My weekend started at 5.59 pm last Friday, 27 June. I had been waiting for this moment since I woke up that morning and I literally had to crawl my way through the day.

I left the office a little past 7 pm because I hadn't finished my work due to some delays (read: petiks.) I was a bit cross because I knew getting a cab would be a challenge but I got one soon enough, picked up my friend - Abby - who was loittering around in Pasay Road (=P) and then proceeded to the low profile but highly acclaimed ultimate gig place (feel ko lang) - Saguijo.

I was a bit nervous as we approached the place because it was our first time to go there, and it was Saguijo's 4th year anniversary so they were expecting a full house. We planned on having dinner there so we wanted to get tables near the stage. The lady I spoke with said it was better to go early, like 6.30 pm so we could get a table but it was almost 7.40 when we arrived. As it turns out, the (I'll call it) music hall where the bands were supposed to peform was completely devoid of tables - all the tables were placed in the sort of driveway inside the apartment building which housed Saguijo. Luckily the place wasn’t packed yet so we were able to secure a table and then we ordered food (which was good and affordable, by the way. We got Aglio Olio and Spicy Tuna pasta, garlic mushrooms, calamares and grilled pusit.)

Emkay and Vera followed at 9.00 something. At that time, the first band (I already forgot which) was already playing. Then Urbandub came on! Vera and I went to the music hall but unfortunately, we could only go as far as the window so we went back to our seats… hopeless and broken… joke =P At that point, a group of rocker dudes sat across from us. Now I'm not really a hard core rocker and I know only a few bands by face. So Vera was saying something about the group being Wolfgang or Greyhoundz and we kept scratching our heads for a name until we finally got it - Basti! Turns out later, he wasn't Basti after all but a Manuel something from Razorback. (What can I say - I like Michael Buble and Ne-yo and Mario ok?)

So we finished dinner around 10.30 and tried to make our way again inside the music hall. It was worse than how MRT cubao could get on a rainy June day during rush hours. The only time we could go inside the hall was when someone else came out after one band finishes. When we were going there some members of Razorback got stuck in the crowd as well. After 1 hour and about 2 pints of sweat, Razorback finally got inside, finished their 30 minute set and went out again. During the transition to the next band, we managed to sneak inside with 'humabol' friends Yvette, Rensy and Vera's friends, but Abby opted to watch from outside the closed glass window - a wise move as we would learn later on kasi may electric fan doon and hindi mashado masikip.

Once inside we were relieved to find that while the people almost stormed the stage, there was still plenty of space at the back. So we rested a bit and smugly thought what a great idea it was to stay at the back. 30 minutes later - the next band still hadn't come (Greyhoundz… nyarr!!) My prof once said that the average waiting time a person gives to CS reps was about 2 minutes. After that any second the customer waits only aggravates him/her. Well imagine waiting 30 minutes in a hot, stuffy, airless room. The razorback vocalist was joking about going to the Saguijo Sauna - and he wasn’t kidding. There was absolutely no air inside! There were two aircon units which benefitted only about 20 heads; there were no windows and no vents. Its like you will contract asthma just by staying 15 minutes in there. Its a good thing no one smelled bad because that would have compounded the situation. Emkay and V were on the brink of giving up and were about to go out when Imago arrived. I barely enjoyed Imago's performance because of the discomfort. I had to climb up the short flight of stairs leading to the restroom to get a good view of the stage and see the few strands of Aia's hair that bounced as she jumped up and down.

After their set, Emkay and V left but I decided to stay on because I really wanted to watch Sandwich perform (Imago and Sandwich and Urbandub lang talaga ang habol ko dun and I wasn’t about to give up since I was minutes - 30 minutes away from the top of the mountain, ika nga.) I secretly hoped that they would perform next but I vaguely remembered that there was another band in between Imago and Sandwich. True enough Pedicab came on next. I'm a really bad groupie because there was a guy there who looked like Raymund Marasigan, but I couldn't be sure unless he took to the mic but the guy just played the guitar. Anyway, the room was so really so stuffy that I had to breathe through my mouth. Bad day not to have brought any fan, hanky, tissue or any paper so I had to fan myself with my sweater. And when that didnt work - I became utterly desperate - and literally swung the CR door just so I could breathe in something! Buti it didn't stink. Good thing too that I didn’t drink much because even if I wanted to pee, I wouldn't have been able to. I was wearing skinny jeans and I knew that If I pulled my pants down, I wont be able to put it back on - it stuck to my legs like leather tights!

The finale for me was Sandwich (3-4 bands still played after them including Grey-freakn-houndz) - who played 4 songs instead of just 3 like the others - and they didn’t fail me. They sang Procrastinator, My favorite band, Betamax and one other song. Wheeee! Towards the end of Betamax, Raymund threw himself at the crowd three times and kept on hugging and kissing his wife. I thought he must be drunk or something. They were probably the highlight because when they left, they took 3/4 of the crowd outside with them.

As I left the music hall, I was literally gasping for breath. The evening wasn't so cold but the outside air was like aircon on my skin! We stayed a bit in the resto in front of Saguijo to wind down, went back inside Saguijo to claim some more free drinks (including a shitty tasting Jack Daniels ata yun) then slept at far far.

In retrospect, I will never ever ever ever do that again! Waiting 2 hours for Imago and Sandwich to play 7 songs in a stuffy room is definitely not worth it, especially if you don’t have any pictures to remember it by (huhuhu!) Next time, I'd rather watch individual gigs in a more comfortable setting. Para may QT.

To be continued…. (nauubusan na ako ng Inglish hehe)