Once more, with feelings

Once again I was present at the Eraserheads reunion concert. It was held last Saturday, March 7 at SM MOA concert grounds and was attended by an estimated 100,000 fans.

How do you like our new house? The 'Heads perform acoustic. Photo by: Dan&Neva

This concert wasn’t as surreal as the first one – that it started with spine-tingling “Alapaap” and that it ended with shocking news that front man Ely had to be rushed to the hospital right after the first set – there was none of that drama. If anything, “The Final Set”, as what the concert was called, was more relaxed and full of fun surprises. When the concert started with a fast song, “Magasin”, we all knew this one was going to be different. And it was. Ely was more engaged with the audience, he responded “kayo muna” when we shouted “group hug!” and when a man from the audience shouted “I love you Ely!” as Ely was singing the lounge version of “Kailan” Ely responded, “I love you too, pare”. More than that they showed how unpredictable they still could be as they were 10 years ago. They changed some of their lyrics, in “Magasin”: “ngunit pangit ka pa no’n…hanggang ngayon”. And in the already naughty “Pare Ko”, they added more, well naughty lyrics: “sabi nya, ayaw pa nyang mag-asawa, dehins ako naniwala…ayun pala, magaling lang sha sa kama…akala ko ay dehins pa.” That got us, the crowd, screaming.

Ely in excelsis: confetti showered upon the stage and on the crowd as the band played "Ang Huling El Bimbo." Photo by: ikissfootball

There were other moments during the concert that got us cheering and screaming like mad: Raymund standing next to Ely as they listened to us sing-along to “SloMo”, Marcus singing the reggae version of “Wag Mo Nang Itanong”, and at that part where Ely had us chant “Francis!” before he sang the chorus of “Kaleidoscope World” for his dearly departed friend FrancisM. If I may be candid, sometime while Ely was singing “Pare Ko” I started to cry. The song was sad in itself, and I was feeling nostalgic: here is the band that made songs that had become part of my teenage years. It felt a lot like saying goodbye and I wasn’t ready yet.

Thank you Ely, Raymund, Marcus, and Buddy for the 2 reunion concerts, for performing one last time as a band and for playing the songs we all loved. Those nights would never be forgotten.

Group Hug: We are the Eraserheads. Photo by Dan & Neva