Cuteness with attitude certainly describes one rock chick – Kitchie Nadal.Standing probably a little bit over 5 feet, Kitchie Nadal stands out not only because of her simple yet radiant beauty (yes guys, you got it right, SIMPLE) but also because of the distinct voice that emanates from within her small frame. While her songwriting skills have yet to blossom to their fullest, how she augmented these words with music have been a delight to the ear.
The rock scene of today is blessed to have a rock chick like Kitchie Nadal. Add in Barbie Almalbis (who is unfortunately and much to every rakista’s woe is already married) and you have a lethal duo of dimunitive guitar-crunching divas who certainly rock.
But back to Kitchie and her songs.
As a certified lover of the OPM rock scene, Kitchie first caught my ears (and eyes) attention with her first single “Run”. Angst-ridden and edgy, the song instantly captured my attention and within days, I had bought her album. I never realized that Kitchie was a part of Mojofly if not for the articles that appeared afterwards especially when her “Wag na Wag Mong Sasabihin” pop-rocking single was used by ABS-CBN for one of their Korea-novelas. Kitchie hit it big-time with that single single and instantly placed her on every rakista’s playlist (well, almost every rakista, that is).
I just hope her sophomore effort is even better than her debut. Question is when is she releasing it? It’s been a long wait already. Some say she sounds Lisa Loebish or Tori Amosque, but since I don’t listen to either Loeb or Amos, it doesn’t bother me a bit.
With the rise in popularity came endorsements of course. And every rock purist hates artists who “sell”. But reality check, artists also need to earn and if a sponsor came along to help defray the cost of spreading the music, that’s fine by me. As long as the artist continues to be who he or she is – an artist and not a commercial model. So, despite the McDo and Ellipse commercials, Nadal is still ok on my playlist. Heck, just look at the number of commercials on the tube today that either feature a rock band or use a song by the band or have the band create a jingle – Kamikaze, Parokya, Sandwich, Bamboo, Hale, and the list goes on.
So Kitchie, you’re forgiven.
And where’s the stalking part as mentioned in my title?
The stalking part happened last year in January 2005 in Cebu. I was in Cebu with my office-mates Noel and Erwin helping our regional office in their participation at the Sinulog. Now, whenever Sinulog Week rolls in, all the bands in Metro Manila troop to Cebu for performances. It just seemed as though every night during that week there were 2 to 3 gigs happening all over Cebu City.
We happened to catch the gig by Kitchie Nadal at an open resto grill near Ayala Center Cebu and we were awed by the stage presence of that rock chick. With a guitar that was almost as long as she was tall, she gave a crowd of around 200 to 300 people a delightful rock show. This girl could rock!
She was not even that popular yet as the Korea-novela where her single was used was still in its early run so not a lot of people knew her. The 200 or so in the venue (excluding us) were there because they had free tickets, were sold-out of the MYMP tickets and had no choice but to watch this one, were sponsors or organizers, or were brought along by the few fanatics of the rock diva.
And now here’s the stalking part.
After the show, Kitchie and her band accommodated some autographs. What I think was supposed to be a 20 minute after-show signing became an hour long event. Kitchie’s CDs (which were sold at the venue) were gobbled up in an instant. Noel was one of those who bought a CD and took the time to line-up and wait for his turn.
When he finished, none of three wanted to go back to the hotel. We stationed ourselves about five meters in front of the stage where Kitchie was signing CDs and stuff and just ogled. She saw us, I believe, as we were standing right in front of her. Minutes later, we moved to within 3 meters and were just in front of the edge of the stage. I think she got spooked because we were still there even after Noel got his CD signed. Her eyes bulged a bit but her smile didn’t waver.
After about 45 minutes, Kitchie’s manager got her talent up and proceeded to leave. They were met at the side of stage by a deluge of fans and a standing-up impromptu autograph signing happened there and then. Once again, we were there, no more than 3 meters away and once again, she was spooked because she saw the three of us again.
In all honesty, we were NOT stalking her. We just wanted to bath in her beauty as this was probably one of the few times in our lives that we were just inches away from someone who will shoot to stardom … and a pretty one at that.
When it got boring standing and ogling, we decided it was time to leave and so we proceeded to the exit. However, the number of people spilling from the venue was so great that we decided to put off finding a cab back to our hotel until a majority had left. So we stood by a tree somewhere along the street where cars were parked.
As luck would have it, Kitchie and her entourage emerged from a back-way of the venue. Apparently, her service vehicle was parked along that street. I think she noticed us again, the three of us, but because of the darkness in the area, I didn’t see if she got spooked again. It was easy to tell the three of us – one guy was clean-shaven and trendy; another was tall, rugged and sported a pony tail; and the third guy was fat (guess who?).
When her vehicle left, the three of us were laughing because of the situation and weird gimmick we enjoyed that night.
Visit Kitchie Nadal at her official website.
