Here We Are Juggernaut: Coheed & Cambria Live in Manila

The Juice Bloggers

Last July 30 post-hardcore/progressive group Coheed & Cambria rocked Manila for a one-night-only concert at the A-Venue events hall. The place was packed with new and old fans eagerly anticipating what was sure to be an epic performance by one of the most iconic bands of our generation.

By Angelo Balili

Last July 30, rock mainstays Coheed and Cambria graced the stage of the A-Venue events hall in Makati City to give their Filipino fan base one heck of a night to remember. Led by frontman Claudio Sanchez with his impressive vocal range, the band played a solid mix of old favorites, as well as new tracks from their latest record, Year of the Black Rainbow. The band has been touring major cities around the world over the past few months promoting their latest studio work, released mid-April of this year.

Spotted in the event were celebrities from the local music scene such as quirky Jay Contreras of Kamikazee, ever-friendly Monty Macalino of Mayonnaise, guitar god Francis Reyes of The Dawn and the irresistibly dashing Niles Chong of Angulo, just to name a few. The concert also featured performances by local superband Franco and three-piece Filipino-British band Firefalldown. They played five songs each, just enough to get the crowd excited and pumped up for the main event. Then, the curtains rolled down in anticipation, much to the excitement of the crowd that gave a resounding chant of “Coheed! Coheed!”

Finally, the curtains rolled back up and upon seeing the iconic head of hair of guitarist and lead vocalist Claudio Sanchez, the crowd went absolutely nuts. Many fans have long waited for a live event from Coheed, and now that the band was finally in Manila, it was pretty surreal. People came with high hopes; and the band did not disappoint.

They hooked the audience in from the get-go with aggressive and hard-hitting songs “The Broken” and “Here We Are Juggernaut” both from their latest release. They kept the pace up with “No World for Tomorrow,” “The Velorium Camper III: Al the Killer,” and “Made Out of Nothing (All That I Am).” The crowd went crazy to the intro of “Time Consumer,” a timeless number from their first studio album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade. The catchy tune had the crowd entranced, waving their hands and singing along as Claudio belted out unforgettable lines from the song. They then proceeded to play two more songs from their latest album, namely “World of Lines” and “Guns of Summer,” which flaunted the mind-blowing skills of new drummer, Chris Pennie.

What followed next was a hardcore sing-along party as the band played more of their old hits, much to the delight of everyone in the venue: “The Suffering,” “Three Evils (Embodied in Love and Shadow)” and the widely popular, “A Favor House Atlantic.”

The curtains came down to signal the end. But after a good ten minutes of screaming for an encore, the band busted out once again and played two epic classics “Everything Evil” and “21:13.” To cap the perfect set, they ended with the heart-stopping track “Welcome Home” to which everyone passionately banged their heads, pumped their fists, and sang their hearts out.

People left the venue drenched in sweat and uncontrollably ecstatic from the epic performance they had just witnessed. It was a concert for the ages that Filipinos will not soon forget.

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Comments

Tom Barba said:
A prior engagement made me miss this concert, and i admit that my primary goal was to search for that tiny singer inside the beast that is Claudio Sanchez. But i've always been a steady fan of theirs, and this article makes me want to check put their new material.