dream come true #1

it was roughly thirteen years ago when we got our first cd player, which was in my dad's car. i remember the first couple of cds we bought. i'm not sure which member of my family had really good taste in music back then (could be my dad or my sis, whoever it is, i am awfully grateful) but we got james ingram's greatest hits (it has "just once" and "how do keep the music playing?". . . that was a good album. promise:) and sting's greatest hits: fields of gold. thus began my love affair with sting's music. i remember he went to manila around that time (or maybe it was a couple of years after) and i of course didn't get to see him because a) we went to the pahiyas festival in lucban, quezon and b) i was too young to watch concerts. anyway, i've been a huge fan ever since. and last night, my dream to see him live, finally came true.

when i heard the first notes of "message in a bottle" i swear, i almost fainted. now i know how those crazy michael jackson/beatles/elvis fans feel. i was laughing and crying at the same time. i did get a hold of myself enough to sing along (i mean, how could i not sing along? i'm actually singing along with STING!). we got surprisingly good seats on the floor, probably about 20 or so rows from the stage. i mean, i paid quite a lot for the ticket (grad student standard anyway) but i didn't really expect the seats to be that good. . . it's still weird for me though to watch concerts and be surrounded with lots of people drinking beer, and in this case, they were much, much older people. . . there was this older lady sitting beside us who obviously had too much to drink and kept telling me about her friend who taped oprah's interview with sting and how she has watched it over and over again. . .

anyway, he had a really simple set-up for the show, which i think is a lot different from his brand new day tour and way cooler. it was just sting on bass, a lead guitar, a rhythm guitar and a drummer. that's it. no keyboards with synths, no piano, no percussionists, no back-up singers. it was basically a straight-up rock concert. the stage was pretty bare, the lighting was pretty hi-tech though but in a very understated kind of way. the playlist was very unexpected. i at first thought this concert was in support of his last album sacred love which was why i was brushing up on my knowledge of this album a couple of weeks ago. but it was pleasantly surprising that he did more of his older songs as well as lots of stuff from the police. it seemed to me that he picked songs that were not necessarily his most popular ones, but songs that he really wanted to play. i mean, i thought i was a sting fan, but there were some songs there that i haven't even heard before. i really wanted to post a complete playlist but i have really terrible memory. and i was really too giddy to remember to write the songs down then. so the best i could probably do is rattle of a partial list of songs i could remember. and they won't be in any particular order too. although some songs will come in the order they came in (like the first three songs) but not like totally ordered. . . well you know what i mean. . .

message in a bottle

spirits in a material world (sting introduced this song by saying "madonna stole this song from me")

demolition man

i hung my head (this was apparently covered by johnny cash)

synchronicity II (didn't know what this song was 'til i looked it up)

the end of the game ("do you have foxes here?")

ghost story (he sang one verse because he felt sorry for a couple of girls who were holding signs requesting for it. . . he actually mixed up the words for that one verse too:)

heavy cloud, no rain

a day in the life (tribute to the beatles)

why should i cry for you?(really did make me cry)

fields of gold

king of pain

invisible sun

if i ever lose my faith in you (awesome version!)

voices inside my head /when the world is running down (with a little audience participation)

roxanne

she's too good for me (rockin' version)

lithium sunset

every breath you take

i'm sure i probably missed several songs but these are the ones i could remember. he ended the first set with "roxanne". he then came back for two encores and eventually ended with "every breath you take". . . with this concert, sting was probably out to prove that he was not satisfied with being the "old man of adult pop rock". i tell you, he can still rock with the best of 'em.

asides:

• phantom planet opened for sting. they were pretty good (and the lead singer was a cutie). it was probably a tougher gig for them what with most of the audience being around the age of their parents (yeah, i felt really young then). there were a lot of people asking "phantom what?". we only caught 3 songs from their set and they ended with, none other but "california".
• do you think i could go home now? i mean, this was what i went to grad school for right?. . . do you think msi would take me back?. . . hehe.
• i wasn't able to bring a camera in because they really do confiscate cameras here. it's still pretty dumb since camera phones seem to be ok. so i don't have any pictures but i took a picture of my gift for my sis. . .