2012 CONCERTS

"Music is the strongest form of magic."

- Marilyn Manson

I have loved music since I was 4.  I remember singing the song Paper Roses by Jolina Magdangal in my babysitter's house back then.  I would use a hair brush as a substitute for a microphone.  Silly as it sounds, but that was where my love for music began. 

The year 2012 was an amazing year for me.  It was the year wherein I began watching concerts and supporting my favorite foreign artists.  As much as I wanted to watch concerts even before 2012, I could not because I grew up in a country where concerts are not really a part of their culture.

In this post, I will be making a quick recap of the four concerts I have been to during the year 2012.

1. Katy Perry (California Dreams Tour)

I am a certified Katy Perry fan and I am happy to say that this is the very first concert I have ever watched.  As soon as I arrived at the venue with some of my friends, I noticed different kinds of people.  There were celebrities who surely took a day off, parents who had no choice but to go and party with their kids, teenage boys who were obviously there because they had a crush on Katy and eager fans from all walks of life.  It was also cute to see some people who made an effort to dress up like Katy Perry with their candy-colored wigs and sparkly dresses.  

DJ Skeet Skeet was the front act of the concert and he certainly managed to set the mood for the Katy Perry-hungry Manila crowd.  As Katy appeared on stage, the first thing that I noticed was the set-up of the stage.  Decked with life-size lollipops, candy canes and other sweet things you could imagine, the stage was a combination of sweetness and cuteness overload.  Unfortunately, most of the audience were not as psyched as I am when she entered the stage.  As you may have read from the blogs that were written way, way before, I think the reason for this was the gap between the front act and Katy's performance.  But after a few songs, the audience seemed to have forgotten the incident earlier and the real party started to kick off.

2. Lady Gaga (Born This Way Ball Tour)

Of all the concerts that I have watched last year, this was the one where I was most excited about. Well, you must be wondering why. This is the simple reason behind it: I AM A LITTLE MONSTER!!! So, basically, I watched the second night because I just arrived in the Philippines from a vacation on the first night of her show.  I knew I had to watch this because I was so sure that this will probably be one of the most talked about concerts of the year 2012.  Well, I was not wrong about my previous statement because it was really something that made a buzz days before the concert began.  Several religious groups in Manila called for the cancellation of the concert because they believe that my beloved Lady Gaga is demonic.  Good thing that the government granted Lady Gaga to perform here or else, they would have disappointed me and all I will be doing before first semester starts is stay in my bed and cry my heart out.

My mother and I arrived at the venue 2 hours before the concert even started.  Yes, you read that right, my mother was with me because she was also excited to watch Lady Gaga perform.  The front act, DJ Zedd, warmed up the night with songs that will surely make you rock the night out.  I do not want to sound mean or anything, but I really wish that there was no front act because all I wanted was to see my mother monster.  But I have to admit, DJ Zedd is one cool DJ. Oh, wait! Have I mentioned that there was a big medieval castle on the stage?! How awesome was that?  Moving on, up to this day, I am still speechless whenever I remember that night.  To say that there was no dull moment would definitely be an understatement.  By the end of the show, Lady Gaga made me believe that she is one of us.  Sure, we are not crazily famous, but she is merely a woman who is only trying to express herself like what most of us do.  If she will come back anytime soon, I will surely be there once again.

3. Joe Jonas (Live in Trinoma!)

Let me start by saying that this is not really a concert.  It was more of a mall tour and a promotion for his upcoming album that was already released a few months ago.  I am not really a fan of Joe Jonas or any of the Jonas Brothers.  I just watched the show because my mother got free tickets from VIPinoy.  We arrived at the venue around 10 minutes before the show started since we were not really that excited about it. My sincerest apologies to all Joe Jonas fans out there. Haha! Kidding aside, as soon as Joe Jonas appeared on stage, a lot of screaming fan girls with banners immediately took over Trinoma.  It was kinda crazy to be in the middle of all of them.  My mother and I exchanged glances when Joe Jonas began singing because we felt left out. I must admit that Joe Jonas really has a nice voice that would make any girl fall for him if he serenaded one.  After three songs, he answered questions from the chosen fans in the audience.  Then, tadah! Show has ended.  The most exciting part of the night was our dinner at Yakimix after watching Joe.

4. Gym Class Heroes and Nelly Furtado

Luckily, I won patron tickets for two for this concert.  Thank you, Rockstar Touring! So, this was the last concert I was able to watch for the year 2012.  Music fans like me were in for a double treat that night because two acts performed.  Although their arrival was relatively silent, the concert was a hit.  The front act was by a local band named Gracenote. I am not really familiar of this band.  Following their act was the real deal which I really wanted to watch: GYM CLASS HEROES!  McCoy and the rest of the band were just so energetic that one can't help but jump, sing and dance along with them.  The fun part was I got to hold the hand of Travie McCoy because he really reached out to his audience and I got hugged by the blue-haired guy from the band.  Haha!  I really sang my heart out in every song without thinking that I might lose my voice afterwards considering the fact that I still had an oral exam a day after.  Before they bid goodbye to their adoring Filipino fans, the band took a group picture with the Big Dome crowd.

After about a twenty-minute wait, Nelly Furtado appeared on stage singing one of her hits.  The crowd went wild even it was already past 10.  What we didn't know was we were in for an additional visual treat when world champion hoop dancer Tony Duncan came out on stage and performed with Nelly.  The touching part of the night was when she dedicated the song Spirit Indestructible to Filipinos because during that time, there was flooding which was brought by the monsoon rains.  To close the show, she did her own version of Party Rock to a pumped-up Manila crowd.  It was surely an unforgettable night.