Pinoy music history was made on March 7, 2009 at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds with the Eraserheads: The Final Set concert. And I'm happy that J and I were among the 100,000 or so who were part of the momentous experience.
I wore my Sex & The City t-shirt (it's a t-shirt event), my skinny jeans and my silver studded ballet flats. J wore a black tee, military pants, his Samba, and a Levi's trucker jacket with safety pins (a punk subculture thing).
Thanks to GL, we had free VIP-section tickets. We arrived in SM MOA around 7pm so we had time to grab a quick bite at The Big City – a hotdog joint. The posters claimed they were serving imported hotdogs – “ala-New York?” I haven't been to New York but watching too much Discovery Travel & Living – including a mouth-watering, sumptuous feature on US Hotdogs – had me excited! But one's up for major disappointment whenever one sets her expectations high, too high.
We each had bratwurst on a bun with relish, with fries & onion rings, plus iced tea (each meal costs Php120). Sounds like a good hotdog treat, right? Wrong. It tasted so ordinary. I would have been happier with a Purefoods hotdog on stick / on a bun. The deli suasages we buy from the grocery was way tastier. The relish (what relish?!) was almost non-existent. The fries were too soggy. The onion rings looked sorry – too thin (Burger King as the minimum standard). My rating: Laman-tiyan.
Good thing there was the concert to look forward to.
We got in the concert grounds past 8pm. We found a spot near the VIP area's disabled platform , around 150 feet away from the stage (we didn't mind). J considered my safety – he knew I was not a pro at open-air, huge crowd, standing-only rock concerts. He made sure we were near the First Aid Tent.
From “Magasin” to “Huling El Bimbo” (we left after that, we thought it was the last song), we had a blast. The concert was a celebration of Pinoy music, a trip down memory lane, a shared musical experience among generations, a tribute to Francis M, a date J and I enjoyed. We sang with the Eheads and the crowd. We screamed for more. We danced – well, actually I danced with J hugging me from behind. All throughout the Final Set, we also worried about Ely Buendia – will he survive the show? Thank God he did.
The first concert J and I saw was Julia Fordham's (PICC 2000). He was still courting me then. That date was kilig. The Eheads: The Final Set date was rockin'!
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P.S. from my Hubby J:
J's (rear) entry...considering I'm just riding doggie back, er, piggy back on this blog entry.
This is the end. Or so they say. Despite vastly improving their technical skills as individual musicians, as a group, the Eraserheads still sounded every bit (and beat) like the garage band that they were in the early 90s. With this farewell concert, The Final Set, I think they pretty much ended they way they started – with a bad live performance. At least that is how I remember them, maybe 15 years ago, as virtual unknowns auditioning for regular gigs (or at least to play for pay in between sets of regular band performances) at 70s Bistro, a hole in the wall bar, where I was sitting in a table, a spitting distance from the non-existent stage, forced to listen to Ely's bad singing voice and the bad acoustic play from the rest of the band. It's been long since I've rocked the night away, but here I was, doing it in duet with my wife, on a pair of freebie concert tickets, listening and humming along Ely's bad singing voice and the bad acoustic play from the rest of the band, 'til the Eheads sang their final encore. But between the many sets that came between that distant desolate date and this Final Set, I guess nothing and everything has changed – with the band, with me, and with all of us.
I wore my Sex & The City t-shirt (it's a t-shirt event), my skinny jeans and my silver studded ballet flats. J wore a black tee, military pants, his Samba, and a Levi's trucker jacket with safety pins (a punk subculture thing).
Thanks to GL, we had free VIP-section tickets. We arrived in SM MOA around 7pm so we had time to grab a quick bite at The Big City – a hotdog joint. The posters claimed they were serving imported hotdogs – “ala-New York?” I haven't been to New York but watching too much Discovery Travel & Living – including a mouth-watering, sumptuous feature on US Hotdogs – had me excited! But one's up for major disappointment whenever one sets her expectations high, too high.
We each had bratwurst on a bun with relish, with fries & onion rings, plus iced tea (each meal costs Php120). Sounds like a good hotdog treat, right? Wrong. It tasted so ordinary. I would have been happier with a Purefoods hotdog on stick / on a bun. The deli suasages we buy from the grocery was way tastier. The relish (what relish?!) was almost non-existent. The fries were too soggy. The onion rings looked sorry – too thin (Burger King as the minimum standard). My rating: Laman-tiyan.
Good thing there was the concert to look forward to.
We got in the concert grounds past 8pm. We found a spot near the VIP area's disabled platform , around 150 feet away from the stage (we didn't mind). J considered my safety – he knew I was not a pro at open-air, huge crowd, standing-only rock concerts. He made sure we were near the First Aid Tent.
From “Magasin” to “Huling El Bimbo” (we left after that, we thought it was the last song), we had a blast. The concert was a celebration of Pinoy music, a trip down memory lane, a shared musical experience among generations, a tribute to Francis M, a date J and I enjoyed. We sang with the Eheads and the crowd. We screamed for more. We danced – well, actually I danced with J hugging me from behind. All throughout the Final Set, we also worried about Ely Buendia – will he survive the show? Thank God he did.
The first concert J and I saw was Julia Fordham's (PICC 2000). He was still courting me then. That date was kilig. The Eheads: The Final Set date was rockin'!
---
P.S. from my Hubby J:
J's (rear) entry...considering I'm just riding doggie back, er, piggy back on this blog entry.
This is the end. Or so they say. Despite vastly improving their technical skills as individual musicians, as a group, the Eraserheads still sounded every bit (and beat) like the garage band that they were in the early 90s. With this farewell concert, The Final Set, I think they pretty much ended they way they started – with a bad live performance. At least that is how I remember them, maybe 15 years ago, as virtual unknowns auditioning for regular gigs (or at least to play for pay in between sets of regular band performances) at 70s Bistro, a hole in the wall bar, where I was sitting in a table, a spitting distance from the non-existent stage, forced to listen to Ely's bad singing voice and the bad acoustic play from the rest of the band. It's been long since I've rocked the night away, but here I was, doing it in duet with my wife, on a pair of freebie concert tickets, listening and humming along Ely's bad singing voice and the bad acoustic play from the rest of the band, 'til the Eheads sang their final encore. But between the many sets that came between that distant desolate date and this Final Set, I guess nothing and everything has changed – with the band, with me, and with all of us.
**Photo of SATC shirt & tickets: Taken by me
