Why not try and Make Yourself

Ok, so it took me a while to write more about the Incubus concert. I was doing a bit of google hunting for the "Pantomime" mp3 (which was part of their set) and I came across this Brazilian fan blog (http://www.incubuscometobrazil.blogger.com.br/). Here's an accurate list of the songs that they played, and in the proper order too:

01. Megalomaniac
02. A Crow Left of The Murder
03. Warning
04. Consequence
05. Idiot Box
06. Just A Phase (Brandon na guitarra)
07. Priceless (Brandon na guitarra)
08. Wish You Were Here
09. Pantomime (Brandon na guitarra)
10. Here In My Room (Brandon na guitarra)
11. Drive
12. Pistola
13. Circles
14. Vitamin
15. Clean
16. Talk Shows On Mute
17. Magic Medicine
18. Certain Shade Of Green
19. Sick Sad Little World

**encore:
20. Are You In?
21. Pardon Me

It was a very welcome surprise that Brandon played guitar on some songs, which I've never seen in any of their videos before. He was like "I'm checking if this in tune....hey Mike, is this in tune? Oh it is in tune, I'm just weird, sorry " (that isn't verbatim). He started playing a song, and my mind was quickly trying to figure out what song it was...I drew a blank. It turns out that it was a little-known (on our side of the world anyway) song called "Pantomime". What a treat it was indeed. The site I mentioned also had the song list of the other concerts from their Asian tour. It's pretty much the same with a few variations, and all opened with "Megalomaniac". It makes sense since their tour is named after their latest album.

I was singning along to all of the songs - is that geeky or what? I was so glad that Ben took the effort to learn the old songs, and play them well. I thought I'd never hear them play "A Certain Shade of Green" or "Idiot Box". We were close to the speakers which made my ears ring a bit after, but damn, it was worth it.

My biggest regret was that I didn't bring my camera. We asked beforehand if we could bring it, but the guy on the phone said no. Well, when the show started, the people beside me were gleefully taking snapshots of the band playing as well as themselves. Security wasn't so tight about that after all. I should've just taken my chances and brought my cam along.

They ended the set with "Sick sad, little world". After the song, Brandon said "thanks y'all, well see you real soon". With those words, my heart sunk knowing that they probably won't be coming back. As they exited the stage, the crowd started chanting "more, more!", and singing the "ooooh-hoooooh-hooo" part of "Are you In?". Being the gracious dudes that they were, they came back and played two more songs. Sure enough it was "Are you In?" and then the excellent "Pardon Me".

Seeing Incubus actually get up on stage and play their instruments added another dimension of my respect for the band. The whole experience underscored the fact that they're real people playing music, and not some manufactured group put together. I recall NU 107 DJ /The Dawn guitar man Francis say that it's important to see past the marketing and really listen to the music. Well, I had the wonderful chance to connect to their music and jump past the hype and packaging. This just occured to when I saw a poster advertising the event after we left the area. Strip away the whole marketing machinery, and all you're left with is the music.

The primary thing that they do is play their music, but they also have to show up for endless photo shoots as well, as part of the whole media vehicle to promote them. I guess it comes with territory.