A perfect treat for Valentine’s season!
The Philippine leg of Boyce Avenue’s Be Somebody World Tour started off with a blast as the Florida-based band serenaded the Smart Araneta Coliseum band last night (February 16).
Opening Act
As far as opening acts go, At Sunset and Savannah Outen really set the mood for the show.
At Sunset, an Australia-based pop rock band, started the night with a set of songs that was sure to hype up the crowd. We admit that we did not get to watch their whole performance because we were late for the event due to heavy traffic. However, the moment that we have arrived at the venue and saw Tom Jay Williams, Harrison Kantarias and Andrew Kantarias performing on stage, we were immediately in the mood to party! The highlight of their performance, in our opinion, is when they sang their latest single “Kiss Me”.
Kiss Me is a truly a song that will make you either nod to the beat, if you are a mellow person, or go crazy and wave your hands in the air. The way that the guitar plays adds this summer beat that is still perfect for any time of the year, preferably while on a road trip. It is not all in the song, though. The boys of At Sunset are just amazing on stage, as they interact with the audience enough to excite them. There is also the head banging to the beat and just feeling the song.
The next opening act was Youtube star and singer, Savannah Outen.
This graceful, poised, and sassy vixen from Oregon captivated the audience with a mixture of her own songs and a couple of covers that vary in beat; some slow and mellow, others upbeat and energizing. One song that stood out is “Coins”.
Coins is Savannah’s new single which she has performed live for the first time last night. It is a perfect mixture of sultry and pop music with undertones of EDM (Electronic Dance Music). It has a very soothing start that morphs into an upbeat and pop-ish chorus that will make you want to move your body in time with the song. Over all, the genre is the same as the likes of BeckyG. The “coins-falling” sound along with Savannah’s amazing vocals completes the whole performance, not to mention the way that she moves around the stage and dances to the beat in her black dress and thigh high boots.
All in all, the opening acts were amazing and they kicked the show with the right amount of excitement.
Main Act: Boyce Avenue
After the opening act, everyone in the coliseum was so hyped for Boyce Avenue to come on stage. However, we still had to wait for almost 30 minutes before we got to see them due to the crew making sure that everything will go smoothly. The excitement of the crowd may have died down a bit but the moment that they heard the first beats of the band’s “I’ll Be The One”, the crowd went wild once again.
Alejandro, Daniel and Fabian Manzano made their Manila crowd fall in love with them once again with their voices as soft as velvet and guitar-playing skills that is beyond amazing.
Out of almost twenty songs that the band has played last night (including the encore), three stood out the most. Every song that they performed is absolutely perfect but these three has made it to the top of perfection: (in no particular order except in which they were performed)
Wake Me Up (Avicii) : Boyce Avenue’s cover of Avicii’s hit song is deemed as one of the best. Singing an EDM song live is moderately difficult with all its upbeat moments and remixes that, based on experience, makes it hard to perform without looking ridiculous. However, these boys with their vocals and amazing guitar skills (the rifts!) have completely smashed. The band have previously performed this song Valentine’s day last year to the Manila crowd in the same venue. They gained the same amount, if not more, of amazing reactions from the audience.
Find Me: This song was one of the first songs that they have ever written. It may be a little cliché of a love song but the line within saying “I can’t get enough with you” perfectly describes how we feel about their show. The slow guitar and soft vocals makes the song perfect for mellow rainy days when you want to sit by the window and drink tea while thinking about both the good and bad things in life that has happened so far. It will give you hope to see through the hard things in life.
Use Somebody (Kings of Leon): A classic song to be covered by artists, Boyce Avenue’s performance stood out in terms of wicked bass guitar, Alejandro’s smooth and velvety voice and the way in which they have added such a personal touch to the song, making it a classic Boyce Avenue cover. They have been performing their song at almost every show since it is such hit among the fans and they never fail to make the crowd scream once the first few chords of the song are heard.
As previously mentioned, all of the songs that Boyce Avenue has performed last night were all amazing but some were greater than the others due them being classics.
Aside from these three, the encore performance is also worth mentioning as Alejandro took the stage and serenaded the crowd while his brothers are backstage. It started it with the boys leaving the stage and taking a break, as artists during concerts usually do. The audience thought that it was over and started yelling things like “Come back!” and “We want more!”, some were even booing. To appease the crowd, Alejandro went back up stage to entertain them with amazing performances of Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” and Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”.
A little bit of trivia, “Thinking Out Loud” was deemed to be the “national song of the Philippines” due to the popularity that it gained. This is why, when Alejandro played the first chords of the said song on his guitar, the crowd went insane. The songs is already great but paired with Alejandro’s vocals, you just can’t help but fall in love.
Last night was Boyce Avenue’s first show in the Philippines for their world tour. Tomorrow (February 18), they will be performing at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu followed by three more shows around the country: on February 19 at the Limketkai Mall, Cagayan de Oro; February 20 at St. La Salle Coliseum, Bacolod; and on February 22 at the University of Baguio, Baguio.
This is not the band’s first time in the Philippines. It has been their tradition to perform in the country every year during Valentine’s Day or Valentine’s season. This is a very heartwarming sentiment since it means that they are willing to spend the day of love with their fans who love them so much.
Over all, with their amazing singing, fantastic guitar skills and the charisma to captivate the audience, a Boyce Avenue show is definitely something that is worth watching. You will leave the venue with a smile, reminiscing the event for the rest of the night.