," Pedicab, Hilera—the best audition band Revolver ever had! Johnny Alegre Affinity, El Mercurio, the Youth, Wake Up Your Seatmate, Love Core and Switch.”

“We are also proud of having been able to collaborate with Admit One and Play4Serve to pay tribute to Wolfmann during Admit One's anniversary show [in 2005]. We’re proud of even being compared to and lumped with these productions; it’s definitely an honor… We are also proud to have thought of doing this long before doing a production became ‘uso’ and numerous new prods sprouted out of nowhere. We are proud that without us asking, Jugs Jugueta said ‘Cris, i-book mo ang Itchyworms sa Revolver basta walang conflict sa sked namin...’ We are proud of organizing Chillitees' and Narda's own album launches. And we are proud that our gigs with 20 people are every bit as fun as our gigs with 200 or more, for all the people concerned.”

When asked what’s in store for Cris Ramos and Revolver in the near future, Cris answers, “Well, I need a day job to sustain all these things, so I’m looking for one right now. And I hope to book more great bands in the future.”



Check out Cris Ramos’ Multiply site for Revolver updates and other fun stuff.

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Artist Song Title Type    
Itchyworms beer Caller Ringtunes  
Itchyworms BUWAN (ACOUSTIC USO VERSION) Caller Ringtunes  
Itchyworms SALAPI Caller Ringtunes  
Itchyworms AKIN KA NALANG Caller Ringtunes  
THE DAWN ANG IYONG PAALAM Caller Ringtunes  
THE DAWN BEYOND THE BEND Caller Ringtunes  
THE DAWN Babaeng Mahiwaga Truetones  
THE DAWN Enveloped Ideas Truetones  

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