Party, party yeah! ‘Every generation has a soundtrack’

He danced by himself in front of the bright stage, right by where the DJs mixed the music for the night, oblivious to the loud crowd behind him. Almost 6-ft tall, his muscled arms bulging from his white shirt tucked in khaki cargo pants, he reminded me of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

The Rock’s twin was doing the certified “tito dance”—shuffling feet, clapping to the beat of the music with a slightly hunched back. When Build Me Up Buttercup by The Torch came on, his left arm shot up with that little shake along with the rest of us, as the disco ball’s silver reflection glittered on our skin, and a mix of blue, yellow, and purple lights danced with us in the dimly lit hall.

I don’t know his name, but to me, he’ll always be the guy who defined fun for the “titos” and “titas” of Manila, who partied in last October’s Retroed, the joint show of DJs Mon Maramba and Jon Tupaz, the legendary DJs of the ’80s and ’90s celebrating their 40^th year on the Philippine club scene. It was also a milestone homecoming for Mon, who has been based in the US for nearly two decades.

Completing the show’s DJ line-up were Ferdie Valdez, who started out with Mon and is on a comeback trail, and Sonny Tugade, a true pioneer of club DJ music.

The show couldn’t have had a more apt title. Retroed, produced by DM Entertainment, teleported us back to the time when we had stronger knees and our bedtime was way past midnight. For one special night, these renowned DJs turned SM Aura’s Samsung Hall into Faces and Euphoria again, the era’s most popular clubs.

We laughed, twirled, and shimmied at Retroed, nostalgic and yearning for years long gone. The pining gave way to cheers when the DJs played the club anthems: Show Me Love by Robin S for Euphoria and the remix of the Andrew Sisters’ Sing Sing Sing for Faces.

I don’t remember ever going to Faces and Euphoria. Not even to Mars, long before it became a term of endearment today. The only club I’m certain I’d been to was Ozone, with my childhood friends and accompanied by our parents, a year before the tragic fire.

Retroed was my very first clubbing experience with my college best friends, believe it or not. While Joy and Alma enjoyed the party scene even in our younger days,  Data (real name, Daphne Tatiana, hence, Data), Abby, and I have always preferred quiet and calm affairs, with coffee or tea.

In college, our idea of fun was hitting the books, preparing for our group and solo performances for broadcasting classes at the University of the Philippines, and learning how to smoke a cigarette at lunch break, which was the most rebellious thing we had ever done as teenagers, aside from Data and I cutting class once to join a rally against a looming tuition hike.

In Retroed, however, it didn’t take much for Joy and Alma to pull their introverted friends to the dance floor the moment Mon started his set. Heck, we’re all pushing 50. It was now or never for us to let our hair down together.

And how could we not share Joy’s excitement? It was also the divas’ (as the five of us call each other, but that’s another story) first time together to watch Mon play live.

Joy and Mon have been dating for nearly three years now, brought together by—no surprise here—music and clubbing, albeit online, as they both found ways to drive the pandemic lockdown blues away.

Joy told me Mon likes to say that “every generation has a soundtrack.” He played ours in the show.

Mon got us grooving to Cece Peniston’s We Got A Love Thang, which I’ve always called “We got a, we got a love, we got a, we got a love”; the Black Box’s Strike It Up; The Love I Lost, the 1993 hit by West End that featured Sybil; and The Best Things In Life Are Free by Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross.

He played one of my favorites, Janet Jackson’s Together Again, a disco and house mix, and the most bubbly and hopeful song about one dearly departed: “Everywhere I go, every smile I see, I know you are there, smiling back at me/ Dancing in moonlight, I know you are free, ‘cause I can see your star, shinin’ down on me.”  The 1997 song was dedicated to the pop star’s friends she had lost to AIDS. (Sooo excited for Janet Jackson’s Together Again concert in March in Manila!)

Jon followed Mon’s set, treating us to eternal club music hits like September by Earth, Wind, and Fire, Jump by The Pointer Sisters, Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair) by Sheena Easton, Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice, and The Spiral Staircase’s More Today Than Yesterday.

It was a delight to listen to Jon’s music again. Six years ago, when my St. Theresa’s College batch celebrated the 25th year anniversary of our high school graduation, Jon DJ-ed at our homecoming party. He had us dancing until midnight on our colorful cubed dance floor reminiscent of a discotheque that we set up in our conventionally conservative school grounds.

On Jon’s playlist, too, at Retroed was Just Got Lucky. I was seven years old when the JoBoxers released this hit song in 1983, which became part of the official soundtrack of the coming-of-age film Bagets.

Amid the political turmoil of that time, I remember being either in a bright yellow Ninoy T-shirt or a pastel yellow buttoned blouse (with collars pulled up) paired with pastel pink pants and pastel blue rubber shoes. And my crisscross skinny belts were white.

There were a handful of millennials and Gen Zs who partied with the boomers and Gen X-ers, and witnessed their parents, titos, and titas relive their youth. Joy’s teenaged niece loves old songs (I still can’t wrap my ahead around the idea that my generation’s songs are now called “old”).  Amber, my fellow BTS ARMY, was initially bewildered by our dance moves, but as the night wore on, she hit the dance floor with her mom and titas.

I read somewhere that a DJ’s talent is measured by how well they can draw their audience to the dance floor and keep them dancing. After four decades of spinning music, Mon and Jon just keep on getting better at getting all of us to dance and simply have fun. And their fans remain loyal to them, their music, and the very idea of clubbing.  “People will never stop celebrating life,” Mon said.

And so, my friends and I danced that night, celebrating our sisterhood, celebrating Joy and Mon. We just went with the beat and followed where the music took us. I got by with my tita moves, just like The Rock by the stage did.

Dance like nobody’s watching. Or in the words of Gen Z icon, BTS’ Jungkook: “Party, party, yeah!”