And In This Moment I Am Happy: PERIPHERY LIVE IN MANILA

SM Skydome, February 06, 2014.

8PM

With all the 7107 IMF hype, I didn't get to check other upcoming events on the interwebs until my friend Shereen told me that Periphery will be in Manila again, to promote their latest record Clear.

I didn't actually listen to metal/progressive rock or anything similar to that until I met Mark Holcomb and the super awesome guys of Darkest Hour in 2012. We hung out and had a great time, so when I got home I rushed to check them on iTunes. I started listening for a bit to see how they sound like, and I said, pretty tolerable. But these guys are so nice and cool so I had to listen to them over and over again until I became familiar with their music. Months passed by and I hadn’t heard anything new from them although I follow them on all their social media accounts.

Two of my friends and I went to their show, and of course, we were at the front row. We were there to support Mark and his band. There were other hundreds of kids raging and enjoying the first solo show of Periphery in Manila. It was also our first time to see them play live! When they got up on stage, we shouted Mark's name and he glanced in our direction instantly. It's as if he knew we would be watching! We were at the front left facing the stage and Mark was on the right side, he would occasionally wave at us and shift side with Nolly to play bromance with Misha. They were really hilarious. Spencer definitely owned it through his very powerful voice. Matt looked (considering his size among the five of them) so gigantic for his drumkit though, from what I remember, he didn't have tom-toms.

Although the venue was nice and intimate, the production wasn't fancy. I kept complaining about the stage setup. No backdrop, there were not enough lights and I think they were poorly installed. Too bright on the center and too dark at the front. Not a very good combination for a rock show. No local band opened for them, too. But despite that, the band did great. They enjoyed every single bit of the moment while everyone was having a good time.

After they played their last song, Mark got the down the stage to give high fives to everyone at the front row, but when he passed by us, we were surprised he stopped to say hi, hug us and tell us he's glad to see us again. And we're like- "Mark remembers us!" What's more surprising about this band is that the whole crew consists only about a handful. Each of them helped uninstall and pack their equipment after the performance. I was amazed because I've never seen anything like that before. They took the time to chat with fans while they were cleaning up the stage. It was very humbling and cool.

We waited in a corner and saw Jeff Holcomb while some people got their pictures taken and their cds signed. When we realized it was taking forever for these kids to pull away from Mark, we decided to walk up to him to say goodbye. We ended up chatting for a little bit. He must be super psyched to see us again, got a lot of hugs. I brought up the picture on my blog which he asked nicely (a year ago) to take down because it was all over Google Images, so I asked for a replacement. After fixing himself up like a party girl and got everyone's approval, he posed for the camera and this is what we have agreed on:

Mark Holcomb and his pretty goofy self

As always, I managed to take some nice (at least not very blurry and out of focused although some are grainy) photos with my phone and my ever reliable point and shoot SX200 IS (Canon) camera while having fun. Here are some photos from FOH view: