I took a break last Sunday and watched a concert by the very popular REO Brothers in downtown Los Angeles, and was so awed by the group of youngsters from Tacloban City, I decided to take a break, too, from writing about politics and write about the band instead this week.
The story of this young tribute band, so called because they basically pay tribute to great bands by singing their songs, is worth retelling because of the enormous success they have achieved in so short a time after emerging from a tragedy that continues to devastate many of their province mates nearly two years after super typhoon Yolanda smashed into the eastern part of the Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013.
It is a story of hope and inspiration, a tale we hope could be replicated many times over in other fields, especially in areas where disaster strikes.
The four brothers — Reno, 24; Ron Joseph, 22; Raymart, 20; and Ralph, 17; all with Evasco as middle name and Otic as last name (REO) – were poor boys growing up in Tacloban who loved to listen to long playing (LP) albums brought home by their father Reynaldo. In 2005, Reynaldo brought home a hand-me-down guitar that his son RJ (Ron Joseph) soon learned to play. RJ taught the other brothers how to play the guitar and later made drums out of an empty can and chip plastic bags that he taught the siblings to play, too.
In 2007, RJ joined a small band and he and the other band members often practiced in the Otic home, further heightening the Otic brothers’ interest in bands. Meanwhile, the four brothers started singing as a group using the old guitar and the improvised drums.
In 2008, Roger David Gabero Bichachi, an employee of the mayor’s office, saw them jamming with some friends using their improvised instruments. He was so impressed that he bought them new instruments and helped them find gigs. In 2009, they started calling themselves REO Brothers.
They played in events, office and private parties and earned just enough to send one of them to school and put food on the table. They played mostly songs from the 50s to the 70s of The Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Bee Gees, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, The Lettermen, The Ventures and other prominent bands of the era.
The first line-up consisted of Ron Joseph on vocals, Ralph on bass guitar, Raymart on rhythm guitar and Reno on drums. Now, Reno is on drums, Ron Joseph on lead guitar, Raymart on rhythm guitar, and Ralph on bass.
They were happy with what they had — until destiny stepped in. The super typhoon Yolanda swept into Leyte in November 2013 and the Otic family had to evacuate, bringing just their guitars wrapped in cellophane. Their home was totally destroyed.
After reaching relatives in Manila through social network, the family decided to board a bus to Manila. Fortunately, the bus driver was the husband of a relative who promised to pay their fares upon arrival in Manila. They ate just biscuits they had brought with them during the two-day trip. They lived with relatives in Quezon City, where all eight of them slept on mats in a cramped room.
They remembered receiving a business card from a certain Reynaldo Fuentes in one of their gigs in 2012. Fuentes told them to call him when they come to Manila. Fuentes introduced them to Tom Banguis Jr., a businessman and band manager who in turn introduced them to Rannie Raymundo, a co-owner of Primos Cuisine & Music Lounge in Greenhills, where bands played in the evenings.
Banguis introduced them to the crowd and narrated their remarkable story before the brothers performed. The brothers, still tired and looking like “provincianos” after the two-day bus trip to Manila, played to the delight of the audience who danced and sang with them throughout their performance. It was their first time in Manila and they wowed the sophisticated city crowd!
Rannie, his dad Nilo Raymundo – a good friend of mine since the late 70s — and the other co-owners of Primos passed a donation box that produced P10,000 and the Raymundos and the other Primos co-owners added P27,000. The brothers earned P37,000 on an unscheduled performance!
They were invited back the next night and just like the night before, they thrilled the audience who sang and danced with them for three hours! Rannie decided to make them regular performers on Tuesday nights.
Their fame spread fast in the rock and roll circuit.
ABS-CBN invited the group to appear on their annual Christmas celebration dubbed “Kwento ng Pasko – Pag-asa at Pagbangon” on Dec. 10 2013 at the Araneta Coliseum. They were the only performers that drew the standing ovation.
Since then, the REO Brothers have performed twice at the historic Cavern Club in Liverpool, England, the first Filipino group to do so in this birthplace of the iconic Beatles. They also played at the Bournbrook and Selly Oak Social Club in Birmingham, and at Northumberland Theatre in London.
The band performed to standing ovation at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York for the Pinoy Relief Benefit Concert on March 11, 2014 with Jennifer Hudson, Pentatonix, Plain White T’s, Jessica Sanchez, Apl.de.ap, DJ Poet Name Life and Charice. They are currently on their second US Tour.
During Sunday’s performance at Aratani Theater in downtown LA, the audience, mostly baby boomers, danced and sang with them for two full hours, starting with their opening song “A Hard Day’s Night,” through other favorites from The Beatles, Beachboys, Dave Clark Five, Bee Gees and The Ventures. They ended the night with John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Having just witnessed a local tribute band desecrate the songs of the Beachboys in another concert at a park in Santa Fe Springs two days earlier, it was a relief to listen to a genuinely rockin’ and rollin’ rendition of my favorites from the 60s and 70s.
If the REO Brothers are playing in your area, usually for the benefit of the survivors of typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban, I suggest you don’t miss the performance. You would soon be stomping your feet as you relive your youth, knowing at the same time that you are helping four inspiring youngsters live out their dreams and the Taclobanons to get back on their feet.
For a city that has struggled for almost two years now awaiting help from the national government, the REO Brothers are like the sun coming out after a long winter in The Beatles’ hit, “Here Comes The Sun.”
And I say it’s all right.