AUTOTOMY

The Philippines is a country of smiles. So why is there a billboard advertising a concert for a band and none of the guys have smiles? They’re scowling. In fact, stuck up there giant-sized, they look mean, thuggish, the kind of guys you wouldn’t want to meet in an alley, much less up the bean stalk. They’re all tattoos and metal bits, as Bruce Cockburn would say. The name of the band is the auditory equivalent of “deluge of noise.” But this is a “praise band,” with songs like, “Thanks Be to God,” and “Let Us Come Before Him in Worship.” Considering all this, the concert is being sponsored by the Philippine equivalent of pepto-bismal.