Bombay Bicycle Club in Manila

(c) Karpos Multimedia

I'm no superfan of Bombay Bicycle Club. I don't know if I can even consider myself a fan, because I only know 4 to 5 songs of them, and I don't even memorize the lyrics of any of those (oh, except maybe "How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep" because you know, it has only like, 4 repeating lines). If this was a quiz, I may even mistake them for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Okay, self, enough pissing off BBC fans that were not able to see them live.

I've got a free ticket to the concert, that's why. I don't mean to be pretentious, but I haven't been to a concert in a while, and work has been unkind, and I know it's going to be a chill concert so I thought it would help clear my mind off things.

And it really did. It was a much-needed afterwork chillout. The chill music, the vibrant youthful energy, the singing, the dancing - I am still young. Okay, so much about myself. Let's talk about BBC's act.

They were great performers. They weren't able to fill the venue with fans, but they still performed like they were performing in a huge music festival. What an energy Jack Steadman has. Even my friends who were superfans affirmed that he really rocked it out.

The concert was also not just a feast for the ears, but for the eyes as well. Infer, I really liked their paandar. Accompanying every number is a light show and visual-show on the background. Sa ganda ng visuals, I can't really blame the audience for taking photos. As Allan Policarpio puts it:

The stage lights, intricate and entrancing, varied with each song and complimented the regular changes in tempo. White lights blinked at a seizure-inducing pace during the bass-heavy “Evening/Morning,” and while Steadman bathed in a soft orange haze in “Your Eyes,” which ended with beams of light crisscrossing and merging toward him. 

Heightening the aural-visual experience was the projection of otherworldly, at times abstract, animation sequences on five interlinking discs that worked much like phenakistoscopes. Dancing skeletons accompanied “Shuffle”; cobras, the Bollywood-inspired “Feel”; a man free-falling in starry space, the groovy “Luna.”

The set was shorter than I expected, otherwise, it's satisfying. I don't know about the fans, baka bitin sila.

I feel so hip right now. Charaught!

(c) Magic Liwanag

(c) Betty Uy