But i really love to go on that concert. It's only a stones throw away from our house. And I can resist Pupil. I miss seeing them perform especially Ely. In the first place, I thought my cousin will join me. She's a Bamboo fanatic and I'm a Pupil lister. See! That concert was meant for us. Though she didn't make it because her father didn't allow her to go. Then a week before the concert, I'd finally know how to get a ticket. A lister said I can buy a ticket on the venue itself. It's a seated-concert and a ticket has a certain seat and row number, which means a first-come-first-serve policy. So I hurdled and got a ticket 4 days before the concert. It was my first time to go in Balibago, particularly in Grand square stadium. Thanks to a few friend who gave me the direction. I'd discover another place again. Am I really not excited?
Pass forward to the day, April 17. I left our house at quarter to 6pm. I brought with me my Repeat While Fading book. No one knows maybe I can meet-and-greet them. Hope so. I arrived at the stadium at quarter to 7pm. There was already a queue of concert goers headed to the entrance door. i was looking for some familiar faces but I failed. "I'm so lonely...", pity myself. Actually, a lister would eventually come. She was just late. the security let us in at &:30 pm. I headed to the comfort room first, then went to the platinum area. it was the closest are to the stage. My ticket said D-12. My seat was quite near to the stage. The venue is obviously new. If I'm not mistaken, that concert was the first to be held on that venue. The stage was bombarded with a lot of lights. This better be good.
Then came the soul-sucking wait. If there's anything to complain in their venue, it will be the ventilation. It was so damn hot! It was not yet starting but I felt like a gas stove was in front of me. I planned for an escape route as Ma'am Day (manager of Pupil) said that the Pupil set will eventually start at 9pm. So what I will do for an hour? Though I don't wanna loose my "comfort zone" on my chair. So i just sit while tweaking my phone for photography purpose. *sigh How I wish my digicam is already in my hand.
As always, I met a new friend. She's also a Pupil lister. I would later jam with her and finished the concert. It was already 8pm and still no sign of Pupil or even a host. So I spent my time exchanging talks with her. I didn't expect i will jive with her cause I had this first impression of her being a sosyalera. She wore a dress that night. But I have to say i like her personality and I hope we'll be good friends.
8:30pm, the sound check begun! Yey! I already saw the silhouette of Glenn (road manager) and his "mahangin ba sa labas" hairdo, a renaissance of Edward scissor hands. My stomach grumbled as the crowd started to be massive. I went to their food stand. WTF! The foods and drinks are overpriced. Now i know why they don't allow foods and drinks inside the premises---to push foolish concert goers to but their edible products. We have no choice. If I won't eat or at least drink, maybe I'll falter in the middle of head-banging people.
9pm, there was still no sign of Pupil. I started to became impatient and at the same time disappointed. What more for those who are not as big fan as I am. Those who didn't know how to accept inconvenience(s) of their not-so favorite band. There were some morons who will abruptly shout and jeer for foolishness. Add up the corny punch lines of the hosts and the supposedly 8pm-start-of-the-show imposed on ticket and posters. It looked like I wanna walk out. That was not good. What took them so long? Was it because of the traffic in Olivarez?lols.
9:15pm. Ho and behold!---Pupil came! Woosh, that was close. I saw in Yani's reaction that "finally!" proposition corresponding to the audience. So their set started with Different Worlds as the line invites, "This is the opening of the show". Disconnection Notice was next. That was unusual, In all gigs i attended, they had put that song in the middle or epilogue part of the set. another oddity was the way Ely performed. I could say he was not in the mood that night. He was even neither smiling nor commanding the audience, "kayo!" with that two pinted hands signal. What happened? And there was a time I felt apprenhensive for Ely. There was a thought of me that may be he was sick then again. NO! Good thing just was a thought and the history didn't repeat itself that night (Remember, Ely had his first heart attack right after a Laguna gig).
Anyway, yani saved the night the again and briught up the mood on us with the suggestion of "yung mga matitibay ang tuhod pwede kayong lumapit". So wasting no time, I hurdled near the stage with my profound friend. Okay, forget what I said. We still rocked that night. And everybody was having a good time. From then on, the mob started the chant of "Ely! Ely! Ely!". now I knew what Dok talked about on what usually happens on their out of town gigs. Ely answered back with a chant of "Sta.Rosa! Sta.Rosa!" with his deadpan facade.
Then while Pupil performed "all this time" a shocking scene caught our attention. In the wings of the stage we saw "someone" crying (sorry, but I don't want to reveal his/her identity here) but not actually mourning. As she/he cheered and sung, she/he would eventually wiped her/his tears. That made me bothered at the same time curioused. Anyway, this would be another story.
Pupil did also a cover of Alice Cooper's I Never Cry. I became so surreal. I can't help myself but to gigled while Ely sung with all emotion. That performance was so heartfelt. The lyrics was so infernal. It was like a virus that clinged on me but it didn't actually made me sick. I super love it! It's officially my LSS song of the week.
The set ended up with Pare Ko. Waaa! another first time for me. The crowd went wild! It was like a Final Set Part 2. With the crowd shamelessly shout the cuss word "T*ng In*!" I could say that performance was just a jumpstart. Pupil leave without any word and made the crowd asked for more. But look like they were in a hurry.
We went away to the concert pit to breathe some air. Woosh! That was the first gig that made me sweat. I thought I'm gonna collapse. So while they were preparing for Bamboo's set, I bonded with listers and share some photos and videos. Then to our disbelief, we saw Dok and Ms.Ana behind the platinum area. In the first place, we were so awkward to asked for a picture because they were so sweet, with thier heads on the shoulder of another. Ahhhh. But sorry, we didn't loose the opportunity and found a good timing to apparently disturb them, hehe. This was my conversation with Dok:
Me: pwede magpapicture?
Dok: Sure
Ana: sige beh, kukuhanan ko kayo.
*picture
Me: ahh, Dok si Ely nasaan?
Dok: Naku wag niyo na hanapin yun. Di na lalabas yun.
Me: Sabagay. Ahh sige po, thank you and sorry sa isturbo.
Dok: Sige
But we didn't loose hope. we went beside the stage, near the wing. We were on the possibility that we can spot Ely backstage and asked for a picture. I texted Ma'am Day and asked if we could go backstage and take some pictures with Pupil. But as I expected, she didn't reply.
The Bamboo set started after 20 minutes. One of my accompany lister went home with her sister-in-law. May be she is not a fam of Bamboo. Hey, we're not fans of Bamboo either. But we made out of the most of our P350 ticket. We found ourselves enjoying Bamboo's performance. They did 4 covers of Rivermaya's songs. i never knew that Bamboo Manalac is so laidback when it comes to singing his former band's hits. The flame thrower, the confettis, and the pyrotechnic made Bamboo's set extra special compare to Pupil's. So was it a Bamboo concert? And Pupil was only a front act? WTF! It was so unfair. They said it was a back-to-back concert and not Bamboo's show. Was there any favoritism happened? Well, obviously, YES!
Okie forget my naysay with their concept. I went home at 12am with my back and my feet aching. Compare to normal gigs, it was still early. Anyway, the bottomline is I enjoy it. At least I crossover to other band's performance for a while. Though I'm a little bit disappointed that we didn't catch up Ely for a picture. That's ok. Recently, I predicted why Ely was gloomy that night. but sorry guys I don't want to blurted out it here.
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