Rak en Rol Diaries

March
1, 2007
Sir
Edward’s Restaurant,
Malaybalay City

The
folk/punk group Yano was one of the
pillars of the 90s pinoy rock scene. The
band’s music is a strange but addicting brew of acoustic folk and aggressive Ramonesque
punk with lyrics that deal with social and political themes. It has been said that if The Eraserheads was
the Pinoy Beatles then Yano was The Pinoy Rolling Stones. Their self-titled debut released in 1994
reached quadruple platinum and yielded hit songs like Tsinelas, Esem and Banal Na Aso, Santong Kabayo. The band
released two more albums (Bawal and Tara) before vocalist Dong Abay quit sometime in the late 90s
due to famed-induced pressure. Yano disbanded consequently. Abay was reported
to have nearly gone nuts and hibernated inside his bedroom for about five
years. He came out from his self-imposed
hiatus armed with a new set of poetry and formed a new band called Pan. The band released one album (Parnaso
ng Payaso) in 2003 and later
disbanded. Abay then formed another band
bearing his full name dongabay and
released an album, Filipino, which
was one of the most brilliant local releases in 2006 (I’ll post my review of
this album soon).

 After Yano disbanded, guitarist Eric Gancio went back to his homeland in Davao.  Unlike Abay who rejuvenated his career in the Manila rock scene, Gancio chose to live a quie life in Davao and  not much has been heard about him. So it was a pleasant surprise for me to know that the guy is still
alive, kickin’ and rockin’ and last March 1, he performed live in a full-packed
Sir Edward’s Restaurant in Malaybalay.

The
MCWD band was the night’s opening act and entertained the audience with their
regular show band staples. I was already
starting to feel sleepy (having slept late after watching Bamboo the previous
night), when Eric Gancio and his entourage arrived at about 10 PM. He still looks like the Eric Gancio I used to
see in album and music magazine photos during the heydays of Yano.  In green t-shirt, denim shorts and topsiders,
he is still thin, long-haired and looking very much like my friend Geremore
Clarete.  Accompanied by a bassist and a drummer who
are obviously younger than him, Eric spoke to the audience, “mag-bisaya lang ko
ha kay taga-Davao man ko. Para wala nay atik-atik ba."Hahaha! “First time namo ni
mag-perform sa Bukidnon, nagbulag na lang mi, pero karon pa lang jud mi naka-perform diri" referring to his fomer partner and Yano band mate. “Amo kantahon karon ang inyong mga panoritong
kanta sa Yano"then opened their set with Mc’
Jo. The audience, mostly people in
their late-20s to mid-30, gamely sang along. It was the 90s once again as Eric and his band performed all songs from
Yano’s first album. I could sense some
senti feelings in the air that night as the songs took most of
the audience back to their college years –the post-Edsa themed Kumusta Na, the tale of a brownout in Kaka, the religious hypocrites in Banal
Na Aso, the socialites in Coño Ka
Pre (how could you be so oh, how could you be), strolling the mall in
Esem, the country’s state of
education in State U and Iskolar Ng Bayan, the simple man’s
footwear Tsinelas, and of course,
Yano’ ultimate love song Senti,
which was given a Spanish twist. Eric
introduced Naroon as his personal
favorite and also did  Sana  (from Bawal)
and Paalam Sampaguita
(from Tara), two of Yano’s lesser known songs.
Eric also performed a new song titled Punda (I’m not sure of the spelling but
its short daw for fundamentalism) which was written by two of his students in a
peace forum.  The night ended with Trapo, a timely song about corrupt politicians (di na binoboto pero nananalo!).  After more a dozen years, Yano’s songs are
still as relevant today as they were before. Still a wizard guitarist, Eric also ably did the vocal chores. He constantly encouraged the audience to
drink more beer (“shot ta”) and is smiling all throughout the show. He was visibly happy that most of the
audience could still memorized Yano’s songs. 

We
were very fortunate to be seated in front as Eric was literally within our
reach. Twice his guitar strings snapped
and we took this opportunity to take pictures with him while he’s fixing his
instrument. We took more pictures with him
and his band after the show and I bought his CD Sa Bandang Huli, which he personally
signed. I spoke to him briefly and found
out that he is very friendly and accommodating with no rock star aura. Despite being a significant figure in Pinoy
Rock history he remains a very simple man. Very yano indeed.