Oktoberfest Siento Bente

I am not a big beer drinker. But if the occasion calls for it, then I'll probably down a bottle and ask for another. But still, beer is something that I'd rather stay away from. So the Oktoberfest kick-off party, which boasts of a night raining with ice cold beer, didn't really give me that much of a buzz. Not until I heard that Third Eye Blind would be performing! Hehe.

I knew nothing about the ticket prices. According to Ren, admission would only cost 120 pesos. No shit? That's 3EB on a shoestring! I told Franz about it and he called the San Miguel office for details. He then learned that the Php120 ticket only gives access to the longest bar section. If I want to watch 3EB, there would be a special viewing section for 1,500 pesos. Nyaha. I wasn't up for something that would cost me a leg so we both decided to pass it up. He told me that perhaps they wouldn't sing as much songs and that it wouldn't be worth the price. Right! Haha.

Later that night, Franz told me that he would just pay for the tickets. Asked him what's with the unlikely offer, which instantly gave him a bone to pick. Oops, my bad. When we were finally settled, we went to San Miguel's head office to buy the tickets. We were instructed to go from one guard post to another and finally, to the building's receiving area. When we asked one of the personnel about the tickets, he said that selling is only done during office hours. Franz returned the following day and finally got hold of the gold tickets! Yey! Thank you Furanzu! Ahihi.



Before throwing ourselves into the chaos that is the Oktoberfest, we first had dinner at Bangus. We're still muching on sisig when I received a text message from JP. He told me that they could already hear Rivermaya playing from our office. NooOoo! We had the remaining food wrapped then we quickly headed to the entrance, which was heavily packed with all kinds of people trying to get in. Thought there would be a separate entrance for VIP ticket holders but unfortunately, there was none. Found ourselves stuck in the middle of a mob wearing keffiyehs/yashmaghs/shemaghs/Abner-Mercado-look-scarves (Whatever you wanna call it. Hehe.) until a bouncer caught sight of our shimmering tickets and plucked us out of it. Started walking the stretch of Julia Vargas, jostling our way through a beer-swilling crowd. We were already halfway there when a fireworks display lit the sky. Didn't even stop to watch the burst of colors with hopes that we would still be able to catch the band. When we reached the special viewing section, Rivermaya was no longer on stage. Huhu. Oh well. At least we got there unscathed and what a really blessed relief it was to be surrounded with a less agitated crowd. Hehe.

Derek Ramsay and DJ Monica hosted the show. Funny how the ladies kept on shouting "Hubad! Hubad!" everytime Derek appeared. Haha. Sadly, his buff body and chiseled abs remained under his shirt. Too bad. Wehe.



A few minutes later, The Bloomfields took the stage and brought the audience back to the old times with "More Today Than Yesterday", "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", and "You've Lost That Loving Feeling", just to name a few. Sappy much? Ahihi. Enjoyed watching Louie Poco bounce crazily around the stage like he was high on magic mushrooms. Hehe. Well, he isn't called "The Live Wire" for nothing. \m/(-_-)\m/



The Out of Body Special performed next. Honestly, I've already forgotten the name of the band. I had to Google about Nino Avenido just to find something that would ring a bell. The audience wasn't all that enthusiastic about their performance but 'twas really REALLY rude of some people to boo them off the stage. These artists have worked hard on their music and they deserve to play their slot! While browsing through the search results, I came across this article from TIME, which mentioned The OBS as one of the 5 Asian Acts to Watch in 2008. Nice! And after hearing "Soundcheck" and "Give It" for a couple of times, I now think they're really worth listening to. You might not like them at first, but then the band kinda grows on you. Well, at least that's what happened to me. Ahihi.



At around 12am, Third Eye Blind finally stepped into the spotlight! Woohoo! I'm sooo glad coz they sang all my favorite songs and I caught most of it on video! There's "Graduate", "Jumper", "Never Let You Go", "Motorcycle Drive By", "Deep Inside of You"... Stephan Jenkins said that they've just finished recording their 4th album before flying to Manila and asked if they could sing some new songs. Who were we to say no to that?! Hehe.



Franz needed to go home already so I told him that if their next song isn't "Semi-Charmed Life", then we're out of there. So when they sang another unfamiliar song, we got on our feet and left. We were only a few steps away from the VIP section when they started singing "How's It Going To Be"! I really wanted to go back but Franz was in a bit of a hurry. And then they sang "Semi-Charmed Life" right after! Waaah! Sakto! Nyaha.

We then went to the Marquee section for the 6 bottles of limited edition Oktoberfest beers included in our tickets. Ren, Errol and Pansay told me that they would buy the bottles at a hundred pesos each. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to bring the bottles out of the tent. Sayang. That's 600 pesos worth of beer *poof* gone! Oh well. Cheers to being sober! Haha. ^_^

"When I say out loud, I wanna get out of this
I wonder, is there anything I'm gonna miss?"
---How's It Going To Be, Third Eye Blind