Two Concerts: Maroon5 & Incubus

MAROON 5, March 5, Araneta Coliseum

I really liked Maroon 5 when Songs About Jane first came out. They sounded fresh and new to my ears unlike most bands that came out. I was eager to hear the new album Won't Be Soon Before Long but I didn't feel it to be as good as the first album. So I wasn't too eager to watch the album tour that was passing thru Manila but I decided to go anyway since it won't be often for a band like them to come over. It's been said that most foreign artists come to Manila kung kelan palaos na sila. Although this can't be said of late as we've had visitors like Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Akon, Ne-yo of recent.

The concert: It was expensive but a good one nonetheless. (How expensive? the patron seats in Manila cost P10,000 while the most expensive tickets in the HK leg only cost HK$690 or P4,140.00 plus taxes.) Maroon 5 didn't have a front act! You get them right off the bat. They played songs from both albums and it was a great set list. What I loved most about the concert is how much the band enjoyed performing for the Manila crowd. My favorite part was when vocalist, Adam Levine , in the middle of "She Will Be Loved", stopped singing and just closed his eyes, drinking in the moment where the fans just kept screaming their adoration and he can't help but break into a smile. Also the performer that he was, Adam Levine, engaged the audience by counting off in tagalog (american accent: isa, dalawa, tatlo, apat), saying Mahal ko kayo. During the song "Won't Go Home Without You" there was a portion where they just played back the chorus several times and let the audience sing along. It reminded me of the Lotus Eaters concert a few years back where the audience kept humming the intro to German Girl until they came back out for a 3rd encoure. What I really appreciated the most was how I felt his sincerity when he said something like "We’ve been on the road for so long that it’s so nice to come to a place and feel so loved. This has got to be one of the best concerts we’ve ever done."

INCUBUS March 9, Araneta Coliseum
First thing I noticed was the Incubus Concert had a younger crowd. It may be attributed to the "noisier" music or the ticket prices costed half of what Maroon 5 organizers charged. I'm not really an Incubus fan. I'm familiar with their more popular songs like Megalomaniac just because it gets a lot of radio air time. So why did I go? Mike wanted to go.
Up Dharma Down served as front act. I never liked their music. I was never sure what to make of it. It generally sounded ethereal but fused with rock to me. It just didn't make sense to my ears. So when they were playing, Mike and I decided to step out and get some hot tea and coffee. (I love it that Mike and I don't love the same music all the time, but we both dislike the same bands/types of music most of the time.) Later as we were going back to our seats, I saw a really excited male fan jumping up and down (really giddy), shouting thru the ladies room door what sound like: Be, bilisan mo, mag-uumpisa na! I was amused.
The concert: It was rock and roll mayhem. Pretty much everyone was jumping up and down. I felt the vibration on the floor and was afraid of the thought that the 20-something year old structure would come crashing down as if struck by an earthquake. The audience was singing along to pretty much every song and sounded louder than the band at times! Incubus vocalist Brandon Boyd was really energetic and tickled the female population in the audience as he slowly stripped during the concert: first he took off his long sleeved shirt after a few songs leaving his sleeveless undershirt and a few more songs later he was just down to his pants. Oh yes the female fans shouted their approval as he did all these.
One thing I didn't know was the band had a dj as part of the group. It was quite interesting as it worked quite well for their music. Most interesting for me was when the band played Aqueous Transmission and guitarist Mike Einziger pulled out a Japanese Koto for this song. I thought it was the perfect instrument for this song as the instrument produced a unique sound that just made one think of flowing water. Just goes to show, these rock bands are really music geeks deep down inside. Overall, it was fun for a non-fan.