The SlickMaster's Files: The Scene Around: The Pop Shoppe Beach Camp Indie Fest

Thursday, May 09, 2024

The Scene Around: The Pop Shoppe Beach Camp Indie Fest - Lilystars Records 16th Anniversary

05/03/2024 02:33:35 PM

It's hard to actually write something these past few days. With all the job hunting and the side-hustles both up and running, this guy struggles to make time and usually winds up staring blankly at this document for so long.

This time around, though, I managed to shrug it off.

April 2024 was kinda hectic month to some extents. The weekends were full of either music or wrestling stuff, but we'll talk about the latter at the later time. It's that season again where outdoor music festivals are starting to sprout almost every week. The challenge, though, lies on how unique can an extravaganza full of live performances by musicians provide such experience, especially with almost-the-same lineup rooted in almost every open ground possible. Yes, it's the 'same banana' as some would claim.

Then, there's Lilystars Records. For so long, they were doing interest checks on staging an indie music event in a beach. And the last time they scoured for its clamor; it delivered a promising result: The Pop Shoppe Beach Camp Indie Fest which served as the music label's 16th anniversary party. This event happened on a Saturday evening, 27 April 2024, at Playa La Caleta in Morong, Bataan. Yup, the same location where Everywhere We Shoot filmed the music video of Orange & Lemons's 2019-released single Pag-Ibig Sa Tabing-Dagat featuring Empoy and Alessandra de Rossi.

The travel to this nature-y resort, was quite a challenge, though. From the boundary of Bagac and Morong, there was a very steeply inclined narrow road which any daredevil can dare to pass by. It's like taking a one-miss-you-die course if you're a newbie driver. Perhaps, the nerve-racking adventure was worthy, once you made it. Besides, there's a boat ride alternative for more safer and aesthetically pleasing experience.

Eleven acts, including headliner Orange & Lemons, were the billed performers in this music festival. This includes some of the members of the entire Lilystars Records roster of talents from across Mega Manila: Galaxy Lodge, Paper Satellites, The Gentle Isolation, and Parasouls. Three artists also paid a visit from Cebu to grace the stages of PLC, too, in The Midnight Greetings, Bea Dolloso, and Kubra Commander. Of course, Clem Castro's other music projects in Dragonfly Collector and The Camerawalls were present in this gathering as well.

However, there's more to just having the Lilystars Family perform in a general assembly-like fashion as this event also welcomed Shumi as their guest, in addition to a special after-party number by O&L's team of hardworking crew named Nirvanda. Hell, even Empoy Marquez was there to jam around and had a good time. And I must say, this was probably the only time I saw the veteran TV and movie comedian hang around not being drunk. LOL!

On the side, some fun activities and merchandise booths were up and running during the evening, like the fire dance intermission number, as well as the bonfire in the beach itself. Yeah, we definitely had a great time roasting those jumbo hotdogs and marshmallows pierced through 5-foot-standing thin yet gigantic sticks.

A lot of people were chilling in the sands with beanbags and blankets with them. The heat during the month may be uncooperative, but the temperature during the night, even if it's hot, but still manageable to some extent. Hey, everyone's welcome to dip at the seashore anyway even during the nighttime.

Of course, Orange & Lemons were always the main event treat like no other, with three songs of their set comprising select songs off their album La Bulaquena, as well as the usual timeless favorites and a rendition of The Carpenters classic hit Close to You. But make no mistake about how other artists stood out on their own like Paper Satellites' newest song Alipin, Kubra Commander's explosive set, Parasouls' preppy set that I could hear even if I'm almost a quarter mile away, Galaxy Lodge's cover of a Talkin' Heads classic (Psycho Killer), and even Shumi's electric presence which covered three iconic pop song off their playlist, just to name a few.

Summing it up, The Pop Shoppe had its own share of serenity hours and a fiery-loud ones, as well – a damn eclectic mix of sounds perfectly suitable of a Saturday night live from bay side.