Pics from Sugar Hiccup's last show December 30, 2017

Neon signage outside 12 Monkeys at El Pueblo.

With Czandro Pollack hanging out with some old Sugar Hiccup fans outside 12 Monkeys. 

This 20-something kid bought these cassettes a few years ago -- sealed too, if I may add -- and has been a Sugar Hiccup fan from that time.

The calm before the show. Post-soundcheck at 12 Monkeys.

Merch for the night -- shirts, pins, ref magnets! And the new album too!

With Sugar Hiccup: Mervin Panganiban, Iman Leonardo, Czandro Pollack, and Melody del Mundo on stage after the show. I got to emcee the show and it was a blast.

In case you do not know my "connection" to the band... I was a label/A&R manager in the 1990s and after I signed Datu's Tribe and Parokya ni Edgar, the band that I tried to sign next was Sugar Hiccup. I was at Club Dredd hanging out with some of the members of Parokya when I heard this band sing the Sundays' "Here's Where the Story Ends" and I immediately ran inside to check out whoever it was. That was my introduction to Sugar Hiccup. I still remember the setlist -- "Here's Where the Story Ends", "Someday", "Trust", "Barn", and a cover of the Cocteau Twins' "Pink Orange Red". I tried to sign them but lost out to BMG. Years later, Czandro invited me to their show at 70s Bistro where they released their third album Of Tongues and Thoughts with new vocalist Bea Alcala. Czandro's peace pipe was offering me three copies of Of Tongues and Thoughts to buy.

We reconnected early this year during a show by Narcloudia. Writing several articles about Sugar Hiccup leading up to their fourth and final offering, Closure, and helping them on album launch night -- which was ironically their last show as a band -- is the closest I will get to working with them. And in many ways, closure for me too.