On Labor Day, the first bout of summer rain broke through the merciless heat wave that’s been torturing the country. Coincidentally, it was the same night that the fun-filled emo-fest that was the Secondhand Serenade concert provided a welcome respite from all that head-banging the previous weekend.
Secondhand who?
It may have been the artist’s second visit to our music-loving shores, but a lot of people are still largely unfamiliar with Secondhand Serenade. It was in the middle of the last decade that a then-unknown MySpace artist by the name of John Vesely carved a virtual niche for himself with his bittersweet ballads under the pseudonym “Secondhand Serenade.” (“Secondhand” because his songs were originally dedicated to his then-wife, and the world only got to enjoy them after she did. Sweet.)
But it wasn’t until he started courting the Pinoy airwaves with the emotive rock ballad “Fall For You” in 2008 that the doe-eyed crooner entered mainstream success, and cemented his place in the woeful acoustic rock genre popularized by Dashboard Confessional and Boyce Avenue.
Vesely’s three studio albums recount the poignant journey of a guy who’s very much in love (2007 acoustic debut “Awake”) but eventually gets his heart broken (2008’s full-band LP “A Twist In My Story”), and who is now moving on with his life (2010’s “Hear Me Now”). His lyrics and melodies are generally mournful, which sits perfectly well with the hopeless romantics that Pinoys are known to be.
On the other hand, his live shows are surprisingly far from wrist-slashingly depressing, as evidenced by his mall shows for Ayala Malls in 2009 and now by his recently concluded full-length concert at the Skydome in SM North Edsa.
Originally a one-man act, Vesely currently has a band lineup consisting of his brother Lukas on bass, ex-The White Tie Affair guitarist Ryan Cook, and drummer Jon Wilkes, formerly of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
As opening act, local up-and-comers Gracenote kicked off the show with a few acoustic cover songs and their mainstream hit “Minsan Lang Naman”; we give them props for their laudable attempt at a Walk Off The Earth version of Gotye’s LSS-inducing “Somebody That I Used To Know.” Hey, four people hunched over one guitar while harmonizing is no small feat.
Sizable crowd
The relatively intimate venue held a sizable crowd made up of teen and twentysomething fans who knew every word of Vesely’s lyrics by heart (and how!). After a few minutes of fine-tuning, the band proceeded to dish out a solid 15-song set list that spanned
Secondhand’s three-album repertoire, some acoustic, but most with full band accompaniment. Hits performed included “Vulnerable,” “Awake,” “Maybe,” “Your Call,” and “Let Me In,” with a couple of covers thrown in (Enrique Iglesias’ “Hero” and Coldplay’s “Fix You”).
Acting as a quiet observer instead of the typical noisy concertphile served to heighten my other senses for a more objective point of view. Watching Vesely, it seemed as if he was a guy who’s gotten comfortable wearing his weathered heart on his tattooed sleeve, regardless of the world’s reaction—much like a Chris Carrabba of this generation, if you will.
When he’s not wrenching tears out of stone walls, Vesely entertained the crowd with easy banter and good-natured jabs, mostly at his own expense; the most notable of which was his teary-eyed mock-rendition of Enrique Iglesias’ “Hero,” complete with fake accent and wobbly voice.
Similarly, his bandmates took some of the edge off the largely emo-heavy set list by banging and prancing animatedly to the tunes and interacting with the audience. For his part, Secondhand’s tour manager Preston Jones periodically got the crowd all hyped up during band breaks.
Why the guy deserves special mention, we’ll leave it to the loud, smitten din the fans were creating as he puttered about onstage. The Matt Bomer look-alike obviously had fans of his own, even stealing the spotlight from Vesely himself when he’d fix a couple of things from time to time.
Overall, the concert proved to be a rock R&R of sorts, offering one’s inner quixote a chance to run wild and free, at least for a couple of hours. There’s no “I” in “emo,” but that night, young hopeless romantics swooned as one. No need to be shy; we all go through it at least once. Or twice. Or more.
“Secondhand Serenade live in Manila” was presented by DAYLY Entertainment and Happy Cow Productions.
