The Beyonce Experience

Yeah, I watched it live at Taguig’s open field (at the back of NBC Tent) yesterday. For free.

Here’s how I managed to grab a ticket. Wala talagang plano. I was only hoping for a free ticket from an officemate (male, nickname with three letters, tall, always sleeping at work). During lunchtime, I was informed that no extra free ticket was available. I was at Greenbelt 1 area, fetching five “Dogeaters” tix at the Prince Plaza office of Atlantis Productions. I stopped by at the Ticketworld booth inside the mall but decided to skip shedding some bucks for Beyonce.

OK. In the afternoon, I thought I was destined not to catch the concert (which was conveniently staged near our office). Until Jesse, a Cueshéan by heart (and soul? hahaha), gave away his ticket for an unknown reason. So there, at 8pm, I was still waiting for Clara (another Cueshéan), the third person, with whom I will be claiming my freebie. 8:20pm, got inside the pit just in time for the opening song “Crazy in Love”.

And here are the highlights and lowlights as far as I am, a beggar, is concerned:

1. The opening number had Beyonce singing a portion of Knarles Barkley’s “Crazy”. I liked that part;

2. Beyonce was sweating awkwardly in one number (thanks to the giant video wall);

3. My free ticket is a Patron B ticket and costs P1,000. Cheapest ticket in the market costs P600 (most expensive at P6,000?). I enjoyed my fellow jologs as we watched almost the entire show through the video wall (there’s a little girl dancing in the stage and that’s supposed to be Beyonce). At one point, in the middle of a dance act, the assigned wall in our area went blank and the crowd screamed “ooooh!” frustratingly. Then the projector started beaming back the default-digitized countdown before giving us the live feed. My crowd, as proud as we were, started shouting the countdown as well, stealing a scene from the other crowds (how come they didn’t have a countdown? hahaha);

4. No front act, I was informed;

5. I’ve seen a dozen costume changes and heard vocal acrobatics for two hours;

6. Two of my officemates watched the Dublin show and based on the pictures that they have shared with me, Manila wasn’t robbed of any theatrics (as commonly practiced in any Asian leg by an international act);

7. One of the official concert shirts has “Manila” spelled as “Manilla”. The usher made a nice attempt at selling. “Just like vanilla”, he said;

8. I’m not familiar with Beyonce’s discography but I recognized one song from “Dreamgirls”, as segued by a “Cell Block Tango” act from “Chicago”;

9. Last song was a "Happy Birthday" song. By then, I was already on my way out of The Fort. I saw a parked limo that, according to a Maximo Oliveros look-alike, brought the Sultan of Brunei to the venue. Someone even wisecracked with “Si Bella Aldama ang sakay n‘yan, gaga!”