WHEN BRITISH band Tears for Fears attracted a huge following in Manila in the mid-?80s, the term New Wave had become divisive.

Punk rock, originally part of New Wave music, gave birth to local fanatics who set themselves apart from those who liked experimental, sophisticated bands which used synthesizers. The punks labeled these bands and their Pinoy fans ?chong??a funny term, since it came from a movie about pot-smoking hippies, ?Cheech and Chong.? That was how TFF unwittingly became a chong band.

Sunday night, friends who were proudly punks in their youth wanted to watch the TFF concert but didn?t have tickets. Too bad. And for their former comrades who were among the crowd of more than 16,500 that packed the Araneta Coliseum, the old feud between punks and chongs must have seemed a silly notion.

For starters, Sandwich, one of the gig?s two opening acts, had front man Raimund Marasigan?who sings and dances like a punk?extending a happy greeting: ?Mga chong! We?re taking you back to high school!?

Sandwich went on to play highly spirited versions of The Cure?s ?Just Like Heaven,? Gang of Four?s ?Damaged Goods,? and The Smiths? ?Hang the DJ.?

When TFF?s Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith and four other members strode on stage to the strains of a taped version of ?Mad World? with an operatic chorus, it was clear that even the band?s New Wave image had been obliterated.

Sparse stage

Be it in the sparse stage design, which was highlighted only by a backdrop bearing an illustrated anthropomorphic chair under the band?s name, or in the duo?s dressed-down outfits (Smith wore a plain blue T-shirt), there was nothing New Wavey about the band or the show. And even if the entire six-piece group did dish out some of the hits from ?The Hurting? and ?Songs From the Big Chair? albums, these were stripped of their studio-version trappings and took flight as arena-rock numbers.

Which brings us to the most important element in TFF?s first, and clearly far from last, RP show: the audience. Even as the Big Dome was filled to the brim with music lovers of various ages and energies, there was a feeling that the band may have been off the radar in the last decade or so. This was indicated by the not-so-wild applause to renditions of, say, the title tracks in 1995?s ?Raoul and the Kings of Spain? and 2004?s ?Everybody Loves a Happy Ending.?

Sing-along sprees

Yet Orzabal and Smith have remained a longed-for live act in these shores. ?We waited 20 years for this!? said Leni Llapitan as she walked briskly to her seat with Carla Abaya, her bandmate in Identity Crisis, one of several ?80s-era local groups influenced by TFF.

As the hits played out, the audience often burst in sing-along sprees that drowned the band?s own vocals. ?Everybody Wants to Rule the World? came very early as the second song and drove everybody crazy with delight. ?Sowing the Seeds of Love,? a Beatles homage, put smiles to those still sporting long but graying hair. The sense of alienation in ?Pale Shelter? and ?Mad World? demonstrated that TFF was punk, too. A visibly overwhelmed Orzabal stopped in the first two lines of ?Shout? and let the throng sing the entire chorus.

Thus, it does not suffice to say that this gig had highlights, notwithstanding the slinky, downbeat take on MJ?s ?Billie Jean? or the encore featuring ?Woman in Chains,? with high-pitched backup vocalist Michael Wainwright wowing the crowd by proxying for Oleta Adams.

Silent screams

It is more apropos to note that, given the mammoth reception and the 19-song set list?s omission of certain fan faves (?Advice for the Young at Heart,? ?Mothers Talk,? ?The Way You Are? and ?Change?), the gig roared and soared from start to finish, replete with a ?primal? ending: While some friends, still high from the experience, drank beer and wine nearby, we went home mentally screaming for more. With Pocholo Concepcion