Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Juris live in GENSAN (I was there)







Last October 20, 2010 at Anchor Driving Range I was able to have my first Juris Concert experience. The ambience of the venue was completely set for an acoustic concert and the weather goes with it giving the entire concert a thumbs-up.




The concert started at around 9 in the evening, late than the set time of 8PM. It started with the Grand Finals of the “The Ultimate Acoustic Showdown” an inter-school Competition. Each group must perform in a sequence of 4 songs. The Group’s first song shall be a song their choice followed by the group’s Original Composition. Contest piece, as it was called in the competition, singing the group’s own cover or version of the song “Foolish Heart” and the last song was the jingle of one of the concerts sponsors ”BEESTOP fried chicken”. 7 groups made it to the Grand Finals and gave the best that night.

“The Prodigals” the first group who performed also the concert’s opening performance. I love the way she entertains the crowd, her cool voice, and her beauty. I also enjoyed the group’s original composition but I was not able to remember the title of the song. It was played smooth as if it’s already on-air. I thought it was just an intermission number because the whole performance was so professional only to find out that it was already the contest proper. I felt frustrated about myself that I was not able to notice it and how I missed to document a good and rare performance.

“The Next Group is the most serious group in the competition” as said by the host while introducing the 2nd group, “The Anecdota Band”, a Bisaya group from the prestigious school of Mindanao State University. It’s was a cool jamming, the host meant sarcastically on his opening tag. They brought their fellow MSUians to support them. Unique, I say. They had these effects using a cell phones ring tone, a sound of flowing water, that made the crowd laugh out and that’s not all, they had this surprise piece, their original composition. “ihee”, a Bisaya song that truly Generals enjoyed to listen plus the funny lyrics that was jammed with a reggae tune. The entire performance was good and lived a mark of uniqueness in me.

5 other groups followed after the cool opening and 2 of them caught my attention. First was the “G-plan” or “God’s Plan” as they called themselves because, one, the group included a violin player who was also the lead vocalist of the band. He did a great job; he played well and sung well. His voice reminded me of “Jimmy Bondoc” one of the famous Acoustic Performer. The band blended so well and produced a RNB acoustic style that Generals indeed enjoyed. Second that caught my attention was the last group who amazed me,”Mayana Band”. At first, I really thought it was already Juris Fernandez that was performing. The bands lead vocalist had a similar voice, a voice that sounded like Juirs. As song progress I started to notice the difference. Not that calm, clean and cool as Juris. But I am still amazed that a fellow General possesses a good voice.

The moment came, the moment all have been waiting for; it was Juris turn to perform and make the Generals shout. Everybody was excited. And the host cued for Juris to come up the stage and the crowd goes wild, shouting and busy with taking pictures. I myself cheered and can’t help myself to join the people in front taking a close shot of her. With smile she greeted the Generals and because she is a Pride of Cebu she knows the Generals Dialect, Cebuano. I love her. Her cute smile is really inviting.

She sung the song "How do I Live without you" by Celine Dion. She really has this calm voice, so calm that makes me close my eyes to and feel the emotion within each lyric she sings. I saw the difference more between her voice and from the vocalist of the "Mayana Band", the last group to perform in the competition. Her voice was so clean, so lovely in the ears and you can see the confidence, that she is not just singing but also feeling the song.

Juris sung her own version of the once famous "Someday we'll know" by Mandy Moore and Jonathan Freeman. The crowd got even more high as his lead guitarist played the part of Jonathan Freeman in the song. He also got something to put on on that concert. Calm voice, so masculine and matches the voice of Juris on the song. People were amazed with cool voice. It was one of the concerts surprises.


Juris sung few of her songs from her latest self titled album "Juris" and the rest were her own versions of some selected songs. Di lang Ikaw, How do I live without you, Opposites attract, Cool with you, Thousand Miles and more. Her last piece to wrap up the entire concert was the Song "You belong with me" by Taylor Swift. She really is a performer, a PRO on what she's doing.

After all songs in the menu were delivered it's time to say good bye and hello to picture taking and autographs. Fans can't help but to meet her at the backstage shouting her name and "Juris pa-Picture naman". It was fun experiencing this things, falling in line with a big crowd just to have a close and behind the scenes photos, to see love people loved Juris and appreciate her effort of visiting the Generals home. My friend Judie got his chance to have a personal picture with Juris herself by buying her album for only 250 pesos and we are their to capture the moment. It was a success. Everybody's happy to have a part of Juris. It's worthy of the effort of waiting.



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