Every Friday and Saturday, Bob Marlin Restaurant serves up some local reggae. Our house band plays its signature raw yet steady rastacoustic sound that has earned them quite a following of regular customers yearning for a local Bicol Reggae music.

Bob Marlin Restaurant: Reggae Beginnings

Bob Marlin Restaurant got its start as a small tiki bar with a bamboo stage, a place that played reggae music. In 2004, our choice of reggae music must’ve seemed odd for that was the year of Paolo Santos. His music was so in vogue almost all the bars played it. It was either that or house music. It wasn’t that we did not like it, but the punk in us wanted individuality. Besides, we thought, if we failed, what have we got to lose?

We wanted a place that’ll play mostly reggae. And yes, there will be occasional live music. In fact I still remember that during our opening night, we had two bands: Sabado Party Road and Mudflow.

Sabado Party Road was a project band of our good friend, Philip. They played mostly blues-flavored reggae. A unique sound even today, I still remember how they rocked the crowd with their ‘Waiting in Vain’ on slide guitar.

The second band was Mudflow from Albay. They were running late and the crowd at that time was slowly becoming thicker. Finally, when they showed up in an overcrowded tricycle, we knew there was no way they could still do a sound check. So lugging their instruments onstage, they immediately plugged in and went straight from tuning to the first chords of ‘Exodus’. The crowd was pleasantly surprised. The sound was something new for them. Then they started dancing. Yeah, it was danceable, and it wasn’t house or R&B.

That was over ten years ago. Since then, the likes of Tropical Depression, Coco Jam and Noel Cabangon have performed at Bob Marlin Restaurant. And during all those gigs, it has always been the same story – the crowd is laidback, relaxed and carefree.

Reggae Tradition Continues at Bob Marlin

As the local reggae band goes on stage for their second set, more people start coming. Some are new, but most are familiar faces. The regulars. They might’ve gained a bit more weight. Some went from wearing flip-flops to laced-up Oxfords, but they remain the pioneering Bob Marlin Restaurant regulars, who are here not to see or to be seen but for the food, drinks and the music – the reggae music.