i distinctly remember this one morning when i was sitting in the car on my way to school when vertical horizon’s “you’re a god” played on the radio. the traffic light just turned green and i was this close to being dropped off in school but there i was, almost late for the 8am class, wishing the light would turn red again so i could finish listening to the song because it was that kind of song that starts your day right, no matter how sh*tty the rest of the day goes.

eleven years later, who would have thought that i would be able to watch the band perform live, taking in the lights, the crowd, and the music with ram’s arms wrapped around me while rocking to “you’re a god”?

definitely one of the best moments of my life, made possible by the dude who surprised me with a pair of silver tickets so we could watch a real concert together for the first time.

hey, ely, mind turning around a bit?

and by real, i don’t mean the free ones where you watch a famous vocalist sing old songs from his previous band’s hey days — an unobstructed view of his skull and his spine from two floors above the stage where the mini-concert was held.

so, yeah, last week, ram and i went to a REAL concert and i am being smug about this. partly because i’m tired of collecting bottle caps, but mainly because it was so much fun and it was memorable to both of us.

not a lot of people turned up, though, which wasn’t bad ‘coz we got a lot of space to ourselves, although we didn’t need a lot of space when we were just huddled together watching the lights reflect off matt scannell’s glittery guitar and shiny bald head.

but man, the band was good! really awesome. i couldn’t help but rave. because, really, they were so good that i could close my eyes and think that what i was listening to was a studio-recorded version. unbelievable voice.

so much so that on the drive home, i kept gushing.

me: amazing! kuha jud kaayo niya ang tuno sa mga kanta!
ram: um, ga? siya lang jud kaha ang nagkanta?
me: i know pero.. diba? amazing jud kaayo na makuha niya ang tuno!
(at this point, ram was just about ready to shoot himself.)

and, oh, because it was ram’s surprise for me and all, we didn’t bring a decent camera. so for posterity’s sake, i whipped out my humble phone with its state-of-the-art 2-megapixel camera feature and clicked away.

i promise this is vertical horizon… swear mortal!