Here and Queer and Head over Heels for Tears for Fears

(Note: It’s been two weeks since Tears For Fears rocked Manila for a one-night concert. In between that and today, we had the national elections. Here’s my belated blog on that wickedly awesome night).

We didn’t invent the karaoke machine for nothing. It’s occasions like a ‘Tears for Fears Concert’, when this Filipino invention is put to optimum use. Never mind if the entire Araneta Coliseum crowd drowned out the duo’s vocals almost all throughout the concert. As one fan’s shoutout to Curt Smith’s FB fanpage put it, ‘where else in the world can you find a concert with 22,000 back-up singers?’

To say that Pinoys anticipated the TFF concert is an understatement. No, we PREPARED and PRIMED ourselves for it. We confirmed attendance in the FB event page that Curt Smith himself, put up; researched their playlists in previous concerts; discussed their 80s legacy and impact on our growing up years (well, for those of us who lived through the 80s); and, glued ourselves to YouTube to watch and listen to live versions of their songs (I especially liked the NOTP concert). And more importantly, we bought our tickets early. I bought for myself and for four other friends (Natty, Michelle, MJ and AK), two months ahead.

I was particularly curious about their playlist. While their peak could be traced back to ‘The Hurting’ and ‘Songs From the Big Chair’, they also released several albums, which did not take off as spectacularly as the previous ones. In fact, two albums released under the TFF tag had only Roland Orzabal in it, because Curt had already left the band by then.

And so, spirits were high on the concert day itself. Tickets were sold out and as we were going inside the concert venue, the box office offered “standing” tickets at the Upper Box A section, meaning, standing on the aisles. The crowd was predominantly made up of people in their 30s and 40s, i.e., those who have grooved to the new wave beats of ‘Change’, ‘The Way You Are’ and ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’. Indeed it could have been a college or high school reunion, depending on which class/batch one belonged to.

As I anticipated, they played a mix of old and new songs, several of which I am happily familiar with (esp. their songs from the 2004 album, ‘Everybody Loves a Happy Ending’). The set started with an intro of ‘Mad World’, which was taken from their NOTP concert. Good thing it was just an intro because I was kinda apprehensive that Curt would not be able to pull off a mellow version of the song. Yes, AI fans, Adam Lambert owns ‘that’ version. When the strings played to “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” the crowd leapt to their feet and went wild. What a fitting, raucous start! This was followed by ‘Secret World’, one of my fave songs from the ELAHE album. Unfamiliar with the song, most of the audience slunk back to their seats. By the time the duo did ‘Closest Thing to Heaven’, which was also from the same album, practically everyone around me had sat down. I actually liked this song – and if you’ve seen the music video, it featured deceased actress, Brittany Murphy. Just as everyone had sort of settled down, they did ‘Seeds of Love’ – which brought the audience back to its feet again. But then they followed it up with the unfamiliar “Call Me Mellow (again from ELAHE) and this rendered the crowd to be quiet again.

See the pattern here? They sandwiched the not so familiar songs with their highly popular tunes from the 80s and early 90s. Yet, the Pinoy audience knows how to throw back appreciation and so each song, however unfamiliar, still merited a thunderous applause.

It was such a relief that they decided to do the original (fast/electronica) version of ‘Mad World’, which, as you guessed it, had everyone going again. When they did Floating Down the River, I so wanted to jump with Roland (and he enjoined the audience to jump with him!) but it felt silly doing that by myself. The duo also did their respective solo numbers. Curt sang ‘Seven of Sundays’ (from his solo album ‘Halfway, pleased’), which he dedicated to his daughters. The crowd swooned with approval. We Pinoys, are a sentimental lot. After Curt, it was Roland’s turn to transform the audience into jello, as he did a pseudo-70’s slow rock version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’. If I remember correctly, he performed this song in a concert, just right after the King of Pop’s death.

The next songs would cater purely to what the audience had been eagerly anticipating. It was karaoke madness to the hilt. Oh, and one thing about us Pinoys: we don’t just sing; we dance, too. Imagine a packed Araneta Coliseum swaying and singing in unison to ‘Pale Shelter’ and ‘Break it Down Again’. And when they did their “final song” ‘Head Over Heels’, all hell broke loose. The audience stomped their feet, raised their fists, clicked their cameras and hollered for more! And this was when the infamous “booing” of Korina Sanchez took place. Hell, yeah, this was not a place to campaign – it was inappropriate. But what was funny was that this happened as the whole coliseum was belting out a thunderous “mooooore” and then, somewhere, from the sidelines, we could hear a low, reverberating, “booooo”. Heaven forbid that Roland and Curt think they were being booed.

Expectedly, the duo promptly went back onstage and sang two more songs. ‘Woman in Chains’, which had back-up vocalist, Michael Wainwright, doing the part of Oleta Addams. We were forewarned by Roland that we would be “shocked” with what this guy could do, vocally. And the crowd roared with approval every time Michael hit the high notes. Finally, they did the phenomenal ‘Shout’. Oh, what mayhem! The crowd was enveloped in heavenly hysteria and the whole coliseum rocked.

…. And then, it was over. Amidst all the screams, shrieks and squeals, the duo waved warmly to the crowd and promptly disappeared. Oh, before that, Curt made a cute gesture by taking a panoramic shot of the crowd with his digital camera.

As the lights on stage dimmed, we stood waiting… transfixed by what had just happened…wrapped in TFF euphoria. Maybe they would go back again on stage… perform a couple more songs? But the crew started pulling out the cables and taking out the playlist…so yeah, that was it.

But what a show! What an evening! There was no fanfare – no costume changes, no production numbers, no special effects. It was pure and sheer 100% Roland and Curt – who, in their fifties, looked fabulously well and fit. Their voices have remained almost the same – Curt, still slightly thin and pitchy, and Roland, strong and wide in range. We wanted to see them dance and flail their arms, the way they did in ‘Change’ and ‘The Way We Were’ but instead, they swayed rather sexily with their guitars in tow. Curt looked a little older with his gray hair, but Roland had the same wild wavy mane that he kept flipping throughout the night.

I missed ‘Change’, ‘Mothers’ Talk’, ‘Advice for the Young at Heart, ‘Suffer the Children’, ‘Year of the Knife’ and many more songs.

Hours after the concert, hundreds of fans flooded Curt’s FB fanpage wall with gushing, congratulatory messages. In fact, the number of his twitter followers and FB fans leapt significantly. I can really conclude that Pinoys are one of the best fans an artist can ever dream of having. Indeed, Roland made a comment during the concert that they had toured extensively in the US, Europe and other places, but how could they have missed Manila?

Oh, did I mention that Sandwich and Pupil were the front acts? I am not so much a fan of either band (my friends and I preferred if it was Dawn or True Faith who opened for TFF) but Raymond Marasigan and Ely Buendia wowed the crowd with their joint performance of an Eheads classic, ‘Alapaap’.

I will bet my ass that TFF’s best concert in their Asian leg was Manila. And in Curt’s subsequent tweets, he thanked Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taipei, but he had the best to say about the Philippines: “Doesn't happen very often but...I'm speechless. Manila, what a night! Thank you so much, we've now officially peaked:)…”

The complete Manila concert playlist:

Intro: Mad World (NOTP version)

Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Secret World

Closest Thing to Heaven

Seeds of Love

Call Me Mellow

Mad World

Floating Down the River

Memories Fade

Raoul and the Kings of Spain

Quiet Ones

Everybody Loves A Happy Ending

Seven of Sundays

Billie Jean

Pale Shelter

Break It Down Again

Head Over Heels

Encore:

Woman In Chains

Shout

(Photos #2-5 by AK Ocol)