At exactly 6pm, my wife and I rushed to Fort Santiago Open Field in Taguig to see the international concert of the year, the one we both waited for a very long time. This is one of the best concerts we think we will be seeing, since she likes Rihanna and I like Chris Brown and we will see them both in just one concert. When we reached the concert ground, it took us a while to figure out where the entrance for the tickets we bought, the Silver Section. One good thing in coming to a big event like this ahead of time is that you can still gather sensible answers from the guards and concert ushers. We were told to go that way, turn to a direction that way, straight ahead and voila, we saw the end of the labyrinth. We were frisked immediately and some of our items were confiscated and were not allowed to be brought inside the concert venue. We didn't have much time to argue (and we were in the height of our excitement) so we just left the stuff in their custody, not knowing if we can still get them back. Read: we were not issued any claim stubs.
At last, we were inside the concert venue. We looked for the best place to watch and enjoy the concert. Our requirements - (1) near the humongous speakers, (2) conducive to the viewing monitors, (3) not necessarily in the middle but at least both Rihanna and Chris Brown are visible in stage, a(4) near any emergency exit [just in case]. Eureka! We found our place. While we were waiting for the 8pm start and for my wife's friends who will be joining us in the concert, we took several pictures and watched the sun retire in the west to set the night's party mood. After a few flashes from our camera, I noticed that the concert venue was suddenly filled up with a sea of 70,000 people in no time, all cheering "Ri-hanna, Ri-hanna!" and some sing the chorus part of "Forever" in unison.
It's 8:00pm at last! The concert started on time (or at least a few minutes late because of the tons of reminders and advertisements) and the crowd suddenly went wild when the lights went off, pushing everyone on their way to get nearer the stage, with their hands clasped with point-and-shoot cameras and camera phones thrown in the air waiting to catch the entrance of whoever will be the first artist to perform. The pyrotechnics blew off and signaled the entrance of Chris Brown, who was hanged upside down singing "Wall to Wall." The crowd, most of them girls, roared and screamed and shrieked. It's a dance cut but amazingly, no one in the crowd can be seen dancing or singing along with him at least. They are all taking videos of Chris Brown performing. I wonder if this is the idea of Filipinos in going to concerts. To take photos and videos and upload them in their social networks.
Chris Brown seemed not to mind how boring the Pinoy crowd was, he just danced to all his other upbeat songs like "Kiss, Kiss", "Picture Perfect", "Gimme That" among others and serenaded the girls with his ballads like "Say Goodbye", "With You", "Superhuman" and other songs which I only know the chorus parts. A Chris Brown concert is not a Chris Brown concert without him showing his chest and abs. He took off his sweat-soaked shirt and threw it in a crowd of girls. And best of all, Chris performed a few of Michael Jackson's famous cuts and showed his 'gloved-one' moves which included "Billy Jean", "Rock With You" and "Thriller." My favorite part of his show was when he sang "No Air" which was a supposed duet with a pre-recorded file of Jordin Sparks but the crowd sang along with him. At least it showed that Pinoys are not that completely boring when it comes to concert. His last track was "Forever" which obviously, the only Chris Brown song that everyone else can interact to (or the most popular, so far). Everyone danced (finally) and sang along with him.
After Chris' part, a 30-minute fireworks intermission blew off in the air. This is to divert the crowd's attention to the spectacle in the sky and not notice how the stage is being transformed from a Chris Brown-environment to a Rihanna-milieu. After the entertaining (and ear-popping) fireworks show, the DJ played some of the hit songs of today. It was funny (and a bit disappointing) that the crowd sang and danced along with the recorded tracks like Pink's "So What," Flo Rida's "Low," Beyonce's "Single Ladies," among others more than singing and dancing along with the live performer onstage.
The second part of the show signalled when the lights went off and steel stairs showed up onstage with Rihanna on top of it singing "Disturbia" only wearing a black corset and bikini on a knee-level boots. This number rocked the whole Taguig. The crowd roared, screamed and shrieked again. I was expecting to hear only girls to sing along with her but I saw everyone, as in everyone, swaying their hands and screaming "Disturbia" (some people only know that single line in the track). She sang all her other upbeat hits like "SOS", "Don’t Stop the Music", "Shut Up and Drive", and ballads like "Unfaithful", "Rehab", "I Hate That I Love You", and "Take A Bow" was her most-interacted song in the concert. The night was concluded with Rihanna's greatest hit "Umbrella" with which Chris Brown suddenly emerged from the backstage to sing along with her on the remixed version titled "Cinderella." They kissed together like as if a fairy tale book is about to close to end a story with a life lived happily ever after.
It was a very tiring night, but we have definitely enjoyed it. It was only a bit disappointing that it failed my expectation to experience a real partying crowd. Maybe because most Pinoys are really not into dancing and singing (in short, interacting) with the performing artist. A great percentage of the 70,000 sea of people are literally "spectators" of a show. They come to "see" a show that they paid for... not to do along with the artist who was paid to perform. Or sometimes, you blame it to a performer who can not make his or her crowd sing and dance along with them. There are artists who just wants the audience to hear them sing and see them dance. But a Chris Brown and Rihanna concert is an exception. This is a party concert. You see the two artists' efforts to make the crowd join them, especially Rihanna who kept on shouting "Manilaaaaaaa" and the audience will scream a little, sing with her a few lines and throw their hand in the air a few minutes and they go back to their lethargic mode. That's funny. That's only in the Philippines.
It was 8pm when my wife and I crept into the dark night to watch Twilight in Megamall. We were both in awe when we found ourselves right infront of the exhibit of all Twilight promotional materials in the movie house. We know we can't wait to grab a ticket for the last main feature of the day. The last time I ever felt this way craving to see a vampire in the movie was in 1994 when Lestat invaded the cinemas like locusts from the dark with "Interview with the Vampire." And it was a flick my wife tagged as "the movie showcase of my boyfriends."
