Category Archives: Music & Theatre

Here’s where I talk concerts and musicals I’ve attended. Because the hills are alive… with the sound OF music (in a Chandler accent).

Alicia Keys Live in Manila 2008

Music & Theatre,

 

I’ve always loved Alicia Keys because she’s my age, she plays the piano (and a pink piano too in her Karma music video), she has a big voice that sounds bluesy, and she’s got STYLE. And to top it all off, she reminds me of the time I first started going out with my boyfriend, Sidney (it’s a long story, so I won’t delve into that).

We went to see her live at the SMX Convention Center in SM Mall of Asia last 05 August 2008 (Tuesday). It was supposed to be at the open-air concert grounds, but they had to move it in because of the weather. Before I start with my rave review though, I have to get the following rants out of the way:

1. The concert started late. The front acts opened the show at around 8:30 pm, while Alicia Keys came on after 10:00 pm. I wouldn’t mind waiting for her for an hour and a half, but I wish they didn’t play some random music while we were waiting. Couldn’t they at least have played some Alicia Keys?

2. The lights were on at the “bronze” area (or General Admission) during the front acts. It felt as if the people in the “silver” area (nearer the stage) were having a concert, and we were spectators outside the venue. Plus the giant screens weren’t on, so I couldn’t see Luke Mijares and Duncan Ramos.

3. The people who bought Php900 and Php500 tickets were all lumped in one area. Thankfully, I bought the Php500 tickets so it didn’t matter to me, but I can understand why people who bought the more expensive tickets were so pissed.

Okay, so enough complaints. Really, Alicia Keys was phenomenal! Unlike some singers out there who don’t sound so good when they’re performing live, she sounded even better during the concert than she does on her albums!

Unfortunately I forgot to list down all the songs she performed in order, but here are some random memories from the concert:

1. She opened with a song I wasn’t familiar with, but it got the crowd going and we all instantly forgave her for being so late.

2. She started “Superwoman” by rapping the lines, “still when I’m a mess, I still put on a vest with an S on my chest, oh yes.” It is now officially my second favorite Alicia Keys line, but mainly because the S reminds me of my, uh, boyfriend Sidney. Plus I have a pink shirt with an S on the chest (actually, it’s the Superman logo).

3. I’m putting up a video of her performance of “Karma,” which they rearranged by giving it a salsa beat. It was so unexpected, yet so danceable. I have a video of the performance as well, but since I was further from the stage (than the person who shot this) and I wasn’t able to film the entire song, I decided to put this video clip instead which I found in YouTube (thanks to user standard123123).

4. She sung only her parts in “My Boo” so it was pretty short, but at least I got to hear her sing my favorite Alicia Keys line live, “Yes I remember boy, the moment I knew you were the one I could spend my life with.”

5. Her performance of “Teenage Love Affair” sort of reminded me of Destiny’s Child (since she was doing some choreography with her two backup singers. She looks a little weird sometimes when she’s dancing, but it’s all good. The fans appreciate the effort.

6. “Fallin” was one of the most loudly cheered performance. I think it’s still her best song because it really showcases her musicality and range. It was so great to see her play the piano and sing it to the crowd.

7. It was a treat to hear Alicia Keys and Jermaine Dupri singing “Diary.”

8. She played other favorites like “Unbreakable,” “You Don’t Know My Name” and “Like You’ll Never See Me.” I missed hearing “Girlfriend” and “Goodbye” though.

9. “No One” was one of my favorite songs, and she played it for her “encore.” It was a great way to end the night, but I knew she had another song up her sleeve since she hasn’t sung “If I Ain’t Got You” yet.

10. For her real encore, she did “If I Ain’t Got You.” Although I’d have liked it if she ended on a happier, more upbeat note (like “No One”), I understand how she said this song is appropriate because she knows she wouldn’t be here if she ain’t got us (her Filipino fans).

Photo credit: diego1234

High School Musical: The Ice Tour (Part 2)

Music & Theatre, TV & Movies

As I mentioned in my first entry, I watched High School Musical: The Ice Tour in Araneta Coliseum (Quezon City, Philippines) in July 2008 with my niece Raicielle, nephew Brian and boyfriend Sidney. The second half of the show told the story of HSM2. When the final school bell rang, signifying the beginning of the summer break, everyone performed “What Time Is It?”, which is a very catchy tune. If I were still a student, this would probably be my theme song (“no more waking up at 6 am…”).

At the Lava Springs, Ryan, Sharpay and the Sharpettes performed “Fabulous,” happy that they were going to spend their summer at their parents’ country club. Troy and the rest of the Wildcats were also spending their summer at Lava Springs, albeit as employees (working as waiters, lifeguards, etc). Following the instructions of Sharpay, the club manager, Mr. Fulton, tried to make things difficult for them, hoping to get everyone except Troy to quit. They felt discouraged until Troy began to sing “Work This Out.”

Kelsi later played the song she composed for Troy and Gabriella, “You Are the Music in Me,” a song that I really like except that music is pronounced in the song as mu-SIC instead of MU-sic. While working at Lava Springs, a rift slowly began to form between Troy and his friends, mainly because of Sharpay and her manipulations. During the staff baseball game, Gabriella and Taylor invited Ryan along (who took Troy’s place since he didn’t show up), where he and Chad performed “I Don’t Dance” while playing baseball. I did think it’s really funny for someone to sing “I don’t dance” while actually dancing.

Troy and Sharpay practiced the very upbeat “You Are the Music in Me (Sharpay Version)” complete with special effects, like in the movie. When Sharpay found out that her twin Ryan was choreographing the Wildcats for the country club’s Midsummer Night’s Talent show, she told Mr. Fulton to ban employee participation. Troy’s relationship with Gabriella hit the breaking point then, and she performed “Gotta Go My Own Way.”

When Gabriella quit her job, Troy realized how badly he had been treating her and their friends, and performed “Bet On It.” I didn’t like this part very much in the movie because he did a couple of pretty weird moves, but the skating in the show was superb. Since this was a solo, the skater playing Troy had the chance to show off his skating skills.

After this, Troy finally told Sharpay off for not treating his friends well and only agreed to sing with her if his friends were allowed to perform in the talent show too. With the help of everyone (especially Ryan and Kelsi), he performed “Everyday” with Gabriella, along with the rest of the Wildcats. The show ended with “All for One,” another catchy tune, and I was again pleased to see that they used some of the choreography from the movie.

So what did I think of High School Musical: The Ice Tour? The skaters playing Gabriella and Sharpay had pretty obvious wigs. But that’s okay because the skater playing Troy, Chad, Martha, Kelsi and Ms. Darbus looked very similar to the movie actors.

It was worth every peso I spent for our tickets since we not only had the chance to relive 2 movies we all enjoyed, but we also got to watch great skating as well. My nephew reminded me that it has been years since I last took them ice skating, so I guess I’ll have to plan another skating session soon.

High School Musical: The Ice Tour (Part 1)

My niece Raicielle and nephew Brian both loved the two High School Musical movies (okay, I did too), so when I found out about the High School Musical: The Ice Tour at the Araneta Coliseum (Quezon City, Philippines) on July 2008. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy tickets earlier than I planned to, so we wound up getting just upper box B seats. It turned out okay because we came early and were able to find good seats right in the middle.

It was the first time I went to a show where 70% of the audience were kids. And screaming kids at that. I kept telling my boyfriend Sidney that I suddenly felt so old, and I’m still in my twenties! I think there was even a school which had a field trip there, and I kept thinking – why didn’t my teachers think of bringing us to shows like that instead of museums for my grade school field trips?

I wasn’t sure what to expect of the show. Perhaps just a couple of people skating and dancing to the popular songs from both High School Musical 1 and 2. I already knew from some promotional pictures that some skaters would be dressed up as the main characters of the movie – Troy Bolton, Gabriella Montes, Sharpay Evans, Ryan Evans, Chad Danforth and Taylor McKessie. What I didn’t know was that they would actually be retelling both movies using the character of Kelsi Nielsen (the composer and “playmaker”) as narrator to fill in the gaps for those who haven’t seen the movies yet.

The show started with the entire cast doing an upbeat version of “Start of Something New,” and each of the main characters was introduced. Surprisingly, they even had minor characters like Martha Cox (the healthy girl who likes hip-hop) and Zeke Baylor (the basketball player who wanted to bake the perfect crème brulee).

The first half told the story of HSM1 – starting with Troy and Gabriella’s “Start of Something New” karaoke performance. Troy and the team did “Get’cha Head in the Game” afterwards which must have been difficult. Shooting and dribbling a ball while skating on ice looked challenging, and Sidney pointed out that none of the skaters except Troy was able to nail a shot in their makeshift court. Sharpay and Ryan then performed my personal favorite, “What I’ve Been Looking For,” even taking some of the choreography from the movie. Kelsi played the slow version, which Troy and Gabriella performed as well, getting them a callback from Ms. Darbus.

“Stick to the Status Quo,” another personal favorite of mine, came next. The set-up was quite similar to that in the movie, with Sharpay and Ryan at the balcony, and everyone around their respective tables. In the next scene, Chad and the other Wildcats got Troy to say that singing and Gabriella were not important to him. Gabriella heard him, as did Taylor and the others from the scholastic decathlon team, through a mobile phone (not a webcam like in the movie). The upset Gabriella then skated a smooth solo to the song, “When There Was Me and You,” which my nephew didn’t like in the movie because he thought Gabriella was being overly dramatic.

The next song was “Bop to the Top” by Ryan and Sharpay during the callbacks. There were moments when they would suddenly freeze in position and the spotlight would focus on either the scholastic decathlon or the basketball championship, which were happening simultaneously. There was this really, really cool scene where they did a slow motion to make sure the ball gets in the hoop. You’d have to see it to appreciate it, but it was very nicely done, and was the highlight for me of the entire show.

This was followed by “Breaking Free” by Troy and Gabriella. It was amazing to hear all the kids singing along. Okay, so I was singing along to all the songs too, but that’s beside the point. The first half ended with the entire cast performing “We’re All in This Together,” and I was so happy that they got the choreography on the chorus from the movie.

There was a brief intermission between the first half of the show (HSM1) and the second half of the show (HSM2), so I had time to stretch my legs. You can read about the second part here.

Complete Song List from STEP UP

Music & Theatre, TV & Movies, ,

I really liked the movie “Step Up” and have been listening to the soundtrack nearly everyday on my way to and from the office. It’s a lot of fun to listen to, but I kept thinking I would prefer a CD containing all the songs from the movie in the order they were played. For some reason I never thought to check out the list of songs in the credits, but found a song list from IMDB.  I added some scene descriptions and did some minor corrections on the list.

Petey Pablo – Show Me The Money (included in the soundtrack)

This was played during the opening credits where they interposed scenes of dancers doing ballet and hip-hop to show how dancing has inherent similarities.

Clipse – Ain’t Cha (included in the soundtrack)

This was played during the opening party scene at Omar’s, when Skinny bugged Mac (who was making out with a strangely deep-voiced woman) to leave the party saying, “This party’s whack.”

T I – Get It

This was played in the scene you can call “Where Tyler’s At,” which was the first time we see Tyler dancing (and with PJ’s girlfriend too).

Dolla – Feelin’ Myself (included in the soundtrack)

This was the song Tyler listened to when he headed straight to his room (“I’m not hungry”) after getting 200 hours of community service.

Kathleen Crees – Violette

This was played while Tyler was on his balcony looking outside, after telling his foster sister Camille to get out of his room.

Jeanette Ortea et al – Maidens of the Grove

This was the song being sung by the three girls in the hallway of MSA, when Tyler first got there.

Nuttin but Stringz – Canon in D

This was the song played by the violinists in the hallway of MSA.

Black Sheep – The Choice Is Yours

This was played while Tyler was dancing in the parking lot in his “garbage man jumpsuit,” when he noticed Nora watching him from a window.

Mark Ronson – Little Dap

This was played when Tyler, Mac and skinny were playing basketball at the court.

Shilo Monaco – Shilo’s Piano

This was the song played by the student practicing on piano while Principal Gordon was looking on approvingly. According to the DVD commentary, this was really the composition of the guy playing the piano.

Ron Feemster – Cleaning Song

This was played while Tyler was cleaning MSA and being a jerk about it.

Fatboy Slim and Macy Gray – Love Life

This was played when Nora was auditioning sophomores to be her temporary partner while Andrew was out injured, which was one of the funniest parts of the film. This should have been included in the soundtrack I think.

 Chris N Drop – Crazy Strings

This was played while Nora rehearsed alone, waiting for Tyler.

C. Ride – Pushin’

This was played while Tyler and the boys were going to Omar’s, and found out that them “dudes froze out.” 

Chris Brown – Say Goodbye (included in the soundtrack)

This was played while Lucy and Nora were talking in the cafe about Nora being so defensive and denying her feelings about Tyler.

Samantha Jade – Step Up (included in the soundtrack)

This was played during the montage of Nora and Tyler rehearsing. There were lots of funny scenes there. It was also used in the Step Up Dance Contest.

Josh Henderson – Philosophy

This was the song that Brett (Nora’s soon-to-be ex-boyfriend) was recording in the studio with Miles when Tyler came in late for his rehearsal with Nora. I wish this was included in the soundtrack so that we can hear the entire song.

Kwame B. Holland – Tonight

According to the website where I got this from, this was the new song Miles played for Nora, and was used during the group rehearsal (when Tyler found dancers to do back-up for Nora, so she could have it the way she imagined her routine to be). This is kind of weird though, because I think it was ‘Bout It. I’ll have to watch the movie again and check.

Gina Rene – U Must Be (included in the soundtrack)

This was played in that rooftop scene where Tyler and Nora danced. This has got to be one of my favorite scenes of all time.

Jamie Scott – Made (included in the soundtrack)

This was the song Lucy’s older, “sophisticated” boyfriend Colin performed in the club. I love this song. Interestingly enough, Colin’s real name Jamie Scott is also the name of the son of my favorite TV show couple (Nathan and Haley from One Tree Hill). 

Sean Paul & Keyshia Cole – Give It Up to Me (included in the soundtrack)

This was the song played after Colin and his band took a break. He met Tyler and convinced Miles to play with them, while Nora arrived and headed to Tyler. Channing Tatum (who plays Tyler Gage) and Jenna Dewan (who plays Nora Clark) appeared in the music video and did a really cute dance sequence.

Drew Sidora featuring Mario – ‘Til the Dawn (included in the soundtrack)

This was the song Lucy performed in the club, when Nora asked Tyler to dance. He didn’t know it was a line dance, and fumbled through the steps at first, then ended up showing off his dance skills. My favorite scene in the entire movie!

Drew Sidora featuring Mario – For the Love (included in the soundtrack)

This was played while Lucy (played by Drew Sidora) and Miles (played by Mario) were talking after the performance. This was the song on the background when Tyler and Nora finally had their first kiss.

Kelis – ’80s Joint (included in the soundtrack)

This was played during Tyler and Camille’s dance-off while playing with a ball. FYI, Camille (played by Alyson Stoner) is actually the amazing kid dancing in the music videos of Eminem’s Lose It (ha-ha-ha-ha-ha) and Missy Elliot’s Work It.

Novel – Damn

This should have been included in the soundtrack! This was played during another montage of Tyler and Nora rehearsing and goofing around.

Anthony Hamilton – Dear Life (included in the soundtrack)

This was played after Tyler and Nora’s major fight, because Andrew came back and Tyler had to drop out of the showcase.

Pitbull – Toma

This was played during the party scene at Omar’s, when Mac said “All these girls and he [Tyler] don’t feel like dancing.”

Rhymefest – What Up!

This was also played during the party scene at Omar’s.

Ryan “Alias” Tedder – Attention Please

This was also played during the party scene at Omar’s.

Youngbloodz – Imma Shine (included in the soundtrack)

This was the song Miles played in Omar’s party, to which Nora did lyrical jazz (her favorite style of dancing according to her audio commentary) and Tyler did hip-hop. This was also the song playing when Skinny got shot.

Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake Waltz

This was the song the ballerina was dancing to during the showcase.

Young Joc – ‘Bout it [instrumental] (included in the soundtrack, but with vocals)

This was the song used during the showcase. What a way to end the movie!

Ciara – Get Up (included in the soundtrack)

This was played during the closing credits where they included submissions from the dance contest. Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan also appeared in the music video wearing black leather.