October 2, 2012
I have been passing up concerts since the moment I decided
that I wanted to save for one. Back in 2009 when I heard that Incubus was going
to perform in Manila, I remembered shrieking for joy and giggling like a
girly-girl out of elation. Incubus, for me, tops all. I mean, surely, some
might protest but this is my blog. My opinion. So suck it. I know all their
albums, songs and events. I would admit that I have fallen from my duties
lately. I have not been updated with their new album and gigs but I’m currently
getting back on that. Since the enlightening sound cocktail of 2010 and 2011 (I
call it that because I spent those years looking for new sounds and I was kind-of
listening with an “open mind”, whatever that meant), I, in a way, slowly
drifted off into new things. Of course, I still had Incubus at heart… always.
But Incubus isn’t just the band I enjoy listening to,
there’s Kings of Leon, The Fray, Good Charlotte, The Kooks, Young the Giant and,
of course, Keane. (These are just a few of the male bands that I like. The list
is endless.) I first heard of Keane back in 2006. I was watching Grey’s Anatomy
and their song, Somewhere Only We Know, was used as background music in one of
the scenes.
Scene from Grey's Anatomy Season 1.
I fell in love with it instantly. There must be something
about the lyrics that caught my attention.
“Is this the place we used to love? Is this the place that
I’ve been dreaming of?...” I guess that was it.
When it came to music, it was always the lyrics for me. The
beat would come in second. And Keane had this way of writing lyrics and adding
that with a nice refreshing tune and I could just get their song stuck in my
head for days. Honestly, I didn’t care if it did. I would have that rather than
have a Justin Bieber or Carly Rae Jepsen song on my head. No
offense to the fans. Just not my type of music. It was after a week of
Somewhere Only We Know singing repeated inside my head that I downloaded their
first album, Hopes and Fears. And ever since, I have been hooked, constantly
drugged by their lyrics and taken up high with their tune.
The news of their concert, Strangeland, had not yet reached
my ears until three weeks ago. I was busy with exams and planning my
moving-out-of-the-apartment when a friend told me that she was going to buy
tickets for the concert. I had apprehensions, of course, such as how much would
a ticket cost, when would the concert be (because I have exams) and where were
we going to stay after the concert. But deep in my subconscious, I knew. I
badly wanted to go. And as I thought it through, it dawned on me. This is my
last year. In a month, I’m moving out of my apartment – out of the academic
life and into the real world. The real world. Sends shiver down my spine. I’ll
figure that one later. Anyways… I had my mind already set. I will go to the
concert no matter what. (And I proved that in a way. See blog: The revel of the
rain and the discovery of self-cleaning shoes.)
We arrived two and a half hours early at the venue. In that
span of time, we ate at food stalls and walked around the Mall of Asia. During
the walk, I noticed a new attraction down by the bay. They called it the MOA-i
(if I’m correct). It was a huge Ferris wheel with white round compartments big
enough for 4 to 6 people. (I would like to ride it…someday.) We had mainly
circled, maybe 1/5, of the MOA grounds when we decided to go back with our
friends who haven’t finished eating yet. Light banter here and there and a few
more minutes of walking and then it was concert time.
We got inside the arena and found ourselves at the end of a
very long line. What did we expect in the general admission? We did not care,
though. We were too excited to think about the line.
Ten minutes later, we were ushered to our seats which turned
out to be a funny event. See, my friends and I got really confused with the
instructions that the usher told us that when we finally arrived at the ground
we found ourselves lining up at the patron’s entrance. I was really nervous
because, for the obvious reason, we did not pay for patron. We paid for general
admission – the opposite of patron. When we got our seats, I kept looking left
and right, thinking that any moment a bouncer would grab us by the collar and
drag us to the door. Very unlady-like. Very scary. The idea made me very anxious.
I was nursing the anxiety for 30 minutes until the lights finally went out. All
at once, the anxiety just went away.
My friend knew the set-list that Keane was going to play.
I’m going to be honest. I don’t know most of the lyrics to
these songs except those that came from Hopes and Fears and Stop for a Minute
(which is stuck in my head at this very moment). I have never shouted so loud
my life. I took a video of the concert and I could hear myself screaming at the
top of my voice. I sounded deranged but ecstatic, nonetheless. I know I should
feel a tinge of embarrassment. I mean, that’s what every normal human being
should feel after discovering something unusual in their behaviour. But I
don’t. The sensation when I was lost in the blinking colored lights, the
pulsing up-beat music and the crisp enchanting voice of Tom Chaplin (Dear Tom,
I want to meet you in person and thank you for creating and singing songs such
as these) was intoxicatingly good that I don’t feel ashamed about the yelling
and the giggling and the whatever I did in the concert.
Bottom line, it was very liberating and I plan on attending
their next concert whenever they’re going to have it. And this time, I would
know every single word of every single song that they are going to sing. That I
guarantee.
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