The Master's final verse

A happy battle finally reaching its conclusion
With a final bow wane in the horizon to emerge

Eraserheads The Final Set: The End of an Era

With the symbolic burning and smashing of the Sticker Happy Piano came into sight as one of the highlights of the Ultraelectromagnetic concert last March 7, 2009 in front of sea of Eheads fans at Mall of Asia concert grounds, one can’t help but wonder what such act imply—Beginning of an end or an emphasis to an already done era of mantra. The music that not only made a generation of youth rocked and rolled with and crooned over to emotional submission, but the angst anthem of a generation that defied the slacker stereotyped puberty stage to be endowed with the soundtrack of its very own. In the latter part of the “Huling El Bimbo” performance, Ely Buendia, the iconic frontman of the legendary band poured lighter fluid on the piano that not only represented the band’s craftiness and knack for musical recalibration– burned and jumped on it as if to smash any hope of a total reunion of a quartet that spearheaded the band explosion of the 90’s. It was an emotional sight to behold, especially for someone who have grown loving not just the band but the consciousness- effacing effect of its music that learned to survive the changing of times and genre preferences—now only some seconds away to be completely done.


It kind of gave you some hope at first, especially when Ely belted out with the underground fave “Walang Nagbago” , the second piece of the Final Set foretelling an afterthought to their storied career that nothing has changed somehow. With Ely and Raimund Marasigan sharing vocals and playing killer tunes to the beat of “Alkohol” with the crowd cheering to again see both enjoying times, like the old days, unlike the ugly rift that triggered the divorce of the band. You can even see them smirk to one another in a candid display that no love lost for blood brothers. It’s a pairing that not even at the magnitude of a Guy and Pip like tandem can undermine. The youth anthem “Pare Ko”, though carried out a bit laid back, still carried the same invectives that appealed to their ever adoring fans and irked public officials and infinitesimal-brained conservatives alike. So much the pleasure of the concert that all throughout, we wished the band has been sincere enough off the “Fine Time” lyrics, “I hope we could spend more time together, few hours better than ever.” If only for eternity.


Marcus Adoro, the Surfernando himself toyed with his reggae rendition of “Huwag mo nang Itanong” using a Hello Kitty lead guitar. Marcus performed the same piece two years ago during the LivELY benefit concert. It may have strayed from the original rendition, but it sure did draw some laughs and applause in lightening up the mood. Always as Marcus has been. How could I forget that damn Eheads grunt s that way back second year high school, we’re more lyrically familiar with than Lupang Hinirang? And what can Buddy Zabala not do? Already imprinted his name on the upper echelons of Pinoy Rock as member of two legendary Pinoy Bands, the other being the Dawn, Buddy would’ve shamed the career of either Piolo Pascual and the untalented Richard Gutierrez. Whose cool demeanor stabilizes the foundation of the band—much like his bass guitar stabilizes their brand of music.


And as if life’s continuous to smuggle us some of that paradox, the Eheads’ reunion for the second time mourned another influential person to the band’s existence. Lisette Buendia passed away before the initial reunion gig that grieved not just the dotting son Ely but the entire band and crew that even lead to his exhaustion. And here’s another loss in the person of Francis Magalona, many had considered the Fifth Eraserhead with collaboration and friendship ties with the band members especially Ely. Francis M. is supposed to make an appearance during the “Superproxy” performance but has to be scrapped off due to his medical condition. Thank God they didn’t bring in some crappy rapper to work on the rap verse of Superproxy, contrary to the title itself as the late Francis M. is the only one capable of doing that latter part—a fitting showcase of respect for another music icon that transcended from the hip hop genre to the Pinoy Rock.


Was it “Hard to Believe”? Remembering them a decade ago that they somehow wanted to be like the Apo Hiking Society, for their enduring commitment and partnership, of which them band would want to emulate. Oh, how time flies! Some years they called it quits via some cryptic text message. But their break up, though seem like a life time, has given us rooms to outgrow the feeling of being in “Alapaap” to the dearth of preference thus left us asking, “Kailan”. Kailan ka uli hahagkan ng musikang nagpadaloy ng iyong dugo sa ‘twing hihinto ang puso mo sa awiting si Ely, Buddy, Raimund at Marcus lang ang may gawa?


Thank you David Lynch for making such a crappy movie for it produced a name we would be loving and passing to the next generations to come. And by thanking you, we can only afford to ignore in google search some match for Eraserhead: David Lynch. But who are you anyway?


The band teased with a last hurrah, to again regroup as Ely signaled “Three for the round”. And distrustful as we are, after Ely burned the only surviving Eheads memento thought it’s a wrap for the night and got ourselves stuck near the exit area and just cursed the hell out of it as “Ligaya” exited from the amplifiers. Who are we to complain anyway? Always the Ligaya they brought us with, we can only close our eyes, hum to the “Gagawin ko ang lahat pati ang thesis mo” like saying we’ll do whichever we know to please all of you, to give you your money’s worth. It’s not about the money anymore, it’s all about appreciation. No, it’s love actually. It’s love that survived the menace of fanaticism, political stupefaction, intellectual property piracy, Ely’s health, and death of friends and loved ones. All of the sufferings of a regular Filipino which didn’t excuse even them from experiencing. After all, their music reflected who we are, what we do, and as a whole— what we aspire for.

When the concert “really” came to an end, I felt like a kicking thing within, worst maybe than breaking up with someone as the band formally strummed to their last track of the night, a night, if not only for an economical bullshit, would’ve paid the VIP ticket to get a closer glimpse of my fave fab four and to pay respect to the dying seconds of them performing as one and only Eraserheads.

FFUgay

Meltdown only occurs if you allow heat get in the way.

Allow me to make all the available excuses for not visiting my own home for the past 3 months or so, and permission to be forgiven by my solitary reader, Eda Belisario and I know none of the shit what made me lose focus on a supposed daily accounts that is a BLOG ENTRY!
Well, some of the thoughts which swirled around my lousy brain are either too spoiled to even warrant an attention or was made too vague by lack of follow up details. You see, Rick Astley made some good mantra that we're born to make mistakes. While I won't allow you to bash my skull, the blog site is now open for some hate comments. Not necessarily a hatred to the contents of this blog site but for the benefit of washing the sins, I'll hand over the opportunity to all of you. Enjoy!








Well, not so huge space but just as I thought. No one really got mad with me not writing anything here. You know the reason why? None of these shits give a damn.
Well, it's nice at the very least to be back and by golly, I really missed those issues from our regular motherhumpers and I know you all believed I couldn't have written those any better- provided i had the stamina to even think.

By the way the title of this entry, in case you wonder, has no meaning on this entry.Just coined it coz I thought it's cool.