| 23 OCTOBER 2005
Three For Texas
We arrived in Austin last October 23 after a show in Detroit the night before. With hardly any sleep, we rode on a plane that took us to this premiere Texas City that is home to the current US President. We checked in at the Park Hotel and after a few hours, we were dressed for the show which was in the ballroom at the lobby floor.
The ballroom was small but the crowd of about 400 was enough to make it full. It was a minus-one show, meaning, we were singing to taped orchestration. In other words, no live musicians! Nevertheless, it was a great and fun show since the Pinoy Texans knew how to make us feel at home with loud applause and screams. What made the show more special was meeting up with an old friend of Danny's from college. LJ who was UP's heartthrob during the hippie 70s found us backstage before the show.
This was our third gig in three nights and showing up for each one involved getting up early and taking a plane ride. We were tired when we came on stage, but the enthusiasm of the crowd revved up our adrenalin. By the third song, we were in fighting form.
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APO with their production assistant Sammy Samaniego doing an Abbey Road ala Beatles crossing at the famous spot where JFK was shot. Thanks Rico Villavicencio for the photo. |
The next few days were spent doing promo work in San Antonio and Dallas . Our San Antonio show was held at the Pueblo Hall last October 28. Again it was a minus-1 show but it went rather well. Then stage was tiny, the audience had tables which were too expensive to take out. And we also had no backstage for costume changes. We literally had to dress up outside the hall under the stars. But again, meeting all these new people who were watching us for the first time was something else.
The next morning saw us on a 5 hour land trip to Dallas for a show the same evening at the Black Academy of Performing Arts within the Dallas Convention Hall. We were very psyched up for the show since the venue was so elegant and we were performing with our musicians. The evening of the 29 th of October was our crowning glory for the Texas leg of 'The APO Experience' tour. The sound, lights, audience were simply wonderful. Our performance was the ingredient that made the synerfgy that evening really super. We could not help but be in top form. We felt that we were giving 120% and getting returns in the 300% or higher. Dallas will be hard to forget.
All in all, the Pinoy Texans were very hospitable, friendly and a lot of fun. We thank the Last Minute group who front-acted for us and gave us real genuine cowboy hats. Special Thanks also to our producers Gigi Hobson, Susan Young Blood, , my newly discovered cousin Vicky Lopez, Rico Villavicencio, the Orosa Family, the Valeras, and Gilbert-Gigi's brother who drove us all around, Cathrina of Hilton Hotel who made our stay there very comfortable and all the great Pinoy restaurants which hosted lunches and dinners for us. There are too many names to mention. For give us if we missed out.
Hey Texas , thank y'all! |
