I don’t know if you remember the Sunday mornings when you were younger; but I vividly remember Sunday mornings with my family, especially my Dad, blasting easy rock on the radio and listening to the kind of music he listened to. I have to admit: when I was younger, I didn’t like it. All I wanted to listen to was NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys; but as I grew older, I learned to love the classics of which I’ve now attributed a playlist on Spotify to, aptly named Sunday Slowdown.
Fast-forward to last week, I got the chance to watch one of those amazing bands perform: Michael Learns To Rock! “The MLTR story is not only one of the most successful to ever come out of Denmark, but also a story of an exception: their path to success has never been about scandals, divorce, drugs or any extreme way of living. It has always been about the music. MLTR is simply about great pop songs that resonate with people all over the world, especially Filipinos.”
And that’s exactly what happened that night; it was just a night filled with amazing music. The show was opened by the equally talented Faith Cuneta, who sang “Pangarap na Bituin” for the Korean drama ‘Jewel in the Palace’. She did an awesome job relaxing the audience right before the main act with her acoustic rendition of Foolish Heart, Starting Over Again and of course her popular hit single and an original Lani Misalucha classic, “Bukas Nalang Kita Mamahalin”.
The crowd went crazy when the stage turned red and the band started singing “Complicated Heart”. One hit was followed by another, some notables being “Sleeping Child”, “Take Me To Your Heart” “You Took My Heart Away”, and revered classics “Paint My Love” and “That’s Why (You Go Away)”. They also included a few treats from their new album STILL and surprise mashups that didn’t just flow through soft pop but also hints of electronic music. Vocalist Jascha Richter even walked amongst the crowd to the surprise of fans while singing “I’m Gonna Be Around”.
It was indeed a night worth remembering. From my Sunday drives with Dad to actually watching the spectacular band in person, the band’s sound hasn’t changed after all these years. Live or not, they’ve managed to keep the music and melody straight and on point. It was well worth the wait; good thing I wasn’t 25 minutes too late. #MLTRStillTourMNL
