Tender is the Night — Miss Ramonne’s Debut in Hollywood
BY JASON ATLAS
April 25th | 5:12 PM The Hotel Café — Main Stage — Sound Check
Her tenderness is palpable. Miss Ramonne paces the stage, trying her best not to look at the soon-to-be filled audience floor–too much to envision–she couldn’t waste any energy on that; she had to live within the moment. You can see it in her eyes.
She spent the morning swimming laps, trying to match her heart rate. It didn’t help. Instead, she locked in even more to the beat of her soul. When asked how she was feeling the day before the show, Miss Ramonne responded, “This show is a pregnant bitch finally in labor.” She’s been carrying this night for two months. And finally, under all the hot lights and familiar and unfamiliar faces–all veiled in darkness, Miss Ramonne will experience the labor of showtime.
The nerves in her body shock her senses, not due to worries about her capabilities, but because of her unconscious curiosity of how loud this explosion will be when call time arrives. It’s what makes her so much more than a singer. It’s what makes her a sensation.
The sound guy begins the unholy dance of sound check. Let’s hear the kick. Come on, keep going. Alright, now the keys. Where’s the bassist? I’m not hearing anything on your end. I can’t hear the sitar. Move closer. That guitar mix could be better. Oh boy, a sax, hot, hot, too hot, alright, that sounds right.
She locks eyes with her bandmates. Holy Shit, we’re here.
6:32 PM The Hotel Café — Green Room — Doors Open
Meet the band: Thaddeus Demeke (Keys); Thomas Fry (Saxophone); Colin Gotschall (Bass); Royat Alex (Sitar); Max Bosque (Percussion); Timothy Stellar (Guitar).
Miss Ramonne Upcoming LIVE shows:
6/27 — 7/27 — 8/28 > The Hotel Cafe, Hollywood, CA
Under the dim orange light, each one experiences their own conversation with God/Dharma/Sun Ra/Mother. Among them, their partners, close friends, families, and peers from different bands all gathered to crack a joke and remember times elicited by the colors of the chaise lounge and the smell of the wood.
You can hear the doorman begin to let people in. The excited voices, loud and proud, fill the once-quiet building. Brick walls echo a hodgepodge of conversation muted by the doors of the green room.
It’s a tight room, the entourage is significant, and Gotschall sits on the floor, awkwardly turning his head to answer Miss Ramonne when she asks if she’s given him a drink ticket.
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Bosque enters the room in his double-pattern outfit, nearly smacking someone with the door, prompting familiar sitcom tropes.
Alex and Fry, smiles all around, sandwich a former classmate who volunteered to help with live sound engineering.
Demeke sips at his carbonated water with a lemon on the rim and shares how the bartender declined to take the ticket for his drink.
Stellar sits forward, hands held together, the white of his eyes appearing like crescents above his sunglasses, seemingly lost in thought.
Miss Ramonne shares a warm look at her companions. They bring her peace. She could’ve done this alone. She has what it takes, but where’s the fun in that? The most beautiful thing about the night is that she has them beside her. This was a memory shared, not one reminded. They honed their craft by rehearsing for the last three weeks at Invincinal Village.
April 25th, 2024 7:57 PM The Hotel Café — Green to Stage — Showtime
Twenty minutes before, Miss Ramonne had shed her comfortable beige sweater into a bronze monument with a cape. A shiny orange outfit that radiates like a demigoddess of the sun. Her high heels angled her feet as if she were being pulled into space to eclipse Halley’s comet. It pairs well to the red background of The Hotel Café, the warm tones accentuating the fire of the upcoming performance.
Singer-songwriter Grace Maren finishes her opening set and retreats to the green room. She is lost in the tension of Miss Ramonne and her band. It’s nearly time. The rhythm section, Gotschall and Bosque head to stage. Stellar, Demeke and Fry follow soon after. Alex slips into the audience covertly and sits out the first two songs until Miss Ramonne invites him to the stage–where he will play a crooning solo on the sitar causing the entire room to fall silent in awe of the rarely-seen instrument.
The room is packed, and Monners–Miss Ramonne’s fans from her time performing in the Philippines, add to the mass of Hollywood locals who howl as she takes center stage. The tenderness of the night takes a backseat as Stellar revs up the distortion on his Les Paul; Bosque gives the kick and snare an awakening; Gotschall slides his fingers effortlessly on the flatwound strings; Demeke steadies his hands over the keys; Fry clasps the keys of his lustrous saxophone. Each member waits for their signal. Miss Ramonne give them a look and lights the fuse.
Miss Ramonne and her band play six originals and an aptly chosen cover of “Higher Love.” The new arrangement of five previously released songs, sung in English (many of Miss Ramonne’s most popular songs are sung in her native Tagalog), benefits from the live instruments and zestful back and forth of the band. Even though this group of musicians have only been playing as a unit for a brief time, their interactions are nuanced, each player never stepping on the other’s toe. Miss Ramonne leads the band through each song, never missing a beat. Her voice is aggressive as it is honey sweet. She is well-trained and experienced from her many years touring in the Philippines. Her performance is a soulful mix of R&B and jazz, with just the right amount of pop flair.
Another addition of depth to the show is the inclusion of the sitar, deftly played by Royat Alex, a complex sound which hovers between world music and folk twang. It’s a fragile tone that could easily be drowned out by the other instruments, yet it skirts the surface of the mix and ties the band together. It was an incredibly insightful choice of Miss Ramonne to include this instrument for the performance. She wanted to blend traditional sounds with the contemporary genres she typically resides in, revealing Miss Ramonne’s playfulness with her genre. It’s a little of an old thing, a little of a new thing, and a lot of a good thing.
The audience is bombastic; every soul is dancing and hollering. Unfazed by spilled drinks. They are outside of time and look at each other with a grin of pure ecstasy. To quote the father of beat, “Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” This will be the first of many shows to come. Already the audience is asking for more. Another set! Yells someone from the dark. Keep playing! No one wants the night to end.
Miss Ramonne asks again, “Is everyone here ready to party?!” And with a resounding answer, the audience stomps and hops as they yell to Miss Ramonne, yes, yes, they are. Which brings us to the highlight of the set, the unreleased track produced by Thaddeus Demeke: “Hala”, a dynamic song with lyrics combining Tagalog and English. The song is bouncy and playful, creating a space for dance with an unmistakably catchy chorus. The best outcome of testing an unreleased song live: how eager the listener waits for the official release. Which Miss Ramonne and her band obviously succeed in, as the audience loudly request to play it once more for an unplanned encore. This repeat performance attains the intensity of a shooting star, burning and propelling with even more spark as it enters the atmosphere. Later in the night, when the room has cleared and only the dedicated fans linger, they hover over Miss Ramonne hoping to learn the date of the next show. Miss Ramonne smiles, and with a wink she answers them, “Soon darlings, soon.” And thus closes Miss Ramonne’s fiery debut in Hollywood at The Hotel Café.
Bio: Jason Atlas emerges as a nomadic artist, shaped not only by his diverse upbringing across continents but also by the boundless scope of his creativity, weaving a kaleidoscope of cultural and artistic richness.
ZO is excited to welcome Jason as a new Writer, Photographer and our Curator for Venice, CA . . .
