The Elliott Experience

Once I heard on the Yaminoys Yahoogroup that Elliott Yamin is coming to the Philippines for a 10-day tour, I hardly could contain my excitement in knowing that one of the best AI contestants ever to come off the show is visiting my country!!

I immediately checked out the schedules and luckily enough, I found out that he was doing one at the Alabang Town Center on the 29th of September. I was so stoked to find out that it had fallen on my birthday, I already thought to myself, what a fabulous birthday present to meet Elliott on my special day!


There had been some minor changes in the show date at the ATC, but thankfully it was moved just a day back so I just thought, well, I'm just destined to see this guy sing live!


Counting the days to September 28 was hard, especially when I read of the fabulous preparations being done by the Yaminoys. There were days when my heart literally just wants to pop out with excitement because Elliott is only the second 3rd place finisher from AI (as far as I know, aside from Jasmine Trias-AI3) to come and visit the Philippines. Plus, he was one of those guys who's voice you just have to love, so pure and mellow, the kind that you wouldn't get tired listening to.


So anyhow, then came September 28, I got off work, as fast as I could (of course, I had to endure first a meeting) to head out to ATC to get seating stubs. I was with my officemate who likes E as well, so we made a dash once the mall opened at 11 and were lucky enough to score tickets because I seriously thought we weren't gonna get one because of the long line. After getting the tickets, my friend and I roamed around a bit to see if there's still anything we can find like a possible M&G pass or something else that can let us meet E in person. Finally after about 15-20 minutes we come back to the stage area, and we find a mini-booth set up by Odyssey. Seeing an Elliott poster, we approach it and find that it sells E's CD. I asked if they were the ones issuing M&G passes and told us that the passes just went out. Turns out they gave it after the seating stubs were handed out, that by the time my friend and I came to them, the last M&G pass was already given out. I was like, dang it, we shouldn't have gone right after the stubs were given out.


We then decided to head back to get some Z's to prepare for the show later on. I suddenly remember that I wasn't able to bring my camera to take pictures and videos and so that let me down a bit. Anyhow, I tried to sleep so that I can have energy to shout for E come show time, but I guess out of excitement, I only got three hours of sleep, and I was awake every hour.


Finally decided to wake up and prepare for the show. The excitement was building up since it finally hit me in the face: I WAS GONNA BE WATCHING ELLIOTT YAMIN, it seemed so surreal to me even when we finally got to the seating area at the ATC. On the side, I was also excited because I'll be getting to match the faces with the Yaminoys, with whom until the previous night, were all just a bunch of names to me exchanging emails about Elliott's show. But I don't know what took over me, the only ones I was able to know were Yam and Patrick. I got too shy to approach all of them because they all seemed so close already.


Then after an hour or so of waiting, E's band finally came out, all of them looked great, and you can tell that they were excited to play for Elliott as we are all excited to see and hear him sing for the last time before he heads back home. ATC was his last stop and so it was natural that the venue was packed with fans and admirers. After a few seconds, E steps out and we all went crazy, never mind if I lost my voice in screaming out for him, I was just so psyched up to see him, in my country, and that I am watching him sing LIVE.

The hour went by in a blur, and the only thing I remember during the set was when he sang his first single, Wait for You. I know the lyrics by heart of the song, but somehow, when Elliott was singing it, stripped down, guitar and piano accompaniment only, I got tongue tied and found myself at times gaping at how good his voice sounded to my ears. I suddenly realized why he went so far on American Idol; aside from that voice, he sings purely from his heart, and he pours all of it into each and every note, word and line so that you can feel the emotion of the song as well without sounding dragged. With him, it was all so natural, relaxed and pure.

After Wait for You, I believe they got down the stage. Then everybody went and chanted his name for a good 5 minutes and before we knew it, he was back with Joonie (pianist) and he was giving us an intro to the last song he's singing. He did sing A Song For You, the song that really pushed him into the final three on Idol, and everybody just went wild, including yours truly. (I don't think I was ever calm that evening)

And then he left again, and by that time I couldn't move for a while, I was just, like I told my friends, truly, truly mesmerized by him. I thought he sounded great on TV, but I was thrown for a loop because he sounded excellent live. Thank God He gave Elliott that precious talent and I just pray that he continues to make use of it really well, and continue to mesmerize more people in the process as well.