Music scene flashback: Eraserheads in “The Final Set” concert

Nope, I never considered myself an Eraserheads fan in my youth (elementary schooling days), although because I’m a musically inclined person I have memorized all their hit singles as a child, along with the songs of Rivermaya and other OPM bands because of the songhits mania in the nineties. Up until now in my twenties, I know the lyrics of their hit singles by heart. It was only in my adolescent years when I realized that those OPM bands, particularly Eraserheads, were for me the best mainstream OPM bands who ever existed throughout my own lifetime and memory. And honestly, i don't know of any band who was better than them during and even after their reign. I’m a nineties kid.

The alphabet-down (countdown) from Z to E at the opening of the concert

My hubby Pol is five years older than me, and could have had a more conscious and solid state of mind in terms of musical taste than I did during Eraserheads’ popularity in the nineties. Despite our age gap, we shared the same memories of the nineties OPM, and were in fact nostalgic of it. If you’re a nineties kid like us, you would agree that there’s nothing more like the songs back then, even if you compare them to the songs of today that are still by those same bands and the new bands their old members are in. Even gazillions of OPM musicians of today still dare to revive Eraserheads songs.

Eraserheads image after the alphabet-down to E

My personal Eraserheads favorite as a child was “Ang Huling El Bimbo”, which was a very predictable preference. It was only in my college days when I realized that the ultimate Eraserheads song of my life is “Minsan”.

Stage fireworks at the beginning of the concert

Pol and I were not able to attend their first reunion concert in August 30 of 2008 at the NBC Tent in Bonifacio Global City, which unfortunately was an uncompleted concert because of Ely Buendia’s sudden emergency situation in middle of the set. It was a good decision for us to go to their second reunion concert which was called “The Final Set” at SM Mall of Asia Concert Grounds on March 7 the following year, whose date also happened to be my parents’ 22nd wedding anniversary. I agree that this event is already a part of OPM history and we’re glad to have been part of it too. I couldn’t describe the nostalgia, the happiness and sadness that I felt during the concert because it was a reminiscence of the nineties OPM that we couldn’t magically go back to anymore, and because of the death of supposed guest performer Francis Magalona on the day before the concert. Francis M was one of those whom Pol and I miss so much in the nineties too. How much sadder could you get during that concert? I’m glad they played “Super Proxy” and Francis M's “Kaleidescope World” in memory of him. It was my most bitter taste of the old cliché, “The show must go on”.

Ely Buendia on the projector screen

The concert still ended to be somehow a fun night because they performed more songs that were not included in their set list, and that the band itself seemed to be happy together especially between Ely Buendia and Raimund Marasigan. The kind of joy that Pol and I felt on that night was an imaginary feeling of him and me falling in love and being together in the nineties, in UP Diliman campus where Eraserheads also came from. Did I already mention I’m a nineties kid?