~* THE LONG-DELAYED BEN JELEN POST *~

I'm on VL today so I now have time to post about the Ben Jelen gig last Friday at Greenbelt.

"Ben who?", you ask. Don't worry, I was like that too about three weeks ago. I was like, "Ano? Ben Jelen (pronouncing the "J" as "J"... it's pronounced as "Yelen"), Janice de Belen?! Whaaat?!". He is the guy who sang "Come On", a minor hit at the pop radio stations. My officemate bought his album and it was quite nice if you really concentrated on listening to it. I say concentrated coz if you listen to it like me -- low volume drone in my PC as I worked at the office -- you will not really appreciate it. His songs sorta sound the same and only a couple are catchy ones. Nevertheless, it's quite nice.

The Greenbelt gig was free so we thought, why not go, right?! He might turn big and famous someday and we would've totally regretted not seeing him perform live.

We were able to get good seats coz we were early. We kept making fun of the side comments of this gal who was seated behind us. She said: "Para syang si Josh Groban!" Hellooooo?! What, pray tell, is the similarity between angelic-looking Pop Opera dude Josh Groban and rockish, sweaty, boybandish-looking Ben Jelen? And then Ben was still in the middle of his SECOND song when the same girl utters: "Wow, I like ALL his songs! Ang ganda!" Hellooo! Easy lang, he's not even done with the second song, ang ganda ganda na lahat as if he sang the entire album na :P From playing the piano while singing, Ben shifted to playing the violin. Similarly, the girl goes: "Wow, ang DAMI nyang alam na instruments!" Again. I rolled my eyes. No need to repeat my comment like before. Ben has not even played the guitar yet at that time! So playing 2 instruments is considered marami na?! Hayyyy.

Lemme share some pix that my officemate Rico took using the Kodak DX6490 (shameless plug! hehehe:P ):

Haha. This is what we called "the Ben Jelen sultry pose"... with the wet look and that lips. Hahaha!


Playing the piano...


Playing the violin... I like this artsy shot!


Playing the guitar...


I was distracted from watching Ben Jelen's performance when I saw this yummy whoever dude who was part of his posse. He seems to be the official photographer of the band, hehe.



Ben Jelen was drenching in sweat as early as his third song, I think. Got pretty squeamish about it. Everytime he like throwed his head back a bit, his sweat-drenched messy hair would shower some drops of sweat in the air. Major *ewww* :P.

He looked like Barry Watson from 7th Heaven and James Marsden (Cyclops from X-men).

We proceed to Music One Greenbelt for his autograph signing after the gig. At least he freshened up a bit and looked dry that time ;P. I didn't hang around long coz it was getting late and I needed to go home na.

Sadness. When my officemates went to Seattle's Best for coffee, they spotted Mark San Diego (that hot MYX veejay who looked like a classier version of Piolo Pascual and a lesser-evolved version of Smallville's Tom Welling). He was seen smooching with Aliya Parcs. Hayyy. Of all the things to miss! Kainis! I sooo wanted to see this hot dude in person! Grr. Sayang :(