My wife and I arrived at the Mall of Asia at around 7pm and there were lots of people everywhere. Like ourselves, most of the people were there to watch the Eraserheads Live! The Final Set concert. As expected, the MOA parking areas were already full. Luckily, we managed to park in the SMX basement which was still relatively vacant. When we arrived, we just bought a quick take out dinner from Burger King and Auntie Anne's and immediately headed to the concert grounds...
Minutes before 8pm, Magic 89.9 DJ Andi-9 and Anne Curtis were joined by two other hosts I don't recognize, and opened the event by talking about the concert and its sponsors. Several minutes later, the live projector screens were playing MTV commercials and old features on the Eraserheads. They showed some old interviews about when the Eraserheads were formed, to when they had a series of hits, to when they received numerous awards including the MTV best music video for Asia.
After several more minutes, the screen counted down backwards from the letter 'Z' to 'E' (as in Eraserheads). Then, fireworks lighted up the stage and the Eraserheads played their first song Magasin. The crowd went wild, dancing and jumping to the fast beat of the music played by the best band of our generation. The songs kept on coming with Walang Nagbago and Maling Akala which Ely asked the audience to "name that tune".
The next songs were heavy rocking with Maskara, Poor Man's Grave and Waiting for the Bus. Then we were treated with a light and funny reggae rendition of Wag Mo Nang Itanong sung by Marcus Adoro. It was really funny because Marcus was singing playfully to the song. Then, the next three songs were sung by Raimund Marasigan: Slo Mo, Alkohol and Insomnia, which were the perfect songs for Raimund to sing given his energy and shouting voice. The last song was Torpedo before they took a short break.
Coming off from the break, the Eraserheads started playing laid back acoustic versions of Julie Tearjerky, Tikman ang Langit, Wishing Wells and Fine Time. The stage setup was complete with sofa and Ely asked if we liked their new house. Then they introduced their next song as "from the 70's..." The crowd screamed loudly when they heard the opening chords of Pare Ko.
Next, Ely sang Kailan solo with only a piano in the background, while the rest of the band prepares to go back to their electric guitars. The next songs played were Back2Me, Trip to Jerusalem, Spoliarium and Overdrive before they went for another short break. By this time they already played 21 songs and we were already very happy to have experienced the show.
Then we can hear Ely shouting "Francis! Francis!" and they kicked off the rest of the show with one of my favorite songs, Super Proxy. Too bad that Francis Magalona's death due to cancer happened at a tragic time, just the day before the concert. They said the day before that Francis Magalona was supposed to have a surprise number with them. By the way the crowd reacted, I can say that Francis Magalona really had a lot of supporters attending the concert. Long live Francism!
The band continued with their most sentimental tunes. Minsan was about a song about past friendships and I kept on thinking that this song is how we should remember the Eraserheads as a group. They started as friends in UP Diliman and even if they are moving on with their separate lives, they always have each other's friendship to come back to.
Next to be played was Alapaap, another beautiful song about getting "high". This song is also special to me because I was with my future wife when Ely sang this song in the UP Fair 10 years ago. It made me think of all the memories I had when I was in UP.
After Alapaap, they played the chorus of Kaleidoscope World. Kaleidoscope world is Francis Magalona's song about respecting other people's differences. Everybody was clapping as we all pay our final respects to the Master Rapper.
The last song of the concert was, of course, Ang Huling El Bimbo. Ely asked everyone to sing along to the last song to be performed by live the band Eraserheads. I embraced my wife while singing and dancing to the song and watching the fireworks display. The moment almost brought me to tears.
After we left the venue, we heard Raimund talking to the audience. He was asking the people "gusto nyo pa? tawagin nyo si Marcus..." We rushed back to the venue when we realized there was going to be an encore. Ely was there and the Eraserheads played 3 more for the road! Everybody was now in a party mood as we dance to the extra songs in celebration of the successful concert that happened. They played Ligaya, Sembreak and Toyang; Ely even went down from the stage to the audience and he let the people sing to Toyang.
It was really a memorable event for me and my wife. I would again like to thank Magic 89.9 for giving us the free tickets. Until the next concert!
The Eraserheads Live! The Final Set concert had a total of 29 songs:
1. Magasin
2. Walang Nagbago
3. Maling Akala
4. Maskara
5. Poor Man's Grave
6. Waitng for the Bus
7. Wag Mo Nang Itanong
8. Slo Mo
9. Alkohol
10. Insomnia
11. Torpedo
12. Julie Tearjerky
13. Tikman ang Langit
14. Wishing Wells
15. Fine Time
16. Pare Ko
17. Kailan
18. Back2Me
19. Trip to Jerusalem
20. Spoliarium
21. Overdrive
22. Super Proxy
23. Minsan
24. Alapaap
25. Kaleidoscope World
26. Ang Huling El Bimbo
27. Ligaya
28. Sembreak
29. Toyang
Update: I will be posting pictures coming from my friend who attended the concert from the VIP section.
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