WHEN: MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS LIVE IN MANILA 2014 / LIKE ARENA CAN'T HOLD US!

MACKLEMORE LIVE IN MANILA 2014 / LIKE ARENA CAN'T HOLD US!

Four words to describe March 16's Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Live In Manila 2014: This is f*ckin' AWESOME! 

And no I am not just quoting one of their lines. As the duo promised, MOA Arena did had the best dance party to date and I am fortunate to contribute to it. Sorry Arena, but your ceiling can't hold us... and that's another quoted lyrics right there - ugh talk about concert hangover. 

Coming from another event, I didn't worry about going to the arena past 8pm (released concert time) coz I know it won't start on time. Although I would love to party early with Mars Miranda and Those Damn Nerds spinning as front act. With shortcuts here and there, and a fire along Paco, we arrived at the venue around 9:30PM.

It was The Bar, a 100% Pinoy hiphop duo who grew up in the U.S. consisting of Prometheus Brown and Bambu Depistula, performing that time we arrived. The Bar is already set to come over this May for their album "Barkada" but got to fly earlier than expected to front act for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis who is in tour for their album "The Heist". 

Their song "Auntie" is a pretty funny one. It is actually having a crush with your auntie! :D

It was around 10PM when the crowd started doubling cheers upon seeing Ryan Lewis, Macklemore and the band performing 10,000 hours. He came out wearing a neat red jacket over black sando.

Macklemore shares to the crowd his experience under the influence and on finally checking in to rehab. He recalled having to go back to his parents' place after it coz he was dead broke. I also discovered that this is not his first time in the country, he told us that he went here when he was 19 years old and stopped schooling. He never imagined he would be able to go back here again. His most anticipated leg in his tour is actually Manila! 

He said he'll be staying here for three more days so he asked us some suggested places to go to, although he has already something in mind... a place also very familiar with us, and then he performed "Thrift Shop".

Sorry for that little girl's voice you hear singing, or shouting, yep that's me :D And he did check some thrift shop, he went to Greenhills days after the concert!
Macklemore also shared his views on LGBT, an obvious anecdote to their hit single "Same Love". I quote:

"I believe that no government, no state, no institution, no religion, no school, no human being on this earth can decide who you love and your heart."

The wild crowd shifted to intimate mood while singing the chorus and waving their hands. Macklemore asked us to raise a number one sign as support to the LGBT community.

But of course we still went back to dancing shortly after. Macklemore challenged us to prove how the Manila crowd is the best among all the tours he had gone to and will be going to. Challenge accepted! It was hell of a party when "Can't Hold Us" was performed!
He kept on repeating how great our crowd is, which I would like to believe he was sincere on that. Arena was jampacked and everyone was crazily jumping up and down!!

And we danced more with "White Walls" and "Wing$".

A candid introductory video was played for the song "And We Danced", with Macklemore entering the stage wearing a cape and wig afterwards.

Ryan Lewis partying with the crowd!

The night wouldn't end without thanking the whole team who made this big party possible, including The Bar going back on stage. As Macklemore said, The Bar helped him through his early career in Seattle. 
Of course he didn't miss recognizing Ryan Lewis. He shared to the crowd how he discovered Ryan through (what he calls the "Facebook before") Myspace. He acknowledged that all the hits we heard that night is all thanks to Ryan Lewis' geniuses.

Ryan Lewis

The band

Event became more spectacular with the Philippine flag being waved, the confetti, the lights... it was a celebration!

We still couldn't get enough of the party hence the crowd shouting "WE WANT MORE!". Macklemore and Ryan Lewis love us so much they went back for an encore! I was already expecting they would perform "Can't Hold Us" again and I didn't mind, PARTY LANG! LOL!
I experienced my first up close mosh pit moment with Macklemore jumping to our side of the crowd. I was almost just near the Neon Trees' Tyler Glenn mosh pit during last year's Wanderland. Going back to Macklemore, I was both happy and at the same time nervous for my camera, it was a massive crowd going for him and I was just there under his shoe, haha! 
Check out this whole video of the encore, with the mosh pit. Again if you hear a little girl's voice singing, looking for macklemore (I lost sight of him for a minute), or shouting "OMG!", that's me again, apologies! Haha!

Finally, as Macklemore was about to leave the stage, he threw his blue towel to our side of the crowd. Next thing I know, I was being pushed over almost also going down with the big group fighting for dear life just to grab ownership to the towel. It was supposed to be okay, fun and crazy... not until the strap of my Steve Madden bag cut loose! WAG GANON!! =(
The battle left a nerdy looking guy and a rockin' teenage girl fighting over it, even with the presence of the bouncers, they were still passionately arguing who should keep the towel. Kids, can you just cut it to two, Macklemore's sweat surely has occupied the whole space! 

Away pa! Haha!

Whew, and the ceiling can't hold us! Macklemore and Ryan Lewis definitely gave us the best dance party! I am confident they mean it when they said we are the best crowd among their tour. As for me, their humility and sensible lyrical rap is what I loved about the whole concert. Macklemore made us (or maybe just me) connect with him, with them, and that rarely happens.