10/13/12-The Fray

What a way to end my concert year than watching The Fray! Their show was announced several months ago and I was looking forward to watching them live on their first show here in Manila, held at the Araneta Coliseum last Saturday, Nov. 11, 2012. I actually did not get to buy a ticket until two days before but I had a feeling that it would not be sold out so I wasn't worried of running out of tickets. The show is part of their tour in support of their latest album called Scars & Stories.

I must admit that I was late to ride the bandwagon. I ignored their music at first despite the popularity of their major hit song, How To Save A Life, due to the help of Grey's Anatomy. They have already released two albums by the time I got into them and it was a major facepalm for me when I discovered how good they really were.

I don't have physical copies of their albums but I have their discography online and I was excited to see them perform most of their songs live. 

I got to the venue just in time for dinner and to stroll around Gateway mall before going inside. It's disappointing to see that the crowd attendance was quite poor for such an amazing act but it did not stop the entire show from being entertaining.

Before they started, Moonstar88 opened the show and it was a nice throwback especially since they were quite popular some years ago especially during my HS years. Though I'm not a big fan, I have to say they were quite good.

During the band's turn to perform, Isaac, the lead vocalist, immediately greeted the crowd in Filipino which charmed the audience and captured the attention and quickly started to sing their popular songs such as All At Once and You Found Me which the audience greatly appreciated and sang along to. 

The atmosphere for the entire night was light as people enjoyed watching back and singing along to their songs. Isaac would jump and run into the crowd at some point which some artists wouldn't do and it shows how much they appreciate their fans. Maybe they did it just because there was a lot of space due to the lack of attendees but I felt their genuine love for the people who paid to see them. They sang a variety of songs from all their albums from the old ones to their latest ones such as Cable Car, Heartbeat and Ungodly Hour. I'm surprised they didn't sing their latest single which was Run For Your Life but their setlist was still good.

Before the show ended, they promised they would come back. Almost every artist says that a lot but I do hope they do cause they are worth watching over and over again.

This might be the last concert I'll watch this year and I'm so thankful that I got to watch a lot this year. I hope to see a lot more artists in the future.

P.S.:
I hate the new ticket design. It's so bland and doesn't even contain the time of the actual concert. The previous layout/design had the most important info on the ticket.