Paramore Rock out Their First Concert in Manilla
The Mall of East Asia Concert Grounds was like an enormous electro-magnetic field the night of March nine when American pop-rock band Paramore held their new Eyes show here in Manila. It seemed as if the Filipino fans were charging themselves for the last 5 years, since the band released their debut, All We Know Is Falling, for the one-night-only show. According to an appraisal, the show pulled in twenty thousand folks. Hosts Sam YG, Slick Rick, and Tony Toni of boys evening out provided some comic relief at the start of the show by jokingly saying they are the front act. The Only Exception is the newest Paramore single and the crowd seemed to love their new material as much as the classics.
They then introduced homemade rock and roll band Callalily to an impatient crowd enraptured for the Tennessee quintet to perform. Others can actually be heard hollering, Paramore na!!! in the band’s set. The instant the lights went on and the headliners got on stage, the group diffused their energy by jumping, clapping, hollering, putting their hands ( and cameras ) in the air, and singing along to Paramore’s complete set list, whether the tracks were released as singles or not. But nobody could’ve out-hyped Hayley, who was like a race automobile in consistent Nitro speed, singing a total of 12 songs steadily. She was just seeping with true energy and youthful exuberance as she jumped, ran around, head-banged with her dirty blonde hair, answered somebody’s’s plea to be his date on the ball, and announced her affection for Manila, McDonald’s, and its cheeseburgers.
Her spunk is harking back to No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, a pleasant mixing of edginess and bubbly-ness. Adding to her coolness was her wearing the much-talked about Para-Thrilla in Manila white shirt and wrote Kumusta kayo on her left arm, a question she asked before performing Crushcrushcrush. Clocking only at 60 minutes and ten mins, Paramore’s electrifying concert included performances of Stupidity ( their opening number ), that is what You Get, and Twilight anthem Decode. The group dedicated their performance of the sole Exceptionthe first love song they wrote, Hayley saidto a group called Love 146, an association that will fight human slavery and exploitation, particularly among youngsters. They also performed less favored yet still terribly well-received tunes like Let The Flames Begin, Pressure, and For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic, as well as some more tracks from their new Eyes album, specifically Careful, Looking Up, and Where the Lines Overlap.
Paramore also rewound 5 years gone and sang Never Let This Go from their first album. Distress Business and Brick By Dull Brick served as encore numbers.
