Laying off writing about that typhoon on purpose because I know every dang blog from this city has nothing better to talk about right now.
As many of you know, I love U2 like no other...band, commodity, idea, etc. on the planet and one of my favorite sources of reading material on them is
C's blog. She just happens to have posted a very thrilling account (you
have to be a fan to
understand) of that fateful day one week ago. All I gotta say is "ugh! I knoooow, I knnnow!" C, my right eye is still twitching.
OK. Now, on to what I've decided to report.
We went to Mall of Asia yesterday. Sunday, payday weekend, one helluva mistake. But because I'm a thoughtful, generous, patient, all around good sister (who's also in serious need of something, anything, worthy to update this blog with), I took my mother and baby bro to see Q (Boy Kuhol aka other brother) play guitar on stage to a dettached, but otherwise appreciative crowd of geeky Architecture kids. I say that with much endearment, mind you.
But first, I needed money. Finding an
online atm machine was extremely difficult because many parts of the city still has no power. What's worse was my own bank had none of theirs running so I had to concede to the transaction fee other banks charge on withdrawals. This is their greed taking over us. It adds up. Banks are evil.
They started at 3 pm and Q's band, called Not to Scale (in case anyone forgets their major), were fifth to go on. I sat through the first four bands playing recent Billboard hits. I notice they're no longer referred to as American Top 40. Lil Casey Kasem must be seething.
Anyway, the groups were all alright, for first-time performers, except for this one group who I believe were only there for lack of anything better to do. Their vocalist slurred and forgot his lines so much he'd make Bono seem obsessive-compulsive. They were quickly and conveniently forgotten seconds after they left the stage.
Q's group were next which was my cue to go on music photographer mode. I've been doing this since '99 and I'd like to think I've learned a few tricks here and there but I doubt if I'll ever turn pro. Digression.
So they plug in, check their mics, amps, instruments, nerves. Check. Their first song was Champagne Supernova (Oasis) and I kind of wondered why they chose that since they had a female vocalist. I think her name is Joyce and I could see from twenty feet away that she was a nervous wreck. Her voice shook a couple of times, the poor kid. She must've been intimidated by the size of the space and crowd watching. Despite her anxiety, the audience loved their number and some were even singing along.
When the first song ended, she rubbed her palms profusely on her hips as they launched into You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette). This time they'd captured the audience. I could see my brother doing his John Mayer impersonation (yes, Honey, other people LOVE John Mayer, too ;)) jutting his head back and forth as they ad-libbed towards the end of the song.
The audience applauded and cheered and I told Q later that he was clearly lapping up all that attention because he stood on stage to just a few seconds longer than the rest of his band. That monster.
Soon after the last band had performed, it was Barbie Almalbis's turn to really shake things up. I knew she was up next as soon as I saw her drummer from '99. When she appeared, a bunch of us stood up and crowded the foot of the stage to take photos and be like giddy fans. For the first time that afternoon, I didn't feel like dozing off. (Hey, the sea breeze was making it too easy)
Then some dorks/premature geriatrics warming their arses kept howling at us to go back to our seats 'cause we were blocking their view. Are they kidding? This is just about the only rock portion of the show, numbskulls. I guess the idiots had limited their musical entertainment to Sam Milby or any of those Starstruck wannabes who lipsynch through cheesy ballads in mall shows. The organizers had no choice but ask us to sit down, or more like squat. I was losing it so I went back to where my mother, baby brother and Ynah were. By this time, Q had joined us in screaming and squealing at Barbie.
She started her set but the mix was way off. There was just no time for sound check. Besides, it was a free show and she's a superstar so who's complaining?
Throughout her four or five song set, Q and I would be jumping and screaming in between stares from the uninitiated. Thankfully, this behavior was also found in other areas of the floor so we weren't necessarily attracting security people.
This other band played after Barbie but the audience had fizzled out noticeably. It was only wise to award the winners. Q's bandmates had left soon after they played because one of them was ill plus they were convinced they weren't really going to take home any prizes anyway.
Well, they were right, in a sense. They weren't there to accept the 3rd Place award, just Q and did he relish the moment. Boy Kuhol was on top of the world. It didn't matter if it were 3rd or 1st place. All he cared about was getting the acknowledgement and I have to say he does deserve it. Unfortunately, I had run out of batteries so I wasn't able to capture his Grammy practice run. Fortunately, their school made up most of the audience so there were plenty of back ups. I did manage to take photos after loading fresh batteries. See, here's one of the actual award and of Q with his number one fan. Aww. That's Ynah, chief finance officer for the Q wardrobe unit.
We sat around and politely waited for the show to end. However, the last band to perform, Fuse would play a full set (much to our disappointment!) instead of one or two songs. So we chucked our manners and walked out on them. We were starving!
Dinner was at Juanbambu, the "Asian restaurant with kare-kare and sisig in the menu" is how I can sum up their whole deal. It was a good. So good in fact that I paid the bill.
We headed home, tired and burping.
