A few days before the concert day, my bessie invited us to stop at Gap Store on Friday afternoon because Arrested Development was gonna be there for a meet-and-greet event. Athat point, we knew nothing about the concert yet.
The band's name rings a bell, but I just couldn’t remember their songs. I was told they were a hit back in the early 90’s, and that's the end of what I know about the group. Anyway, hubby & I decided to come in for the sake of giving support to B who was one of the photographers for the band’s Gap Store visit.
That Friday morning, the husband & I went to Deira City Centre to do some shopping (I badly need a few pieces of warm clothes for the winter season). Since I was taking so long as the Zara SA had to take my measurements for the alterations, we decided to split up to save time. Ryan went to Sharaf Digital for his technology update, while I went on with my ‘corporate attire’ shopping (see, my spending was very much justified..hehe!).
Anyway, I didn’t notice the time as I was so consumed with all the new collection all over the store. realizing that it's already half past two, I scrammed to meet hubby at the Gap, which is on the other side of the mall *darn!*. When we got there, I waved at B who signaled for us to queue for the shoot and autograph signing. And so I did, but not with the husband. He was too shy for this kind of thing.
When it was my turn to shake hands with the band members and say hello, I was starstruck. I didn’t know who to talk to first because they were all talking to me at the same time. Their oldest member and spiritual guru, Baba Oje who’s 76 years old, even stood next to me to say ‘hi’. Quite a friendly bunch, I must say. When they asked me where I’m from, I proudly said 'from Manila'. I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time we were chatting. When they asked me if I’m catching their concert, I just blurted, “absolutely!”. Looking very pleased with my answer, they all thanked me and handed over my autographed CD and with a postcard each for myself and Ryan.
Of course you must've already figured out that I lied. First of all, I don’t know when and where their concert is taking place, and secondly, I don’t know any of their songs. Yes, I’m that horrible *boo!!*.
When I met up with Ryan at the men’s section of the store to wait for B and our other friend K to wrap up after the meet-and-greet, a guy walked towards us and introduced himself as Joe Lamont. Ok, hello Joe :) The Pinoy in us automatically chatted with him, and we found out that the reason why he’s interested to chat with us is because he heard I’m from Manila. Turns out he’s holding a concert there in Aliw Theather in a few weeks’ time. His song, ‘Victims of Love’ is quite popular in videoke joints that even children as young as 5 could sing his song. He was bowled over that when he was invited to perform, he jumped on the opportunity without hesitation. He said he’s in touch with Steve O’Neal of RJ 100 FM, and he also intends to do other projects with our local artists in Manila. I wish I can say what projects they are but I’ll leave it to his partners back home to announce what they’re cooking up. By the way, when I did my research about the guy, I found out that he's not just a singer, but also a song writer, producer and concert promoter worldwide. Wow! I'm so glad we're friends already :)
Of course the Arrested Development’s concert also came up during our conversation, and we sheepishly admitted to him that we may not be able to watch them perform. Perhaps our faces gave away the truth that we don't have tickets so Joe (ehem, first name basis) asked for our names and told us that he’ll just add them on the guest list so we can come and watch for free. And true enough, when we got to The Irish Village that evening, we were indeed on the list. We felt very special, I tell you! (haha, ang babaw!)
Ok, don’t laugh now but in all the years I’ve lived here in the UAE, I’ve never been to The Irish Village. Yep, such a loser, I know! And I have a pretty good excuse – I don’t drink. Well, ‘used to not drink’ actually because now I’m starting to learn the trade, thanks to some friends who mix me good cocktails for my tasting :)
The Irish Village doors opened at 7:00 pm, and when we got there, the first front act has just finished with their last song. The second front act was a Dubai-based groove-core band called ‘Sandwash’, who had 3 Pinoy members - Jay, Crom and Mike, and one white guy named, Pavel (sorry, I’m not sure of his nationality). Without being biased, I could say they were pretty good.
At around half past ten, the Arrested Development began to perform, much to the delight of the audience. I managed to step up on one of the lamp posts’ base and saw how thick the crowd was. All throughout the band’s performance, people were shakin’ their booties and singing to their songs while nursing their drinks. It was so much fun!
When they sang ‘Tennessee’, ‘Everyday People’ & ‘Mr. Wendal’, I heard myself sing with them. See, it’s not true that I don’t know any of their songs…I just don’t know what the songs’ titles were :D Oh, and we also did bump into Joe towards the end of the concert. He gave me a friendly hug like we're old friends, asked if we were having fun, and thanked us for coming. Good PR skills, eh?
As we headed for home, Ryan & I realized that we’ve never really gone out on a night out ever. Being out on a party like that was something new for us that we kind of liked and enjoyed. We mutually agreed that we should do this on a monthly basis just to chill and have fun.
6 comments:
good to know they're still around. i liked their songs when i was in college. :)
i was singing 'everyday people' in my head when you said arrested development!! i know them from way back (haha, feeling close)! wow, kahit kame, we didn't know that they had a concert here.
you and ryan should enjoy the night life! it's fun! harvs and i used to do it every weekend, haha! pero now, homebodies na kame...alam mo naman :)
wow, they're still around? my hubby and i luv'em! those songs are on my ipod. ;)
@ pat - me, too. strangely though, i couldn't recall their group name. tsk, tumatanda na 'ata talaga ako! :)
@ chung - yep, i think we should. enjoy naman pala kahit 2 lang kayo. they should've advertised that concert better so that a lot could've gone for it. ang saya pa naman!
@ mandy - uh huh, they're still around & are touring the world to promote their album. their last concert prior to DXB was in Singapore daw, and they had a blast!
Post a Comment