Alanis Morissette (Images courtesy of Facebook)

If you’re on the many social networks available to us now, you’ve probably seen stuff about the Alanis Morissette shows the singer did in Manila recently. By now, every tito and tita that you know have probably seen the concert and have posted about it on their socials. I hope you’re in a forgiving mood because here’s one more.

I almost let this one pass, truth be told, if it weren’t for the wife’s insistence to see Alanis for this particular tour. She has her reasons as the chance to see Alanis live have eluded her twice already and she was not going to let a third time pass. Just to share, the reason for her missing the first Alanis show in Manila was in 1996 when she was still in college and just couldn’t afford a concert ticket on her school baon. That one she let pass as she couldn’t do anything about that. The second lost opportunity was the cancellation of Alanis’ 2020 tour stop in the country for the obvious reason of the pandemic. This time around, the wife sure as hell won’t let anything stop her from seeing Alanis, not even foul weather.

So I can understand her feeling overwhelmed when finally the first few sonic strains of “All I Really Want” snaked its way into every corner of the venue. And she just about lost it—along with everybody else in the venue—as Alanis sang the chorus of ‘all I really want / is some patience / a way to calm the angry voice…’ and so on, as memories of my own days in college came flooding back.

At the time I was a junior in university trying to figure out what the hell it’s all about. Scared at what the next stage will bring but defiant and trying to be cool about it too. The next stage being graduation and what comes next, which was a big question mark at the time. And as these familiar songs – “Hand In My Pocket'' (me and my wife’s favorite line in it being ‘and I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other is one is flicking a cigarette’), “Right Through You” and “You Learn” – came on one after another, I’m reminded of the music that I was listening to when I was going through during all that finding-about-myself-and-whatever-am-I-going-to-do-about-it phase. They’re exactly the songs that I’m hearing  live and sung with gusto by this 49-year-old woman who can still cover the length of a big stage in a few energetic strides.

A short break in this cascade of “Jagged Little Pill” songs, where Alanis sang a slightly altered version of  “Hands Clean,” I looked to my wife as she wiped tears from her eyes. “Tears, really?” I said to which she just laughed and leaned over and said: “You know that feeling when you’ve waited so long to hear these songs live and they’re exactly as you thought them to be?”

I can relate to that. So much so that when “Mary Jane” came on next, I couldn’t stop the wave of emotion that hit me as I finally heard one of my most favorite songs being sung by Alanis. And for me I’d like to think! It was as if that aforementioned wave finally broke me and I gave myself permission to just go with it, give in and that it’s alright. It lasted for a second or two, maybe even three. But it was the most emotional I’ve ever been in a show in a very long time.

Well met Alanis. And thank u, indeed!