Colour us excited. By the time the doors opened at 5PM, we were already at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre ready to rock and roll.

Also, to get our money’s worth with the supposed pre-show at 5:30 where we presumed was going to be exactly that: a bloody pre-show. Not some 30 minutes of constant video advertising for The Filipino Channel interspersed with grating acknowledgements of the event’s sponsors. I mean, fair enough to be thanking benefactors and stuff but…

I was literally falling asleep in my seat. We were two hours too early. I was afraid it was gonna be one of those sad concerts with an empty venue, judging from the rows and rows of unoccupied seats around us.

As it turned out, everyone else knew what we didn’t and skipped the entire “pre-show” altogether, rocking up just as Eraserheads was slated to play at 7PM so by the time the band walked onstage, their excitement had not waxed and waned like ours did. Fucking legends.

But omigod, it was such an adrenaline rush to see Ely Buendia (lead singer), Marcus Adoro (guitarist), Buddy Zabala (bassist), and Raimund Marasigan (drummer).

But mainly Ely because he was the only band member (and whose full name) I knew. Google supplied the names of the rest. Admittedly, I’m not a hardcore Eraserheads fan but that doesn’t mean I don’t know a lot of their songs because I do. They were hugely popular as I was growing up in the 90’s so their commercial hits, of which there were many, were pretty much my generation’s national anthem.

The band members definitely looked older. So did the audience jamming with them. We weren’t exactly spring chickens ourselves. But in that space and time, we were all transported back to our days of youth. Reminiscing about people and events long gone. United in the nostalgia of our individual memories triggered by ageless songs shared in a collective setting.

It’s surreal how music can do that to you.

But it was a beautiful memory created together with my sister and some good friends to add to the ancient memories already embedded within.

By the time the concert was finished, I was partially deaf. I kid you not.

*Raven at 8 years old