ASAP Rocks Glorietta (The All Access Mall Tour) [27 November 2011]

Category: Wonders of Wanders

"A simple thank you would have been nice.! "  ~Gil Renard from the movie The Fan.

You’d never know the fun of being a fan until you become one.

I have a friend whose hobby was to chase celebrities to have her picture taken with them. She curated those pictures in an album in FB, making it looked like she was the star and not the other way around. She texted me to meet her in Glorietta with the highest sense of urgency; prompting me to teleport myself there in an instant. ASAP Rocks will be having the All Access Mall Tour at Glorietta, and she said that we should be there before the mall would open.

It felt like we were almost a day early! The show would not start until later in the afternoon. We asked the concierge about the mechanics of being admitted to the VIP area, and we were told to spend at least PHP 500 in any establishments within the building for us to get a stub.

Before the show
we decided to have a brunch at A Veneto Pizzeria Ristorante. My palates were craving for the chicken carbonara which has been my favorite since my previous boss introduced us here.

The little Italian resto has become our favorite place to have a great conversation over the palatable selections of Italian pizza and pasta, which made me think it would go great with an exquisite white wine. The resto was dubbed Little Italy and I recalled the movies I watched during the recent Italian Film Fest at Greenbelt. I reckoned the place could live up to its moniker if they integrated a touch of artsy Italian culture by hanging paintings in the walls and by playing some jazzy Neapolitan’s canciones in the background.

The place brought back lots of memories. This is where we had team buildings, and sometimes where we had informal FGD’s with the client manager when I was working for Reader’s Digest. This is also where I celebrated my birthday last year.

Revisiting memories is like travelling back to the past. I always taught myself to live in the present moment and to avoid living in the past; yet reminiscing the good times is as fun as watching movies in my mind. What happened in the past and what will happen in the future exist in another reality; while the present moment is the eternity. Now is forever.



The show
was about to start. When we went back to the activity center, we learned that in order to be seated on the rows next to the stage, we must purchase CDs. I couldn’t make up my mind which album I should buy; for one thing, the singers were not familiar to me and the albums of those I knew were expensive. I ended up buying Sam Concepcion’s Forever Young album, partly because he is within my age bracket and mainly because his album was among the least expensive.

We were seating on the rows near the stage yet I am having a hard time recognizing the DJ that hosts the show. Later we learned that she was DJ Chacha (mwah! mwah! tsup! tsup!) of Tambayan. While the stars are retouching backstage, the DJ engage the crowd in a mini game. My friend wanted to join but every time she rushed to climb on stage, she was outrun by others. It was so wacky. The most competitive were those from the province, whose accents the crowds were making fun of. Nevertheless, they have their moment onstage; not to mention the gift packs and a hug-and-kiss from their idols. I was awed when one of the girls leaped onto the stage which was over a meter high. Asked where she was from, she said, “From Capiz”; no wonder she seemed to fly.

Vina Morales set the energy level higher when she sang her energetic rendition of Born This Way. She was the ultimate performer! 

My favorite performance was that of Aiza Seguera’s. Undoubtedly one of the best acoustic singers in the country, she sang Ang Huling El Bimbo while playing the guitar. It was so astig! It reminded me of Jason Mraz’s concert at Araneta.  



Then we had a production number by Empress Shuck, Bugoy, and Sam Concepcion with the G-Force. It was followed by singing performances of Bryan Termulo singing a song that was unfamiliar to me; and Princes Velasco singing her own version of Fireworks; and Sam Concepcion singing the cover of his album Forever Young; and the beautiful Zia Quizon who sang Ako Na Lang; and the most awesome voice of all was that of Sitti’s, my favorite. If her album were available earlier, I would have purchased hers.

Then the crowd screamed hysterically when Enrique Gil went onstage and taught us to dougie. The crowd was mesmerized by the cuteness and charm. Above all, he taught everyone how to dougie.

Since we were the very early birds, we got a chance to have our CDs signed by the artist. I asked Karen if we could exchange albums: she should have my CD signed by Sam while I have her CD signed by Zia, but she preferred the status quo and said that it was sort of a dare.

The people on Sam’s queue are mostly young girls. He must have been surprised when he saw me. He addressed me “sir”. It could be because I looked older and haggard from being awake for almost 24 hours. After the signing session, I went back to the chairs to retrieve the food we took out form A Veneto earlier but it was no longer there where I left it.

After the show
we walked to the Ayala Triangle gardens at the Stock Exchange area where we could catch a bus going home. The place was crowded with people watching the twinkling, flickering Christmas lights. We decided to linger and took pictures. After just a few minutes, all the lights went off and the people applauded. We thought the show was over, but the crowd were not moving and were rather excited as though they were anticipating something. When we were about to leave, music played in the background and the lights danced to the tune. It was spectacular! Later we learned that the musical light show would run until Christmas. I was looking forward to experience it again.

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