Caramba!

Last Monday I watched the Swing Out Sister concert at Araneta Coliseum with Jovan, Karen, Carlo (my brother in law) and his date. Let me put it this way. The first part was a disaster, but the second part was awesome. All in all, it was worth it!

Jovan was concerned with the parking so we made sure we were there by 6PM. We had dinner at Cafe Bola, went around Gateway, then we entered Araneta at around 7:45PM. Should have been perfect because the concert was supposed to start at 8PM. At 8:30PM, it hasn’t started yet. We watched the looped videos of the ads, and this Steve Tyrell guy whom they were forcing on us because apparently, they were bringing him in for a concert. Finally, the lights dimmed. People started to cheer! Then suddenly, the announcer says “Ladies and gentlemen… Ms. Faith Cuneta!”

WHAT?! Okay, so there was a front act. Which we DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT. Whose music is SO not similar to Swing Out’s music. She had lame spiels and she praised Ovation Productions several times. It was really, really pathetic. But what I liked about Faith Cuneta was that she KNEW we were all there for Swing Out, and didn’t pretend that it was about HER. She was grateful after every song because the audience was polite enough to clap each time. She made the mistake of asking “You want to hear one more song?” to which the audience replied “Nooooo!” She said “I knew it, but here’s my last song anyway…”  Check out the updates on my Twitter, hehe.

Back to the ads. The audience was getting sick of them. People were clapping from time to time, hoping that the actual concert would start soon. But the ads continued. The audience started to jeer when they showed the Steve Tyrell video again. It was just too much! That was the cue for the production people to stop the video. We still had to wait for several minutes though.

Finally, at around 9:30PM, the concert started. Swing Out Sister was (were?) thrilled to have the concert at the venue of Thrilla in Manila, and so they used the usual boxing introduction music (was that for Rocky? I don’t know…) when they went on stage. End of first part.

The awesome part came next. The concert was fun! It was so nice to see many fellow 30-ish people, who surely went there to enjoy the music. The band sang a combination of songs from their new album, and hits throughout the years. The lead singer, Corinne, though older, still has the same amazing voice.  She kept saying “Salamat!” and “Ayos lang kayo dyan?”  She changed to a long barong paired with leggings three-fourths into the show and she looked really cute!

Except for “You On My Mind” which was sung early on, the band saved the familiar and fun songs for the end, including “Twilight World” and of course “Breakout”.

Check out their new album, “Beautiful Mess”.  New songs, but still with that same familiar sound.

I’ll upload the videos soon.