Pulso: A concert of current hits

Huling El Bimbo, the much-awaited reunion concert of the fabled Eraserheads, will be held at the SMDC Festival Grounds in Parañaque on Dec. 22. This is certainly a dream come true for all Eheads fans. After all, it has already been quite a while since Ely Buendia, Raymund Marasigan, Buddy Zabala and Marcus Adoro performed together. Reaction is a must-watch.

However, and that is HOWEVER in capital letters. There is the question of ticket prices.  P17,260 in the mosh pit. This is the area closest to the stage, which is also called the landing pad during rock concerts. No seating there but it might just be your luck to catch Buendia in flight.  Then there are P14K, P12K, P9K, P5K and P3,050 up above in the nosebleed gallery. By this time, all of the fortune-blessed, moneyed fans have already bought all of the available tickets.

But you still want to watch a concert by a Pinoy band? So, let me steer you towards one that is not only affordable, features not one but three Pinoy star acts, who will perform current hits.  This is Pulso. Huling El Bimbo is a nostalgia show with 30-year-old songs. Pulso as in pulse is all about the public’s music pulse today.

The three featured acts are Kean Cipriano, former frontman of Callalily, current heartthrob Adie and the reclusive Unique Salonga. While all are competent musicians, they are not yet of the same iconic status as the Eraserheads. Think of the future though. Given the degree of talent that they have already shown and the hit songs they have created, these three will surely be acknowledged as icons some future day.

Unique Salonga is the enigmatic and hot-selling singer and songwriter, who rocked the music scene as frontman of IV of Spades with the phenomenal rock anthem Mundo. He has since then dropped the Spades and is on his own. He has released two solo albums, Pangalan and Grandma. He can be expected to do Mundo in Pulso, plus his solo singles, Sino, Midnight Sky, Cha-ching, Lamang Lupa, Ozone (Itulak ang Pinto), Huwag Ka Sanang Magagalit, Mga Katulad Mo and others.

Then, there is rocker Kean Cipriano, who never seems to gain weight. It is because the former frontman of Callalily is eternally energetic and is always moving around busy with one thing or another. On the personal side, Kean is husband to actress Chynna Ortaleza and is the father of a little girl and a baby boy.

Professionally, aside from his work as an actor, singer and songwriter, Kean is top man of OC Records, one of today’s hottest young labels. Formed in partnership with the Viva-Vicor Music Group, OC manages the careers and produces the recordings of a line-up of artists led by Unique, MRLD, Adie and others. He also directs and produces music videos, among these is Sino by Unique.

Kean will bring the nostalgia touch to Pulso if he performs tunes from his days with Callalily like Stars, Pasan and Magbalik. For his current recordings as a solo artist, he has Childlike, Ilaw, Make Me Fly, Sulyap and Eye Contact.

Then, there is Adie, the young singer and composer, who Kean discovered during a talent search by OC Records nearly three years ago. Adie is one of the most talented and successful among the younger batch of hitmakers. His latest big seller Mahika, a collab with Janine Berdin, is listed by Rolling Stone Magazine in an international lineup of hits today as descriptive of the “future of music around the world.” The song has already notched 47 million streams on Spotify.

The Pulso audience will surely enjoy going romantic with Harana boy Adie when he performs Paraluman, Luha, Kabado, Sawa Na, Dungaw, Tahanan and Mahika.

Lucky you if you can afford to watch both Huling El Bimbo and Pulso. But whatever you choose to do, just make sure you always have Pinoy artists on top of your concert go-to list.