Thunderbird rocks!

MANILA, Philippines - Thunderbird. Perhaps an unlikely name for a resort, and probably more often than not associated with automobiles or some long dead legendary American Indian chief. In the Philippines however Thunderbird is often only one of two things: a top end chicken feed for fighting cocks or the resorts group that currently manages two properties: one in Rizal and one in La Union.

However last month three rock bands and select members of the Pulp Live World crew gave Thunderbird yet another meaning as we partied like rock stars (the majority actually being rock stars) and raised hell at the Thunderbird Resort in Antipolo, Rizal which is actually just a quick drive from the city — an utterly convenient escape from an all too busy city.

After surviving the 12th annual Pulp Summer Slam, there is actually nothing better than getting the hell out of town, even if it is just a mere hour to hour-and-a-half drive away. The air is fresher, the beer just that much sweeter, and the dramatically reduced white noise of an all too crowded urban sprawl is uplifting.

Perched on a hilltop you actually get the visual sense — from looking down at the gray mass of Manila — that you have truly escaped the city’s treacherous traffic and asphyxiating smog.

But what made this little jaunt so extremely special was the company kept: We Came As Romans, Periphery and the every entertaining Darkest Hour. These guys know how to party and I carried along a little surprise for them all — a giant three-liter bottle of Jack, which I mistakenly thought would last the entire three days (the guys managed to polish the entire bottle off the first night).

When we arrived the bands had already taken over the resort’s casino and the stage of the karaoke area. I was still outside of the casino area when I heard a screeching rendition of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” and was not entirely shocked to see a beet-red faced Spencer Sotelo (vocalist of Periphery) belt out a heavy metal version of the first American Idol’s worldwide hit — complete with onstage rock star pose with foot on monitor and hand in the air. I snickered with glee viewing the shocked faces of the regular casino denizens as they took pause from their zombified slot machine ritual and, jaws agape, visibly watched in awe.

For our first and last night Thunderbird laid out a glorious Filipino buffet spread and closed off the poolside restaurant for us. This was a great treat and obviously makes sense for larger groups to book this resort as a quick team-building getaway — exclusivity comes in numbers and there was a bunch of us! I don’t think the resort has seen that much madness or had that much raucousness ever. Just Darkest Hour alone would have set a record for Thunderbird, but compounded with Periphery and We Came As Romans? This was rock and roll insanity.

The other cool thing about Thunderbird is it’s easy to jump out and take a quick day trip, which We Came As Romans and Darkest Hour did — we took these guys out to Subic for a little beach fun and jet skiing as well some sick (slang for “awesome”) Indian food at Rama Mahal. And just a few hours total on the road and we were there and back again.

Darkest Hour, Periphery and We Came As Romans with Pulp Live World president Vernon Go, vice president Happee Sy, and artist manager Karen Sy.

When we first arrived at Thunderbird we actually thought we would get bored and run out of things to do when after looking back: eating, drinking, chatting, drinking, karaoke, drinking, dipping in the pool, drinking… was plenty to do and all of the bands loved their stay and tweeted and Facebooked their Thunderbird experience afterward.

At the end of the day, a great vacation is made primarily by the company you keep and we had the privilege of entertaining happily rowdy bunch of rock stars that were in fact great company — and Thunderbird was not only a convenient but pleasant location to chill and recoup from a hard day at the office, which was in this case the Pulp Summer Slam.