The Loveliest Yet Loneliest Little Tour of the Year

I see them holding roses, familiar faces that I've never met but I have seen from crowds to groups in such moments like this. "Finally, this is it", i whispered to myself. Black backdrop and red roses; that's officially the theme for the amazing rock and roll record that The Maine released earlier this year. They call it Lovely Little Lonely; a masterpiece that showcases the creative growth of the ever experimental lyrical geniuses over the past few years. It is a work of art that hits the softest part of your being and hypes up the loneliness that lies beneath your deepest darkest pit.

With a new record in store, the Arizona based emo pop punk band, that I have adored since blue skirts and ponytails, shared an amazing and unforgettable night with their lovely and ever supportive 8123 family in Manila for the 6th time.

I have been a fan of The Maine since junior year of high school, and I swear that there is nothing more that I wanted in my entirety as a fan than to go to all of their previous shows in my city. I was broke then, I still am now. But I think that God really works in mysterious ways to show us how much He loves us and how much He wants nothing but the best for us. Just when I was about to brush off my system the fact that they are going to have a show in a week, kindness has fallen upon my mom. She doesn't want me to go to concerts anymore but I'm happy that it felt like this was an exception.

The Maine were just the opening act for All Time Low when I first saw them, which means they might not perform full set. True enough, they only performed 10 songs and 3 of the songs were removed due to time constraints. Although, I love All Time Low to death, I think that The Maine deserved so MUCH better.

This time, the experience was way different from 2 years ago. I got a VIP ticket. I'm entitled with a Meet & Greet which hyped up the tiny fangirl in me BIG BIG TIME. I always wanted to go front row. However, in some way I feel like when I ask my concert buddy about how much I want to be an early bird on that day, I would just get a confused facial expression with question marks all over. As much as I want to be there by 9AM, me and my friend got there by 1PM. There was a line already. Fortunately, it wasn't a long line.

The waiting game was 8 hours long but I swear the moment the five of them were onstage, it felt like all the weariness, pain, stress, worries, or whatsoever have let up so quickly. I knew things will never be the same again. I will always remember how I was recklessly been pushed and slammed into damp and moist bodies in the entire show, how my body produced 10x more sweat than I usually do, how I had damp hair for dinner, and how the girl in front of me stepped on my foot countless time. It was my first time to experience a pit show for The Maine and I didn't expect that kind of crowd at all. I know that 8123 Manila fam are supportive but I didn't know they were that wild and crazy. I'm not complaining. I actually had fun, no lies. I will always remember it.

During the show, I was second row right side of the stage in front of Garrett Nickelsen (bassist) and Jared Monaco (lead guitarist). Once in a while, John would come right in front of me and kill me with his amazing stage presence. Truly, they aren't just a band that creates amazing and lyrically-beautiful tunes. They are a band filled with intense passion in their live performance. John O'Callaghan (lead vocalist) is way different from what he has portrayed himself to be in his Twitter account. Unlike his fake deep ass who tweets beautiful quotes that came straight from his beautiful mind, onstage John is fun, energetic and wild. Sometimes he can be a tease, stripping it down to us like it doesn't make us feel so disrespected and attacked (he is so cute). But what I really love about John is how caring and gentle he can also be onstage. He kept on reminding us to take care of ourselves and the people around us. Non-verbatim, he said that we need to live in the moment. He wanted us to put our phones away and just dance, sing and have fun. I did put my phone away for quite some time.

On the other hand, Patrick Kirch (drummer) may be at the background recklessly headbanging while hitting his drums but his stage presence can't just be ignored. Once in a while, I would just stare at him and praise how amazing his drumming skills were. Speaking of being amazing, Garrett Nickelsen and Jared Monaco also falls on the same spot. Garrett was burning hot, tbh. He was standing right in front of me the whole concert and his lips were always imitating that of a duck's while strumming his bass guitar. I was so attached to him because he was also the first person to greet and hug me during the meet and greet. Onstage, he was so so so wild and fun.

While Garrett has completely lost his chill throughout the show, Jared on the other hand gets the crowd going simply with his guitar skills and nothing more. I love that he is so chill and silent but whenever he stops and looks at the sea of people right in front of him, the crowd just MELTS. He is so quiet, I AM IN LOVE. I would also love to say a lot of lovely things about Kennedy Brock but he's on the other side of the stage which made it hard for me to swoon over whatever he was doing.

With regards to their setlist that night, I couldn't be more thankful. They sang old school hits from We All Roll Along, Girls Do What They Want and Right Girl to new tracks like Black Butterflies and Deja Vu and Bad Behavior. The crowd were unstoppable from screaming how much they wanted to hear Saving Grace live. I mean, who doesn't want to hear the old school masterpiece that is Saving Grace live, right? Being a tease that he is, John played a snippet of it and we don't know if we would feel thankful or disrespected. I felt so disrespected.On the other hand, I was beyond happy when I finally heard them perform (Un)lost and Am I Pretty?. Those are the anthems of my life. Every lyric in those two songs speak to me in ways I cannot explain.

I was actually waiting for them to play my personal faves from their new record, Taxi and The Sound of Reverie. Unfortunately, they didn't perform it. The good news is The Maine performed an encore just for us! It makes me so happy to think how much they love the Manila fam. They've never done encores before. Their final song in the Lovely Lonely Tour was none other than Another Night on Mars. However, right before we all send out our butts to the seats on the balcony for the meet and greet, The Maine came back onstage with shirtless John and Pat. John complained how loud the crowd were and how they couldn't resist but come back onstage to perform another song for us. Lovely, isn't it? They performed Ice Cave as their final song to the most amazing night of life.

But it didn't end just there! Meet and Greet were up in just a few minutes right after the show ended. I was so so hyped up and excited it felt like I'm going to burst out from crying. But I didn't, except my anxiety got the best of me. The Meet and Greet was in group of 6. When me and my friend were up next, we were separated from a different group. She was the last person in her group and I was the first person in my group. I wanted to be with her but it didn't hit me that if I was the first person in my group I'd probably be next to John in the group photo. I was a bit disappointed that I even exchanged places with one of the girls in her group. I should've not. But I'm kinda okay with it now because if I was the first person in the group, I'm pretty sure I'm going to just run straight to John and ignore the other members which is something that I wouldn't want to happen.

Good thing, it didn't happen to be honest. I didn't get to hug Kennedy and Jared but I got warm hugs from Garrett, Pat and John. Garrett was the first person to greet me. He asked me if I had fun during the show and I said I did. I hugged him, he hugged me back and I told him that it was actually my first time to meet them. The photo was snapped and I regret that I didn't hug Garrett in that moment. After that, Pat hugged me and told me he was sorry the show was short. I went straight to John after that. I forgot that Kennedy and Jared existed. I hate myself.

I had quite a moment with John during the meet and greet. After I hugged him, John lowered himself to position his face to mine while I looked him straight into his eyes and told him "John, can we have a picture?". He said, "Of course." and when we were about to take a selfie, this rude security turned off my phone and pushed me away. So disrespectful. When I looked back I saw John was looking at me. "I hope you got it in there", he told me.Unfortunately, I didn't got any photo of us. I have completely lost myself in that moment when I saw him look at me. I was lost for words so I just told him that I love him.

Words and main artwork by collene.

collene is 24-year-old self-proclaimed creative old soul who is deeply fascinated by the beauty of music, arts, books and poetry. Catch her wearing her bluetooth earphones on with either a phone or book on hand.