Last week, a series of shows were held at different Ayala Malls featuring A+ Dropouts,The Summer Set,The Ready Set,A Rocket To The Moon and Forever The Sickest Kids. The concert series is called Liv5. Lasty year, we had 3 artists for Liv3 which I was able to watch and I didn't want to miss out on this one. I actually asked tickets from my uncle since he works for Ayala and I got myself tickets for two shows, 1 in Glorietta and the other one in Market!Market! Since the bands have the same setlist anyway, I'll just blog about it in one post. I'm glad I had connections because I got tickets for the VIP section.I somehow got lost in the mix of loud teenagers fresh from school and it's one of those days that I feel lucky to be babyfaced as I blended well with the crowd. I saw several signs that I would expect from fangirls but as much as they were cute, they were annoying and have the tendency to block the view at some point.

The show started on time which was good. They started the meet & greet before every set. A+ Dropouts was the first band to perform. I don't know much about them but they were good. I looked them up on the net and found out they were actually very young and the female lead singer,Cheska, is Filipino!It's nice that people still cheered for them even if they don't really know them too.

It was The Summer Set's turn to perform and I'm amazed by Brian's energy and his voice. He sounds so good and their drummer,Jess, is really hot! Brian also showed his drumming skills before they ended their set. I have to say that my love for this band has grown more after seeing them live.

The Ready Set was the third performer and he did pretty good entertaining the crowd. He has awesome hair.

My favorite band from the whole set would have to be A Rocket To The Moon. I really love their songs and they were also one of the most loved by the crowd. Nick seems to appear snobbish at some point but it was all fun. I loved it when the audience were singing along.

It was down to the last performer, Forever The Sickest Kids and they didn't disappoint. They're one of my favorite bands as well. Jonathan was really lively and brought the house down. Despite being the last one to come out, the crowd's energy was still very high.

Overall, the shows were very successful. I daresay this was even better than Avril's concert. I hope to see them again in the future.

Last Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, I watched Avril Lavigne's 3rd concert in Manila which was my first time to see her. It was held in Araneta Coliseum. I actually bought my tickets just a few days before the show and didn't expect that the place were almost sold out. It was fortunate that I got an upper box A ticket.

Just the day before the show, it was raining but I was glad that the weather turned fine during the day of the concert. I arrived at the venue just in time to have an early dinner at Gateway.

Went inside and got to my seat and was impressed to see a large crowd especially in the bleachers and the upper boxes. It was one of the concerts I've went to that had very good crowd attendance and more impressive that Avril still has a big fanbase here in the country.

Somedaydream started the show and played a few songs. He only got a lukewarm response from the crowd until he sang his signature song, Hey Daydreamer.

During the short break, I was waiting for a backdraft to be installed but there wasn't any and just a plain black curtain was left hanging. The stage was very simple. Several glowsticks/ lightsticks were also sold to the audience that had a glowing star at the tip that represents her fans/the tour.

Avril's band finally came out and the intro started playing as the fans cheered. Avril came out in an a black ensemble and didn't had any change of outfit during the entire show. She sang mostly all her singles except for a few like Hot,Losing Grip and Keep Holding On. The only non-singles that were played were Black Star(which was basically just an interlude), I Always Get What I Want and I Love You. I later found out that Push was also part of her setlist but she didn't sing it. It felt like a greatest hits tour more than a tour to promote her latest album. It's even more disappointing that despite the wild crowd, her energy seems to be low. I don't know if I'm expecting too much but I am a big fan and I just hope that she interacted with the audience more. She had a lot of breaks in between and kept looking at her band more often than her audience. This made the concert so short to the point that I almost made it to the MRT before it closed.Lol! Overall, it was a little disappointing that I paid more than I expected but as a fan, it's still great to see her.

But I'm positive that by her next tour, she'll come back again to perform in front of her fans who have stayed with her for a long time.

Busy week for me!

Tagaytay last weekend for the wedding!Went there a day earlier and checked in at a nice hotel called Hotel Kimberly. Arrived late afternoon and spent some time playing air hockey in the game room. Had dinner with everyone in Bacolod Fried Chicken at Robinson's later that night. I didn't expect the weather to be cold so I didn't bring a jacket which was a mistake! But I did enjoy the weather since we don't have that weather here in Manila. Before sleeping, I tried to practice tying my necktie which I started to learn from youtube just the night before.

It was finally the day of the wedding. Woke up to a gloomy morning and a slight drizzle. Had a buffet breakfast before dressing up at lunch time since the wedding was at 2PM. Also found out that morning that I was a groomsman along with my cousin who coincidentally bought the same coat I have! I'm glad I was the groomsman and not a secondary sponsor :p

We finally left for the church which I was surprised to find out was going to be held inthe Chapel on the Hill in Don Bosco Batulao which was where we had our recollection back in 4th year high school. I didn't get to refresh any memories though as I didn't get to roam around while waiting. The wedding went smooth and despite the weather getting bad. Such a nice moment to see my uncle and aunt getting married.

Headed towards the reception after and had to overcome a very heavy traffic!Vehicles including ours kept on counterflowing and it felt scary since the road was on a hill.Felt so thankful we got back to the hotel where the reception will be held.

Lots of food but didn't get to eat a lot. Had some drinks as well and had a good time overall.Stayed for one more night in Tagaytay and had another buffet breakfast before checking out of the hotel. Had lunch at Mushroomburger before heading back to Manila.

Later that day we went to Greenbelt and watched The Vow. I was looking forward to that movie since I liked the premise plus Rachel is really a sight to see but it was a little underwhelming but still a sweet movie:)

I also watched Avril Lavigne's concert and Liv5 this week but I'll blog about it some other time.

We are going to Tagaytay tomorrow and stay there til Monday because of our uncle's wedding on Sunday. The funny thing is that I am part of the entourage but I don't know my role yet!I assume I'll be one of the secondary sponsors. I just hope that I won't be the one who will light the candles.But aside from my entourage jitters, I am looking forward to see my relatives again.

My soon-to-be newlywed uncle and aunt will actually be our neighbors when they move into our great grandma's old house. It's been under renovation since late last year and still ongoing. I don't have a problem but I'm just worried since our house is usually noisy, from the loud voice of my mom and our talkative maids, this is just embarrassing.

On a different note, I am thinking positive that I'll get to watch Avril Lavigne and Liv5 next week. They're going to be held on two consecutive dates and two different venues. The Avril concert will be on Araneta and tikets are quite price-y but I think I can manage. The good thing about Liv5 is that it's going to be in the mall so I can watch it even if I don't have seats but I asked my uncle if he has tickets for the show since he works for the sponsor but he hasn't replied yet.

A few months ago, a wrestling event was announced on the net called WWFX. It wasn't a show by the WWE but it was a show by former wrestlers of the WWE. It didn't attract me at first but it still kept running at the back of my head since I used to be a fan of these wrestlers so I grabbed the opportunity since the actual WWE shows would be more expensive. While WWE is a huge company, WWFX on the other hand is a smaller promotion built on a smaller upstart that offers the public a wrestling experience with affordable tickets and more interaction with the superstars.

The show was held in Araneta Coliseum as advertised on the poster. I got upper A tickets and my seat was in the front row and I got a good view of the ring!I got there just in time for the supposedly 7:30 pm start but the show started late for more than an hour. The venue wasn't filled up but you can still feel the excitement.

Colt Cabana was introduced as the ring announcer. He's also a wrestler who fought in smaller scale professional leagues and also had a brief career at WWE. He will be the ring announcer for the entire evening. He gave away ome backstage passes and announced that there will be 7 matches for the night.

The first match was between Billy Gunn and Jimmy Wang Yang. I didn't expect people to jeer at Billy Gunn but I guess that was because the crowd consisted of the younger generations who didn't know who he was.The match was pretty short but it was a pretty good exchange of hits despite the difference in size. Jimmy Wang Yang hit hit signature move to win the match.

The second match was Daivari facing off Gregory "The Hurricane" Helms. It was a little boring at first since they started off playing with the crowd at who got cheers and who got booed. Also, The Hurricane gained a lot of weight so he barely moved. During the middle of the match, it got fun because the referee participated and fought off against Daivari while Hurricane played as the referee before Hurricane finished off Daivari and got the win. The Hurricane was accompanied by one of the winners of the online contest for guest manager.

There was also a contest for guest commentator who was introduced before the next match started. He got a lot of boos from the crowd as he made his entrance. The next match was a divas match between Jillian Hall and Melina. Jillian made her trademark singing before the match before getting interrupted by Melina. The match was pretty impressive, Melina was still flexible and used her Wrestlemania outfit. Melina won the match. The guest commentator went up the ring and gave Melina a beer to celebrate with him, which brings us to the next match. Luke Gallows interrupted and continued his "straight edge society" character and lectured Melina on living a healthy life. As he continued to threaten her, Rhino rushes to the ring for the rescue and had a good match with Gallows. Gallows dominated most of the match but in the end, Melina distracted Gallows as he was about to hit him with a steel chair and Rhino hit his signature move, Gore, for the win.

The show went for a break before the second half of the show.

The show resumed with Snitsky going up against Carlito. This match really brought the "fan experience" very literally as most of the match were held out of the ring and even got near me!Too bad I didn't get to hold them!This was my favorite match of the whole show. Carlito used his apple spitting tactic to win the match.

The next match featured Chris Masters and MVP. Both were cheered equally but it was Masters who were playing the heel as he played the crowd before their match started. I was hoping for a Masters win but MVP eventually got the win.

The last match for the night was for the WWFX championship between John Morrison and Shelton Benjamin. It was a good match between these two athletic wrestlers. The referee even got knocked out and Shelton even used the belt for his advantage but in the end, crowd-favorite John Morrison got the pin by using his signature move, Starship Pain and was crowned the first ever WWFX champion. All the winners of the night came out to celebrate with John in the ring.

It was announced that the wrestlers will have a meet and greet/picture taking with the fans. The line was long but I didn't let it discourage me since this might be my only chance to have this experience. Unfortunately, I wanted to meet and have a picture with Carlito but he wasn't among the wrestlers who were there so I got a pic and an autograph with Chris Masters instead.

Overall, it was a fun and exciting show. They really delivered the fan experience and I hope to see them all again soon!