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American trio LANY play their biggest show yet in Manila
LANY first came to the Philippines as one of the featured artists at the Wanderland Music and Arts Festival 2017. Back then, the trio of Paul Klein, Les Priest and Jake Goss said it was the biggest showed they ever played.
The response to their set was so strong they came back a few months later to do a series of mall shows, all of which drew enormous crowds usually reserved for global superstars.
After that, you’d think the band would’ve kicked back for a bit and let their Filipino fans get a chance to find their bearings and develop separation anxiety. But nope. In a total strike-while-the-iron-is-hot move, LANY were once again back in the country this week to do two sold-out shows at the Araneta Coliseum.
This is remarkable on two points: first, that a relatively new band that has yet to fully reach global recognition managed to sell-out one of the country’s biggest venues (reports even said tickets ran out within 24 hours); and two, that they sold out a second night at the Big Dome, just months after they played free shows at a small mall tour in the same city.
It’s unheard of.
So what exactly is it about LANY that have captured the hearts (and wallets) of concert-weary Pinoy music lovers?
The question kept going around in my head at the Thursday night show. Just looking at the crowd, what was immediately clear was that their core audience was, as expected, teenagers and young adult females, with a smattering of millennials and Gen Z dudes.
When the house lights went down and the band appeared, everyone in the VIP standing section made a mad dash to the stage. After Goss and Priest took their positions behind the drums and keys respectively, Klein casually walked onstage in jeans, sneakers and an oversized shirt with Where’s Waldo stripes. He took a couple of seconds to take it all in before launching into “Dumb Stuff.”
The band launched into a couple of other songs—“4EVER!” and “Yea Babe, No Way”—before Klein finally addressed the crowd.
“This is our first arena show ever,” he said to eardrum-shattering screams. “We’ve been to Manila three times in the last year and it already feels like home.” More screams.
If you’re not a fan of LANY and are wondering what kind of music they play, think '80s pop synths in atmospheric and summery, feel-good vibes. Drawing comparisons to contemporaries like The 1975, Walk The Moon and Catfish and the Bottlemen, they sing about all the usual things — love, heartbreak, living in LA and California — but do it in a fun, carefree, leisurely-drive-in-a-topdown-convertible kind of way.
A distinguishing factor, though, would be Klein’s vocals, which sound intense and lazy at the same time, like someone speed-reading a lullaby, or a shy poet with mad rap skills. Undoubtedly, his singing is a major reason for much of the band’s success.
And Klein was a showman, as well. Throughout the show, he worked the crowd through some goofy dance moves and running around the stage, occupying every square inch of space. He genuinely seemed excited and happy to be playing in front of thousands of screaming fans.
The band did mostly original material, except for a moment in the set when Klein sat in front of the piano and belted out a slow version of Harry Style’s “Sign of the Times,” before seguing into their own “Current Location.”
Before they came out with their debut album last year, LANY released singles and an EP, which fans devoured on streaming sites like Soundcloud and Spotify. The comments section for their videos on YouTube are littered with fans trying to one-up each other by claiming they knew the band before they were famous. Some are happy for the band’s success, but many sneer at so-called bandwagoners and express their displeasure that they’ve become “too mainstream” now.
Whatever the case, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that LANY are on the cusp of breaking out. If and when they finally do, I think it’s amazing that they achieved that first here in the Philippines.
Klein himself kept saying over and over that it was the best night of their lives and that they would always remember that date: April 5, 2018. (I’ll just have to wonder what else he said on night two).
By the time the band came back out to do their two-song encore, “Superfar” and the inescapable “ILYSB,” it was evident in Klein’s face that he was as grateful to be here performing about as much as (if not more than) audiences there were grateful to be watching.
It was an amazing show, not just because we got to hear the songs we love delivered by a genuinely likable band, but moreso because we were witnesses to a concert that was, for once, truly different from all the other shows that they’ve played and would go on to play, and one that would absolutely mean something to them as they go on in their careers. For a trio of pop stars just out to make music and have people listen to them, that’s probably the greatest feeling in the world. — LA, GMA News
Paul John Caña is a writer and live music geek. Check out his blog manontheotherside.blogspot.com. Email him at pjcana@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter and Instagram @pauljohncana
