I discovered Switchfoot when their song Dare You To Move became a hit on Billboard, and I remember even buying their album The Beautiful Letdown because of it. During those times, you had to buy the album if you like a song since we didn't have that download option yet which is so commonplace nowadays.
When I learned that they were coming here in '07, I became curious and downloaded myself a copy of Oh Gravity, since the ads said the show was in support for that album. It was a great album which contained some really good songs. The band also sounded great live! Up to now, their performances of Awakening and Stars have stuck to my mind.
So fast forward to '11 and the band visits Manila again, and as usual, the local crowd was just as supportive as they were during the first show. This time though, I chose to be near the stage since I preferred to be standing and singing along with them as the show went by. John's voice was as strong as ever, and he didn't cheat on the high notes! I know, I was very near him! Other singers would have back-up singers to cover for them but not John. He did the whole Awakening song - with the high notes and all.
My new favorite song from the band is Hello Hurricane which was one of the three songs they sang in the encore. I just love the lyrics of that one! They did some songs from their earlier albums which the crowd knew and I didn't, but the rest of the songs in their set tonight were familiar to me. They opened with The Sound which comes from their new album. They also did Free, Bullet Soul, Your Love is a Song (the crowd sang along to this one!) and Mess of Me - all from their new album. Stars, Awakening, Only Hope and Meant to Live were crowd favorites. Dare You to Move was their last encore song.
Well, in their last show here, they ate balut and froze in the middle of a song. No such gimmicks like that, this time though. The energy tonight from the band and the crowd was just great! John even went up to the upper section on the left part and that lucky group got a chance to have a picture with him, really up close. I told my friend, if I were there, I'd give him a kiss and cut a lock of his hair!
By the way, the organizers were very kind to allow us to really get close to the stage. As soon as the first note was struck, everybody just rushed near the stage and no one shooed us away. Unfortunately that doesn't happen always in concerts here. You are always shooed away from the stage - which is a bit irritating, considering that we pay almost US$200-US$300 for those seats. And they were not strict with the cameras, hurrah! Another irritating no-no in some shows, stupid really, considering that everything is being videod and photographed in this day and age!
Well, thanks organizers and the security guys for the leniency! Made us enjoy the show much more!
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