Lifehouse Live in Manila 2012

I still can’t believe I watched two concerts in one week. The first was Lady Gaga because I was invited to watch for free. This time I gladly and willingly paid to watch one of my favorite bands, Lifehouse.

Among my friends only Elisa and I listen to ‘this’ kind of music and we are not ashamed to admit we still love alternative rock to this day. We both regretted not watching Lifehouse when they first performed in Manila in 2008. When they tickets went on sale Elisa quickly bought our tickets long before we knew we were going to watch Lady Gaga.

I couldn’t help but compare the 52 year old Smart Araneta Coliseum to the brand new MOA Arena. But for it’s age it’s not bad at all.

No escalators here. Good old stairs!!

There’s a reminder that Lady Gaga’s first concert in Manila in 2009 was at the Araneta Coliseum.

They do have a lot of dining options on all levels. Everything just costs more here.

Our ticket was for the upper box.

The chairs were a far cry from the plush seats at the MOA Arena but I must admit there weren’t that uncomfortable. It was quite roomy too. Another plus was the more than adequate air-conditioning of the Coliseum. From where we were seated we could actually feel the cool breeze of air on our back. At the MOA Arena we had the whip out our fans from time to time.

The most expensive seats were just half full but their energy level was 100%.

The sides of the lower and upper box weren’t full either. Capacity was at about 80%.

There was no castle, no hydraulics, no big screens, no dancers, no fancy lighting. All there was was fantastic music, beautiful songs, damn good voice of Jason Wade and Bryce Soderberg, and lots of singing along by the audience.

I must confess. I watched Lady Gaga for her performance, the dramatic stage, the high tech lighting and sound system. I watched Lifehouse because I simply LOVE their music. The lights were low tech and a bit old fashioned. There was no front act and the show started one hour late. But the audience didn’t care. As soon as the band came out everyone including us started screaming.

I admire lead singer, Jason Wade for braving the crowd as he sang and walked all the way up to the lower box. Lucky people who got so close to him.

My favorite part of the concert was when Jason performed some of the band’s older hits alone with just his acoustic guitar. His voice was something else, so smooth, cool and even better live.

Here’s the video I shot of Jason’s solo. I missed the first few minutes though. In this video he sang crowd favorites like Blind, Breathing (which he dedicated to Ginger Cornejo), I Try and Where You Are. (You can hear me and Elisa singing in the beginning :p)

It’s just Kit, Elisa and I who watched. Even though we didn’t know all the titles of the songs or the lyrics like the other diehard fans around us we were so happy that we knew most of the songs.