A Free Ticket and Missed Autographs

November 21, 2009



I’m enjoying my four-day leave, but I still haven’t got the slumber I intended to have. I spent the whole day yesterday bumming around inside SM (pathetic life) and a quarter of the night last night at the Hale concert in a college campus. The fun thing was, I got in there with a free ticket! Thanks to my dormmate Mitch.

Mitch works as a receptionist in the hotel where the band was billeted. A guy from the band’s entourage made a pass at Mitch (without much result, I must say) and gave her some concert passes. Since Mitch was too tired from work to go, she decided to donate the tickets to some charity cases, i.e., me and some friends.

But before we went to the campus, Mitch showed us around the hotel. She let us inside the penthouse at the rooftop. That’s another thing to thank Mitch for. I’d never be able to set foot inside such a posh room if not for her (unless of course I’ll work as a bellboy in Dubai someday). She said that in the three years since the hotel was built, the room has been occupied just once. Which isn’t so surprising considering the room’s rate: thirty thousand bucks a night.

When we got back to the hotel’s lobby, Hale’s entourage was there—with some members of the band, I heard from whispers. The famous vocalist wasn’t there, though. I wanted to ask for an autograph, but the thing was, I didn’t know which of the guys were members of the band (music ignorant me). It would surely be weird to come to them and say, “Excuse me, who among you are famous? Could you scribble a few letters on my sneakers?” So I decided to play it cool and pretended they didn’t exist.

Then a baller-looking guy passed by. “He looks like Asi Taulava,” I thought, “but he’s dark and Asi has Caucasian skin on TV.” I played it cool again, and found out today from Mitch that it was indeed Asi (sport ignorant me). Ugh, another missed autograph.

At the concert venue, I was surprised with how big the crowd was. It was not big! There were just about 300 to 350 people, who all seemed to be college students. The place, which appeared to be a mini gym with a basketball court, had enough space for someone to ride a bicycle around. Good luck to the organizers and to their pockets.

Hale played for an hour or so. I am now a fan. I learned I had heard some of their songs before and liked them; I just didn’t know who were singing those songs. Unfortunately, the sound system was less than serviceable. I didn’t understand a word the vocalist crooned—well, almost. I figured out “sides of your circle” from “The Day You Said Goodnight,” and I think I heard him say “Maayong gab-i” and “Mabuhay Cebu” once.

The drummer rocks. Fuckin’ rocks. Champ Lui Pio, the vocalist with the dimples and milky skin and smiling chinky eyes, is your perfect magazine cover boy. I couldn’t help but notice, however, that his khaki pants were betraying his fat legs. Oh, I’m just sour-graping, which I shouldn’t. A fan could only see that his idol is perfect. Hail Hale!