The Final Set

Nearly 48 hours had passed. Still basking in the afterglow of that glorious night Pinoy rock legends reunited. Raymond. Marcus. Buddy. Ely. The Eraserheads. I was grateful to be part of a history. The first and what could possibly be the last time that I witnessed The Eraserheads perform live.

More than an hour stuck in traffic from EDSA to Mall of Asia. I stepped out of the bus half an hour before the scheduled start of the show. Took me 15 minutes to find the x-mark on that jungle of a mall. By the time I turned on the last corner, a huge flux of people were going the same direction. Found my entrance for Silver-A tickets. Entered the venue and wished I had gone with my initial plan to get myself a gold pass.



Man, it was massively congested! My height’s not built to tower amongst the crowd, but I managed to squeeze my small frame into the front row, right behind the railing, and the beer barrel, or whatever you call it. Though we did not have much space as the golds, we, silvers had a different “bonding” experience: faces literally centimeters away from the next one; shared our love for Eheads music, as well as our sweat, stink, and more sweat; and, most importantly, our rage against the tent. That fucked up, annoying, and stupidly located Smart tent.



Though I had a good view of the stage, I had a difficulty seeing the huge monitors right next to it.



So imagine the madness of the viewers further back. They made rude remarks and endless pleads which, oftentimes, were hilarious. And it lasted all throughout the show. Even when Ely asked for any request during the second set of the show, people at the back screamed to have the tent removed. “Tanggalin ang tent! Tanggalin ang tent!” ”Akala ko ba Eraserheads ‘to, eh puro heads lang nakikita ko!” “Kuya, ako na lang magtanggal nyang tent na yan (syempre sabay takbo na sya sa gold area)”. ;-)

With all the standing we had to endure, people showed way too much anticipation for the main event to get started. So when all those four MTV vjs made their intros, boos were echoing from the crowd. I think it mostly came from the bronzes. Then, the boos targeted the only thorn amongst those lovely roses, Sib. Poor Sib. He just had to say his spiels and all he got were resounding boooooooos. He honestly had this look on his face that he was like a grade school kid being bullied and all and was about to cry, turn around, and run away looking for his yaya. But still, he remained professional, and went on like no one’s bitching up on him. As they say, the show must go on. I don’t really know Sib. I barely watched any of his shows even those before he started working for MTV. I know he looks weird and all, but I think he’s a nice weirdo.

Commercials. Reminiscent video. More commercials. And more ranting about people surrounding me and the disgusting and irritating couples on my both sides when I squeezed my way through to the barrier.
Then, the countdown began.

Z…Y…X…W…V…U…T…S…R…Q…P…O…N…M…L…K…J…I…H…G…F…

…and E.

Lights turned on. Fireworks exploded. Sounds amped up. The show finally began.

“Nakita kita sa isang magasin...” were the first words heard from Ely. The band followed it with ‘Maling Akala’. I did not keep a sequential list of all the songs they played, so I will only mention those that had the most impact. I had to video that part when Marcus made his own reggae rendition of ‘Huwag Mo Na’. Kind of reminded me of Tado with a guitar. I think I heard him right when he said “ayoko ng kilay mo”. Towards the end, instead of him singing “huwag mo na”, he sang “di ko sasabihin sa ‘yo”. LOL.

They started the second set with acoustics, reminiscent of Nirvana Unplugged. Then, they performed ‘Overdrive’ after which, Ely bid goodnight then the stage went dark and quiet. Of course audience knew it was not yet the last song. They went back on stage and performed ‘Superproxy’ followed by a fraction of ‘Kaleidoscope World’ as their tribute to Francis M.

Their official finale being the goosebump-inducing performance of ‘Huling El Bimbo’. Towards the end, Ely set a piano ablaze then played it on for a few seconds. Millions of confetti and a fireworks display. The show ended with a big tender group hug. Awww. How I wish for a repeat. But, I read somewhere that Ely signed a contract not to have any performance with his previous bandmates for the next 10 years. That’s awfully long.

So most people aimed for the exit while I was looking for some liquid, not beer, to quench my burning thirst and for some sort of souvenir, a t-shirt perhaps. I noticed some people jumping over the small gap on the railing to the gold area. Hell yeah, I did the same. As I was looking for a drink, I heard whom I thought was Raymond “bitin pa ba kayo?”. Everyone went crazy. Run Julie Run. I was standing in what seemed to be 15 meters ahead of my previous spot. Three for the road. Standing in Gold ticket area. With more participative crowd. It was the best minutes of that night.



“…we’re not too young at all…”

I made my way through the exit and off that jungle with a contented heart. I went in there alone, but I had real fun. \m/


...:::j u l i e:::...