“Nostalgia - it's delicate, but
potent. It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. It
takes us to a place where we ache to go again.” – Don Draper, Mad Men
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| The heads with Sancho, old time collaborator, friend and third guitarist, who Ely
introduced to the crowd as the “fifth Eraserhead. |
I was 13, on my first year at a
co-ed highschool when I first saw the Eraserheads play at the UP sunken garden.
It was my first ever real live concert. I went with one of my best friends and her
cool older sister who was at the time, studying at the same University. There were plastic balloons flying around
which I later learned were called “condoms”. We know pretty much all of the songs
from Circus, Ultraelectromagnetic pop and Cutterpillow, but even if you don’t
have the records there’s no way you can escape them on the radio. Honestly, who
can resist Ely Buendia and his witty common-guy lines about sem-break and
heartache?
Such was the pull of the Eheads, it wasn’t just the music per se. In a way, there was a reason why they were always being compared to the Beatles. They were our generation’s (our country’s) Beatlemania. It was a cultural thing more than anything. They had too much influence in fact that everyone, young and old, even the resident “tambays” at your neighborhood sari-sari store would most certainly know the lyrics to Pare Ko.
I moved to Dubai in 2009, like
many other pinoys, in search of better opportunities. As a music fan, and
having spent most of my adult life working for the “pop machine”, the news of
the Eraserheads Reunion in Dubai was just too good to be true and when it was
confirmed that they will be playing at the annual du Music Festival, all of us
“Kabayans” based here were psyched. It
was collectively agreed, on all our facebook accounts and twitter feeds, that
we HAVE to see them.
When you work outside the country
and your monthly budget is limited, divided into remittances, loans, and other
responsibilities, you think twice about spending precious hard-earned money on
concerts, but the Eraserheads Reunion, was not just a WANT, it was a NEED. We
needed to be there. We needed to see Ely, Raimund, Buddy and Markus play our
favorite songs. We needed to belong to that special place again. We needed a
piece home as we remembered it.
The Eheads reunion couldn’t have
come at a better time. It was on the
same week we launched our first Tagalog / OPM FM station in the Middle East,
Tag 91.1 and all streets had banners of either the Eheads or Tag 91.1 that said
“serving 645,000 Filipinos in the UAE.” It felt like, for once, the whole of Dubai,
was nodding at our Community with respect, and we are finally getting the
recognition we deserved.
I was fortunate enough to be
invited to the press conference and while waiting for the band, I met another
Filipina, Maggie Lafuente, who came out there with her husband. She skipped
work for the chance to meet the Eheads up close. She was trembling.
“I was working in London at the time of their
first reunion concert in 2008, I badly wanted to go.” Maggie shares. “I was ready to book a ticket. My sister had
to stop me and told me it wasn’t practical. Then I heard about Ely’s heart
attack, I CRIED, they just mean that much to me. I never thought I’d see them
live again. You see those girls on old footages screaming out, crying over the
Beatles, they look crazy but I’d be one of them for Eraserheads.”
Of course, 90% of the media representatives in
room were Filipino. I came with former Pulp photographer and good friend Brutal
Grace and for a second there I felt like I was at home.
We were told not ask “personal”
questions and only stick to the “music festival”. There was a bit of awkwardness
at first, but Markus, the more laid back member of the group, put everyone at
ease with his clever one-liners. I asked them the most standard thing I could
think of - what was their impression of
Dubai, of the place, of the people.
Buddy was quick to answer, “We are
impressed by the camaraderie of the Filipino Community and the incredible
presence and support. We also
experienced a bit of the diverse culture in Dubai, like last night we tried
Ethiopian food, which was really good.”
When asked if they learned to say
any Arabic words, Markus came out with
“Kebab, Kebab Dylan, Kebab Marley”, that cracked everyone up and after that
the questions just came pouring in until finally somebody was brave enough to
ask the obvious - why a reunion? and
why in Dubai?
Raymund playfully sang “reunited coz it feels so good.” Buddy replies “how many Filipinos are now in Dubai?
600,000? So we have 600,000 reasons to play here and finally Ely spoke up
with a cheeky retort – “peer pressure”.
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| More than 10,000 fans in the UAE came to Dubai Media City to see the Eraserheads perform live on stage again. |
“It was simply natural progression.” Ely explains further. “We are all doing our own thing for awhile now
and then there was this clamor to get back together again and play, especially
for those who are based outside the Philippines, and have not seen us play live
yet. We are music fans ourselves, and we know what its like to love a band and grow
up with their songs. We are just grateful that our songs still resonate with
our fans.”
About the songs that they packed
for the concert, Raimund shares, “we picked the ones that we enjoy playing. We
didn’t really think much about what people will like, or what other nationalities
will be there to see us play, pinili namin yung masarap tugtugin.”
I would say this decision just paid off big
time. There is simply nothing better than seeing your favorite band enjoying
themselves on stage while singing your favorite songs. I was there during the
first reunion in 2008, I didn’t feel as connected to them as I was at the Dubai
show. Perhaps it was the “homesickness” but I would say the Eraserheads Reunion
concert in Dubai, was in the purest sense, about “connection”, about all of us,
including the band, sharing the familiar songs and the memories.
The band kicked it off aptly with
“Walang Nagbago”, then went on to perform 27 of their best hits, among them the
well-loved songs - ‘Maling Akala’,
‘Ligaya, Huwag Mo Ng Itanong’ , ‘Kailan’ ‘Overdrive’, ‘With A Smile’, ‘Julie
Tear Jerky’, Magazin, Minsan and Super Proxy which they dedicated to the late
Francis M, who were with them at their last concert in Dubai back in 1999. With
over 10,000 fans in attendance, the Eraserheads Reunion at the du World Music
Festival last 4th April was one of the biggest, and possibly the
loudest, Dubai has seen this year.
A friend wrote on his facebook status
the night after the concert –
"The best thing about watching Eraserheads is
not about the band itself, It's about having the greatest time with your
friends, friends that mean the whole song to you, people who you can sing and
relate with, banging and just having a great time!Thanks mga pare ko!"
He is right. There
was this magic moment, when everyone out in the open field of Dubai Media city was
all singing along to “With a Smile”. We
all knew the lyrics to the entire song by heart. It’s hard not to get
sentimental, coz the song was about us, about my friends, old and new, about
every single struggling overseas filipino I've ever met in Dubai, including
myself.
Lift your head, baby don't be scared / with the things that could go wrong along the way.
We'll get by with a smile / We'll get along with a little prayer and a song.
