NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD EVER LIVE TO SEE "APOLOGIZE" AND "SECRETS" BE PERFORMED LIVE. IT'S EVERYTHING.
I am just too darn grateful, too darn overwhelmed to even be there, to be at the moshpit, to be that close, really too darn grateful, couldn't hold it in, I was almost praying.
For everyone who attended #MTVMusicEvo last Friday, you all know how OneRepublic stole the show. They killed it, like I was pretty sure they would, I just didn't realize they would kill it as much as they did. I was blown away. You could feel the whole crowd getting carried away and falling in love, even those who didn't even know the band. I have loved OneRepublic myself for a quite a time now, especially Ryan Tedder. That guy's a hero. If only you knew how many, and which of the songs you know by heart are written by him. Billboard even tagged him as the Undercover King of Pop when he graced the cover of their magazine. I was too inlove with Tedder, I had that Billboard magazine cover photo of him as my wallpaper in 2014, for freaking 6 months! (And it's not even me to use pictures of anyone as my wallpaper) OneRepublic was really the only reason I was so desperate to go to the MTV Asia Music Evo. I was already devastated when I wasn't able to go to their concert here in Manila in 2013. I was in Baguio, and at those times, deciding to go to a concert meant saving not only for the tickets, but also for the fare going to and from Manila. I was a student, so naturally I was broke. It wasn't practical to go. Then came MTV Music Evo, the hard thing about which was that you couldn't buy tickets, you could only win them. And I didn't win. So, Friday morning, I was trying desperately to score tickets. And just my luck, at 2 pm, just when I decided to give up, I found someone, a stranger, to buy tickets from (4 mosh pit tickets at that!)
Attending the concert was a challenge. It was hard getting a ride to the venue. It was hard standing for almost 6 hours. It was hard standing amidst all those people who, like me, were wet from both rain and sweat. My hair, my dress were drenched from the rain; my feet and shoes were soaked. It was so hard to wait like that for OneRepublic's set. See, they were the closing act. By the time they took the stage, I was already too tired from standing for too long, I was suffocating, I was close to passing out. But I had to make it. For OneRepublic. The reason why I was there in the first place. Minutes before they came out, I was giddy. I was shaking, from excitement, from disbelief that I'm really there, that I was finally going to see them perform live. I was so close to tears. I gave my phone to my bestfriend, told her to hold it, take photos, I don't care, I have to participate. So when OneRepublic finally took the stage and started with Love Runs Out, I shut off the world, the crowd, and got lost in their songs.
"Apologize" and Secrets" are the songs that mainly put OneRepublic on the map. See, they're old songs, so I never really had hopes before that I would ever live to see those two songs performed live. So it's a pretty huge deal to me that they sang it. Ryan Tedder getting lost in playing the piano when he played "Apologize," it was magical. 3 years ago, I made a Wedding playlist. One of the songs there was OneRepublic's "All This Time". That song, I decided, was going to be my walk-down-the-aisle song. I know it was a long shot to hope that they would perform it. So it was pretty okay that they didn't, it was okay because Tedder sang "Burning Bridges," which I didn't really expect. "Burning Bridges (Acoustic)" was my favorite from "Native". It's my favorite OneRepublic song ever. To hear Tedder sing it live and acapella, even if it's just a snippet, that's everything to me too.
It's a given that some artists don't sound so good live as they do on record. Well, not Tedder. Man, that guy's vocals are crazzzzy.
