If you've ever fallen down a YouTube rabbit hole of old Eraserheads clips and stumbled on a band called Ultracombo, you've probably had a lot of questions. Is this a new band? A tribute act? A side hustle? Are Ely, Buddy, Marcus, and Raymund all in it?
Find a comfy seat, my friend.
Because we're about to walk you through everything — the name, the history, the members, the low-key gigs, and how this "just for fun" project quietly paved the way for one of the biggest concerts the Philippines has ever seen.
By the end of this, you'll know Ultracombo better than most Eraserheads fans do.
So, What Exactly Is Ultracombo?
Ultracombo is a side project formed by members of the Eraserheads — the band most Filipinos will tell you is the closest thing the country has to "the Beatles of the Philippines."
At its core, and for most of its existence, Ultracombo has really been about two people: Raymund Marasigan (Eraserheads' drummer, also known for Sandwich and a handful of other bands) and Buddy Zabala (Eraserheads' bassist, also of Hilera and Moonstar88).
At various points, guitarist Marcus Adoro joined them too, turning the duo into a trio for a few notable shows.
Think of Ultracombo as the low-pressure, no-expectations version of the Eraserheads. No corporate sponsors breathing down their necks, no decades-long fan anticipation to live up to — just old friends getting on a stage (or, during the pandemic, into their living rooms) and playing the songs that made them legends in the first place.
Wait, Where Does the Name "Ultracombo" Come From?
This is the fun trivia part, and it's honestly a clever mashup once you know the pieces.
"Ultracombo" is a portmanteau — a smoosh of two very meaningful pieces of Eraserheads history:
"Ultra" comes from Ultraelectromagneticpop!, the Eraserheads' groundbreaking 1993 debut album. This is the record that basically kicked off the modern OPM (Original Pilipino Music) alternative rock explosion. It's the album with "Ang Huling El Bimbo," "Pare Ko," and "Toyang" — the songs your parents (or you, depending on your age) grew up singing at every karaoke session.
"Combo" comes from "Combo on the Run," a deep-cut track from their second album, Circus — the record that brought us “With a Smile,” “Magasin,” and “Alapaap.”
Mash those two references together, and you get Ultracombo — a name that's basically a love letter to where it all began.
It's a small detail, but it tells you everything about how this project was built: not as a rebrand or a "new era," but as a wink back to their roots.
And here's a fun full-circle moment: "Combo on the Run" didn't just lend its name to this side project — it later became the title of the Eraserheads' own cinema documentary. More on that below.
The Early Days: Low-Key Gigs and Inside Jokes
Ultracombo wasn't launched with a press release or a grand plan. It grew organically out of Buddy and Raymund's ongoing friendship and musical partnership, which had continued quietly for years even during periods when the full Eraserheads reunion talk had gone cold.
Some of the moments that put Ultracombo on fans' radar:
January 2018:
January 2019:
2020, During the Pandemic:
None of these were "official" Eraserheads reunions. No Ely — who was also busy and active with his own band Apartel at that time, no full-band branding, no massive production. That was the whole point — Ultracombo let two (sometimes three) of the guys keep the music alive on their own terms, without the weight of the entire Eraserheads legacy riding on every show.
The Real Legacy: How Ultracombo Helped Pave the Way to a Historic Reunion
Here's where Ultracombo's story gets genuinely important, not just cute trivia.
For years, a full Eraserheads reunion felt like a pipe dream. The band members have been candid over the years about not always getting along — there were periods where the four of them barely spoke. But Ultracombo quietly kept the door open.
By having Buddy and Raymund performing Eraserheads songs together regularly, in low-stakes settings, it kept the muscle memory — and the public appetite — alive.
It reminded fans (and probably reminded the band members themselves) that these songs still meant something, and that playing them together still felt good.
That slow-burning momentum eventually erupted into something massive: the "Huling El Bimbo" reunion concert on December 22, 2022, held at the SMDC Festival Grounds in Parañaque City.
This time, it wasn't just Buddy and Raymund — it was the full original lineup: Ely Buendia, Raymund Marasigan, Buddy Zabala, and Marcus Adoro, together on one stage.
And it wasn't a small show. It's widely regarded as the most successful concert in Philippine history, drawing an estimated 75,000 people to a single-night, three-hour spectacle.
The band played a 31-song setlist that opened with "Superproxy," featured a holographic tribute to the late rap icon Francis M (joined onstage by his real-life sons Elmo and Arkin Magalona), and brought out guests like Gary Valenciano.
It closed, fittingly, with fireworks during "Ang Huling El Bimbo" — the song the whole concert was named after.
Following that historic night, the Eraserheads went on to tour the US and Canada in 2023, and the reunion concert setlist was eventually released as a live album, Huling El Bimbo (Live at 2022 the Eraserheads Reunion Concert), in March 2024.
Without Ultracombo quietly keeping the flame lit for years beforehand, it's fair to wonder whether that reunion would have happened at all — or whether it would have taken even longer to get there.
"Combo on the Run": The Documentary That Came Full Circle
Remember how we mentioned that "Combo on the Run" was originally just a deep-cut song from Ultraelectromagneticpop!? Well, the title made a comeback in a big way.
Eraserheads: Combo on the Run is a 2025 Philippine documentary film that chronicles the story behind that historic December 2022 reunion concert, along with the band's broader history. A few key details:
- The trailer premiered internationally at San Diego Comic-Con 2024.
- It hit Philippine theaters on March 21, 2025, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
- It's directed by Maria Diane Ventura (Ely’s ex-wife), and features all four original Eraserheads members — Ely Buendia, Raymund Marasigan, Marcus Adoro, and Buddy Zabala.
- Per its own publicity, the film frames the band as "an unlikely group of disbanded punks who reunited in 2022 during a time of political upheaval and provided reprieve to a country in the face of uncertainty."
- It's actually the third documentary made about the Eraserheads — but the first to focus specifically on the 2022 reunion and everything that led up to it.
So, in a neat bit of symmetry: a deep-cut song title first got recycled into a scrappy little side-project name (Ultracombo), and years later, that same song title became the name of a proper cinema documentary about the very reunion that side project helped set in motion.
So... What's Next for Ultracombo?
This is probably the question you actually clicked on this article to answer: is Ultracombo still a thing?
Honestly, it's complicated — in a good way. Now that the Eraserheads have fully reunited, toured internationally, released a live album from the 2022 show, and had their story immortalized in a Warner Bros.-distributed documentary, the need for a separate side project to keep the music alive has largely disappeared. The main event is back.
That doesn't necessarily mean Ultracombo is dead, though. Given its history, it seems most likely that
No press releases, no world tours — just two old friends, a couple of guitars, and the songs that started it all.
And honestly? That feels like exactly what Ultracombo was always meant to be.
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