Boyce Avenue Live in Manila 2016
February 16, 2016 marked the first of the Five-City tour of Boyce Avenue in the Philippines. The brothers dropped by the Philippines for the fifth time as part of their Be Somebody World Tour. Just like in their previous concerts, they put on a great show! It was a spectacular return for Boyce Avenue as they wowed us with their amazing musical performance at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Harrison Kantarias of At Sunset
Tom Jay Williams of At Sunset
Before Boyce Avenue went on stage, we got the opening acts of the night: At Sunset and Savannah Outen. The Sunsetters inside the Smart-Araneta Coliseum became unglued once At Sunset started to play. The trio put on a very energetic performance that had a handful of original songs. Notable songs I’ve enjoyed from their set were “Every Little Thing”, “Tiffany”, and “Kiss Me”. They ended their set list with “Forever” and gave a parting message to the Manila crowd when they said “Salamat Po”.
Savannah Outen
Savannah Outen entered next with her powerful single “Boys” to start up her set. She did some great covers of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and Justin Beiber’s “Sorry” to the crowd. Savannah played a couple of her latest singles that night as well with “Cologne” and “Coins”. Savannah had a little selfie moment with the entire audience before she left the stage.
The ever-popular trio of Alejandro, Fabian and Daniel finally made it on stage and the crowd went wild. Boyce Avenue bombarded us with some great tunes. The brothers mixed up with some original songs and their signature covers.
Boyce Avenue sang some of their original songs that night with a mix from their old albums and tracks from their upcoming album The Road Less Traveled. Songs such as “Cinderella”, “Imperfect Me” and “Pick Yourself Back up Again” were played in Manila for the first time to give us a glimpse of their upcoming album that’s slated for release this year. But it was “Be Somebody” that got stuck in my head after the night was done. The chorus of “Be Somebody” was very catchy and was easy to sing along to that night. My seat mate felt the same way too regarding that song (Hi Wowie!).
The Manzano brothers unleashed their artillery of covers that got everyone on their feet. Their Oasis tribute featured “Morning Glory” and “Wonderwall” and were the first of their amazing cover songs that night. They followed up with great covers of songs such as“Stitches” by Shawn Mendes, “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars, “Hello” by Adelle, and my favorite cover of the night, “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman.
The brothers also conversed with us in between the sets. Alejandro told the crowd that it was good to be back in the Philippines and mentioned that it was in 2009 where they visited the country. He added that the Philippines was their FIRST country, outside of the U.S.A., where they had a concert tour. Alejandro mentioned that the Philippines was their “home away from home”, to the delight of everyone. Near the end of the show, they thanked the crowd for their support since day one and punctuated it with “Mahal namin kayo”.
Alejandro takes to the stage for the first part of their encore performance
The encore part of the night was very impressive. The first part involved Alejandro returning to stage and telling us to sing along to him for the two songs he’ll play. He did a good rendition of “Love Me Like you Do” and “Thinking out loud”. Fabian and Daniel re-entered the stage to deliver the final two songs of the night with Alejandro. They did a great cover of Iris while the entire crowd raised their cellphones in the air..which added a great atmosphere to the final moments of the concert. The night culminated with Boyce Avenue performing “Anchor”, one of their songs in The Road Less Traveled album.
Overall, the Boyce Avenue concert blew me away. It had everything you’d want in a concert: a strong opening act and the main act giving one stellar performance. I’d like to thank the brothers Alejandro, Daniel and Fabian for returning to the Philippines and giving us a night to remember. Special thanks also go to the people of Ovation Productions for organizing this event.
WIM Photos by: Gia Allana Soriano and Martin Vicencio
