eraserheads, my roomates

(a reposting of March , 2009 fb notes)
Hey  they were  my roommates!

Perhaps, that is a statement that I can say with pride as I watched the “Eraserheads: the Final Set” at the MOA grounds  last  March 7, 2009, Saturday night, along with an estimated crowd of “more than a hundred thousand” fans.

            Buddy Zabala and Raimund Marasigan were my roommates for two years at the Molave Dorm during my last college years at the UP Diliman (1989 to 1991) before I was booted out from the dorm since I already finished my B.S. Economics in March 1991. Our room was identified as “AS 101”, with high ceiling and huge windows,  which was at the end of the second floor of the Molave boys’ wing. Ely Buendia’s room was also at the second floor, a few steps away from AS 101 I think in front of the shower room. Marcus Adoro was a regular “visitor” at our room, who was staying at the Narra dorm, and  sleeps  in an extra cushion being pulled out underneath Raimund’s bed. During my birthday in 1990, I did not go home to Las Pinas and instead celebrated my birthday with Buddy over  ice cream while watching an old film at the TV room.  Buddy is a bookworm who loves to stay inside our room in contrast to  Raimund’s gimikero character who usually arrives late in the evening  and misses the breakfast as he wakes up late.   Too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.

            Everytime they made our room as their “practice area” I usually go out since I can not study due to the “noise” they are creating.  It was beyond my comprehension that the “noise” that I tried to avoid made them known as one of the most successful, critically-acclaimed, and significant bands in the OPM  history earning them the accolade, "The Beatles of the Philippines”.

            I had no intention at that time to watch the concert. I’d rather see them in person again over  dinner or coffee and reminisce our dorm days. It was a last minute plan due to proddings of my friend Atty. Shiela, who called from Thailand three days before the concert  and insisted that we watch them upon her arrival. And we did watch “UP Sunken Garden” style, watching and  listening from the periphery. We stood in front of Starbucks just outside the main VIP entrance at the right side of the stage. From our location, we can see four big screens placed at the top of the stage, with each screen showing one member of the band.

My roommates  performed most of the materials during their early days, or from their first three albums namely Ultraelectromagneticpop! (1993) Circus and Cutterpillow (1995) Majority of the songs included in the mentioned albums were highly popular as they were all released at the time the Eraserheads were at the peak of their game. Colorful fireworks adorned the evening sky as the final strains of “Huling El Bimbo” reverberated from the speakers.The band came back to do a three-song encore composed of “Ligaya,” “Sembreak,” and “Toyang.”

            Moral of the story: never downplay small things, however annoying they can be. Guys that are noisemakers  can reverberate through history as musical icons.