March 31, 2012 will always be memorable to fans for The Maine here in Manila. It's the day the band held their show to start of the Pioneer World Tour here in Manila.

I did not really had plans to watch the show because the venue was too far but it was always at the back of my mind. During the day of the concert, I was free for the day so I decided to take the risk and head on to the venue. I came to the venue hoping that tickets were still available and I'm glad they were so I bought a ticket for myself. The concert was held in the SM North EDSA Skydome and it was my first time to watch a show there but getting the ticket was not so hard.

I had spare time before the show and took advantage of that by going around the entire mall and eating dinner. The mall was the biggest here in the country so it took me some time to look around and find a place to eat where it wasn't crowded. The mall was really beautiful despite the huge crowds that made it hard to go around. There were a lot of stores that I wish we had in the nearest malls we had.

It was getting close to showtime so I went to line myself up among the fans. They started letting people in at around 7pm. Once I was inside the venue, the people were already on the barricades but good thing the crowd mostly consisted of young girls so my height was an advantage to get a good view.The venue was not that big and it made the show more intimate. I got a gold ticket which was the second best section but anyone can have a good view whichever section you're in which is what makes the venue suit the show.

Itchyworms was the opening act and they were pretty good. They were able to entertain the crowd and that surprised me since there was a backlash against them on twitter the previous day after some fans thought the band said some negative comments towards The Maine which was proved to be false. They played around 5 songs before the main show actually started. The fans were already hyped and ready as the band came out on stage. The crowd erupted and sang along to the band as they played songs from their discography. I'd say they had a good balance of songs from every album as a part of the setlist. There are songs I wished they sung but I was content with what they sung.

The only part of the show that I was bummed about was that during one part of the show, I was recording a performance with my digital camera and suddenly, the guard tapped my shoulder to tell me that video recording was not allowed!In my head, I was like "WTF". The other people beside me were taking videos and they didn't get reprimanded. I've already been recording their performances earlier so I wondered why it was only then at that point he decided to stop me. But anyway, I still got to take a video of their performance after that song, though I had to check my back to make sure the guard wasn't there.

I wanted to buy some of the merchandise being sold but I was worried I might have no ride home if I stayed there for too long so I was not successful. I did get to find a ride home which wasn't that hard and I'm thankful that I watched this show. Now I know that I am capable of watching other shows to be held there in the future.