I just thought that my Eheads blog post and coverage will end, but here's a late night news for all, my photo blog coverage are now floating everywhere in the world of cyberspace, but the coverage doesn't stop there. Now my photos is now in this top broadsheet and I like to thanks Manila Bulletin and Kara the writer of the article, for featuring and using my photos for their Eheads update and coverage.
you can read more about the article at http://www.mb.com.ph/YTCP20080903134125.html
more photos at my Eraserheads photo coverage published in Manila Bulletin ( Sept 3, 2008)
The Band That Bridges Generations
By Kara Vibal Guioguio
Sept. 3 Manila Bulletin
The songs "Magasin,’’ "Pare Ko,’’ and "Huling El Bimbo’’ have been staple songs during the jamming sessions that my friends and I would have back in grade school.
I knew that the Eraserheads were its originators (we get more of the cover singers way back then). Yet through the years that I have been singing along to these tunes, I never had the opportunity to get to know the band behind such hits, only because the Eraserheads were around long before I was even born!
In UP where they all met, Ely Buendia, Raimund Marasigan, Buddy Zabala, and Marcus Adoro played cover songs. Later on, they ventured into writing their own songs, a fateful decision as their songs became the best-loved OPM hits of recent generations.
With countless albums sold, awards, and chart-topping songs under their belt, the Eraserheads were to be the "most significant band of Pinoy Rock." Since their band breakout in 1992, they conquered the OPM airwaves and had a series of tours abroad. They were on a roll, reigning supreme over the music industry.
And so when news of the Eraserheads’ disbandment came in 2002, fans and loyalists were shattered. That was the last piece of news to be heard about the band.
An album tribute, Ely’s heart bypass surgery, and several years later, the Eraserheads were to have a one-night reunion concert last Saturday. I wanted to watch because I knew a reunion like theirs could only happen once in a blue moon.
The reunion as it was almost got derailed when the original sponsor, a tobacco company, backed out on what was billed then as a free concert. A new promoter stepped in and tickets were sold pretty fast - in two days!.
As early as 3 p.m. last Saturday, people had begun to queue. By sunset, traffic had become congested. A countdown boomed over the field a little past 8 p.m. and after its final second, ear-splitting screams from the excited audience took over the concert grounds. The crowd was dominated by twentysomethings and hearing the first strains of "Alapaap’’ brought them to a nostalgic trip back to the ‘90s. Playing hit after hit, the Eraserheads simply went from one song to another. Sometimes, ad-libs and one-liners were uttered. "This is a song about love", was all Ely said before playing "Toyang.’’
Cheddar De Leon, a college freshman, has been a fan of the band since she was a young girl. She could not narrow down the highlights of her concert experience. "Even before the concert was about to begin, everything felt so surreal. I could not believe that it was actually happening. When they played their opening song, I really cried.’’
Being just a year old when their first album came out, I could not share the same sentimental feeling as the majority of the crowd did. Yet a part of me was in a state of rapture, being there just made me feel euphoric. As I was singing along to "Ligaya’’ and "Toyang,’’ I could not help but reminisce about the jamming sessions my friends and I used to have.
During the song "Lightyears Away,’’ Ely sat at the edge of the stage, his arms wrapped around his guitar. Some thought the band lead singer was just feeling emotional because his mom passed away two days before the concert. After what was supposed to be a 20-minute intermission, Buddy, Raimund, Marcus and Ely’s sister Lally came onstage. She read a statement apologizing for cutting the concert short because Ely had been rushed to the hospital.
"I was very disappointed because we were at the general admissions area and the sound booth caused an obstructed view of the stage. The screen monitors, which were our only view of the concert, did not even work! And I’m also disappointed that it was cut short" Bea Estrada, a high school senior, said. Yet after everything was said, she still considers the Eraserheads as "THE Filipino band".
The reunion concert proved that the glory that was the Eraserheads lives on, their music resonates across generations.
As one of their songs goes, "There’s a fruitcake for everybody". Indeed everyone got their fair share of the Eraserheads during the reunion concert. The plain sight of Ely, Raimund, Buddy, and Marcus all together on one stage left everyone wanting—for more.
(The 16-year old author is a senior high school student at Miriam College. She watched the Eraserheads reunion concert with her mother.)
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