Vertical Horizon in Retrospect

My brother was dying in envy when he learned I had tickets for the Vertical Horizon concert in Manila. My ticket was a birthday gift from a friend, Chloe.

The concert was held at Araneta Coliseum last December 7.

For someone used to see this coliseum filled up to the rafters every UAAP game, it was not a surprise as I always knew their brand of music is not for the masses. In fact, their songs are only played in radio stations with a certain niche market. But then it was not a disappointment as the night turned out to be a happy birthday gift indeed.

We came in late as Rivermaya was already performing on stage. Though the new vocalist and new members were good, and though I am not a Rico Blanco fan, I certainly miss the old Rivermaya band. I was explaining to Chloe that the sound of Rivermaya matured as they grew older, and it was already great, then all of a sudden it regressed or went back to the teen stage again. It's like watching someone going through a midlife crisis, or worse - second childhood stage - I just hope they get over the punk-emo, "oh-I'm so in like Fall Out Boy/My Chemical Romance" stage antics. It's getting a bit old. I mean c'mon, you've got a cache of old great songs, don't ruin it please. Even if it's not the same without Rico, you don't go killing what you have. It worked well when Bamboo left. It can work well without Mr. Blanco.

After Rivermaya, came in Jamie Kennedy. For people who were not used to Jamie Kennedy's brand of brash stand-up comedy humor, it was a little too much when he was dishing out his sex jokes on stage. Those with wider thinking, enjoyed the show laughing out loud at his antics. I, on the other hand, thought he could've done better. His material needed more material. You got to hand it to the man though, as he tried his best to speak in the vernacular - joke wise.

At last, after the long wait, Matt Scannell and the rest of the band came to the stage. I could not recall what their first song was but I remember everyone getting up and singing along.

With a background history as a Christian music band, Vertical Horizon, is very popular in the alternative music circles. To the whole world, they are known as the band that gave you hits like "Everything You Want" and "You're a God." But for alternative music lovers, there are certainly more songs in their albums. Enjoying a good deal of airplay in local stations such as Jam 88.3, 99.5 RT, NU 107.5 and the former 103.5 K-Lite (which I certainly miss - specially the era of The Blade), songs like "Best I've Ever Had," "Send It Up," "Finding Me," and "Forever," were in the top ten list of requested songs.

I don't know if the band had this knowledge on how popular their songs are (or to the audience who are in the coliseum). By concert standards, it was a pretty sedate crowd. But from what I gathered from the band's reaction to the crowd singing along MOST to their songs - it's something priceless. I'm guessing that they never thought an ocean and several flyer miles would make them popular here. Well, I'm happy to say, as much as I had fun singing along I think they had some fun themselves for stopping over Manila.

It's one of the best concerts I've watched (Matt Scannell's voice did not change live, it's the same, and they sounded great)... and I certainly hope it won't be the rare ones.

Now I'm wishing Dave Matthews Band will come here too.