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The following is the fourth of five daily installments leading up to David’s return to Asia. Written by Ascphil at the conclusion of his last trip to that part of the world, and with exclusive photos by her daughter.
Having read that David glows and is very fair-skinned, I started comparing his skin tone to that of VJ Jules who was very fair for a Filipina. I was surprised that under the same light, VJ Jules was a pinkish, fleshy fair, while David seemed like he was made of porcelain, and the stage lights were making his skin reflect a bluish hue. Are my eyes fooling me? Is he really on stage? I know he is there because of his unmistakable speaking voice. My mind was puzzled by what I was seeing, but I was too busy trying to get a good shot of him on my video cam. As Alfredo started strumming the intro chords of Elevator and David started to sing, all I could see was a sea of lighted screens with David’s head barely visible above them.
When he went into his audience participation part of the song, he was very much in his element as he asked certain groups of the audience to sing. I was pleasantly surprised that when it was the turn of the male fans, there was much more singing than what I’d usually heard in the US videos. Way to go, Archienoys! When Elevator was done, I hesitated to put down my video cam lest I miss something significant in David’s in-between banter. He then moved toward the baby grand piano for the next song which he then revealed was Crush.
The fans went crazy again as he played the first few chords. Visibly pleased by the audience reaction, he gave a great big charming smile which brought on much more screaming, then sang Crush with such fervor. Dang these cameramen! Even if we were directly in front of David, their big cameras were crowding our vision as they moved back and forth in front of us. I could get a shot of David only when the cameramen moved enough away from each other to produce a gap between them. I could see the sweat on his forehead; his face was so smooth and expressive as he sang. He shimmered like fine bone china in his sweat. What was that skin made of? I was imagining that if I wiped him with soft cloth, he would have sheen like a porcelain doll. Watching him on the piano, I have never witnessed David sing Crush so passionately the way he did it that night. I think it is true what many have observed, that he feeds on the energy of the audience and his singing is so inspired by that energy. We were giving him loads of love and he was giving it back to us in heaps. Then the song ended. We were previously told that he would perform only two songs, then the cd signing. The fans were applauding but at the same time clamoring: Awww, one more please, David!
As though he could read our minds, David stood up and moved away from the piano then immediately said he had one more song for us. Although he was feeling very hot and wished there could be one big fan above us, he was very much in high gear. He then nodded at Alfredo who proceeded to play SBL’s opening chords. The crowd was mesmerized as David sang the first few high notes.
This time the cameramen in front of us were gone and moved center-stage, thank God! During the chorus of SBL, the fans were singing along with him and didn’t need his prompting. Again, the sea of raised hands hovered with a multitude of lighted screens and they seemed even higher than before. Although I was getting pretty tired holding my right video cam hand up, there were instances when I caught myself tiptoeing because there were just too many cameras to compete with. Wherever David went as he moved around the stage, you could feel that the people in the moshpit moved along with him. Our bodies were so pushed up against each other that we were already acting like many small pieces of metal that were following David like he was a big magnet. JR later related that even if she couldn’t see David the whole time, she knew exactly where he was because of how the people in the moshpit were moving to the left or to the right.
The air in the Sky Dome was so charged up with enormous energy, it is amazing how the fans were very much behaved even in all the frenzy. I didn’t hear of any mishap even though the moshpit was really packed. When SBL ended and David thanked us, sending us his love with “Mahal ko kayo!”, we all understood that there was no need to ask for another song, as we were all too excited to get ready for the cd signing. 🙂
All videos courtesy Rabid4David
