The curtain rose, the trip began with “Monopoly” – and we are magic in the world.
Far from the homeland, I joined kindred souls in the sandpit – our hardworking Filipino diaspora in Dubai (most of whom had to wake up for our day jobs the next morning) – who came out that Sunday night at the Coca Cola Arena to see the original line up of the band we long waited for – Bamboo, Rico, Nathan and Mark – ready to be transported back.
“Nostalgia rock” as some pundits would say, but of course this was not really the band that we used to know, and Live Nation at the helm of this world tour spoke volumes of how the bar was set real high for this rare show.
Yes the band came out playing the same heart-pulling, trigger-happy familiar songs, but their shiny evolved sound told us they were not exactly the same musicians anymore, and perhaps we are also not the same wide-eyed “Grounders” we used to be.
This is grown up, this is seasoned, this is Rivermaya going at us at their finest. This was the band line up that we might have never seen at their peak all together but always in their own respects got their spot on the radar. At least for me, personally (and this is going to be a very personal review) Rivermaya that night did not just take us back but in fact they pushed us forward in the timeline of what could have been – if only for a moment.
Bamboo, who, over the years had to come out of his enigmatic frontman era to be the household maestro “Coach Bamboo”, was always going to be the only voice that could launch Rivermaya’s poignant “Ulan” the way it should be – raw and racing with its hundreds of memories, as it is with the band’s other playful and more volatile hits.
The band’s deep discography came out on songs like “Sunny Days”, “Ballroom Dancing”, “Hilo”, “Flowers”, and more which, until the reunion, did not really surface as songs that many of us would have seen live with the original line up.
Nathan Azarcon’s straight-no-chaser- basslines gave us a good ol’ dose of his signature punk reggae influence that just made you realize how integral his contributions were to the early sound of Rivermaya, that going forward helped solidify the band’s unique identity.
Mark Escueta on the kit kept the relentless energy the same way he kept the fire burning for our banda ng bayan. He took us through their old stomping grounds with effortless skill and intuition that can only come from someone who literally grew up with the band.
Of course, it is undeniable that Rivermaya’s timeless anthems and the progressive string of hits that followed us through the highs and lows of youth to adulthood are mainly attributed to the band’s lead guitarist and main songwriter Rico Blanco.
Musicians come and go, but Rico, as his band Rivermaya, in 2025 managed to stay relevant. From the skinny guitarist to the frontman he is today, watching Rico’s evolution is witnessing a hero’s journey. Seeing him on the piano singing the old gem” 20 million”, rapping his bits on “Bring Me Down”, reading out the loveletter bridge on “Hinahanap-hanap kita” and of course shredding the epic solo on the perennial 214 – were all just too priceless.
If songs could live out their own lives, I would say Rivermaya’s has gone down the road, got on a few flights, came back full circle, and then some.
As the confetti fell, I realized seeing the reunion of this band-of-brothers actually gave us more than what we asked for. They showed us a way of moving forward – that somehow at some point, we all needed to move on, to grow up, leave our family and friends, go places…but also that wherever we go, and however many different versions of ourselves we find ourselves in – deep inside we are still the same kids sitting in the gutter looking up at the stars – the same ones who found our great true love in their music.
