A Bodhisattva is a person who, through constant study, meditation and fasting, has achieved a state of enlightenment. As Buddhism teaches, an enlightened person is then ready for ascension into Nirvana, a realm of true peace and knowledge. A Bodhisattva, however, does not aspire to leave the cycle of birth and death (therefore, life and the physical world). Instead, he or she chooses to teach others and will ascend only when all other beings are saved. Watching Lourd De Veyra (Radioactive Sago Project’s frontman) live, you cannot help but feel that he knows something we collectively don’t. Or maybe it is as simple as that his wisdom rests on his own knowledge that he doesn’t know shit. Either way, there is just something very…cool…about how he sits with the crowd, rising to the microphone only when the band has primed the masses. The poet laureate of Pinoy Rock? Better believe it.

The first thing you notice about Radioactive Sago Project is their unique approach with regards to vocals. Instead of a traditional singer, Lourd De Veyra’s spoken-word delivery (over a cacophony of sound, some by the band) is fresh, brash, and often disarming. Like some Bay Area Beat Poet of old (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti), you’re terrified of missing a word he says lest you glaze over
“The Meaning.” Of what, you ask? Of life and love, religion and politics, of true happiness and peace (Gin Pomelo anyone?) and even the more mundane distractions…like why instant mami looks so much better on the packaging. This guy could read a cookbook aloud and it would still sound like Neruda.

Bassist Francis De Veyra and the rest of the Sago boys are equally (if not more so) vital to the grand sound the band creates. Whereas Lourd spits out venom and love into the microphone, the musicians provide a steady structure to the singer’s improvisational spontaneity. They are anything but a backing band. On the contrary, the ease with which they switch between musical styles leaves any audience member shaking their head in amazement. With the presence of a bassist, guitarist, drummer, percussionist and a horn section, the possibilities are inexhaustible. With each song, the virtual history of modern music is explored. Indeed, there are the obvious references to rock, funk and jazz…but there are also evident traces of the blues, big band music, as well as the oddball choices of samba, bossa nova and mambo. Ask any other band to even attempt what the Sago boys do on a near-nightly basis and they would keel over with the enormity of the task.

What you get is probably the most original act in the local music scene…and, quite possibly, beyond. It is simply blasphemous that the corporate record industry shied away from releasing Radioactive Sago Project’s new album to a mainstream (and therefore broader) audience. This simply goes to show how intense and even dangerous these songs are. The work is dangerous because it makes you want to listen rather than just hear. To think for yourself. And that, my friends, is probably the
scariest prospect of them all.

C.C.