Hello Everyone!
This is a review that I wrote from when I attended a Boyce Avenue concert in June 2012. I thought that I would share it with you.
Concert
Review: Boyce Avenue, band of three brothers stunned crowd in London.
American acoustic,
rock band sing a collection of their best songs and most loved covers to a
sold-out Hammersmith Apollo.
The American three piece band- made up of; Daniel Manzano, bass player, Fabian Manzano, guitarist and led by youngest brother Alejandro Manzano- impressed their adoring fans with a backlog of their album tracks and a mixture of loved covers. Boyce Avenue are known for their covers of songs on YouTube, at one point they were the second most searched band on YouTube, behind Americas great rock band, Linkin Park with over 600 million views and counting. Putting this aside they are only known due to the internet, in the UK they have never appeared on the radio or TV, this doesn’t seem to hinder their success. As this year alone they have toured around the UK and Ireland twice; with the first time at the beginning of the year with UK boy band One Direction and now their own headline tour. Their biggest yet!
Before Boyce Avenue could grace the stage singing their hits, their support acts Alex Goot and Tyler Hilton came out to showcase their talents in front of the 5000 strong audience. Due to vast queues outside the Apollo and the slow paced ticket collection staff, the majority of the fans missed Alex Goot’s set- Not with too much disappointment I suppose. After the noisy rabble of 5000 voices had settled down in their seats, Tyler Hilton took to the stage. For those who don’t know who he is, he is most known for his role as ‘Chris Keller’ on US TV drama ‘One Tree Hill’, on the programme he portrayed a musician so fans had an idea of what to expect prior to the concert. As a result of his star status from One Tree Hill, when the deep, husky voice began to sing, the fans seemed ecstatic that he was there to perform. Hilton performed an assortment of his songs, so simply and acoustically, it was as if he was singing a series of love stories; including songs such as ‘Prince of Nothing Charming’ and ‘Loaded Gun’. The fans were amazed by his power to be on stage, just him and a guitar, and still managed to entertain the crowd exceptionally. Even people, who were previously not fans, were wowed and became fans. To finish his set he sung an unknown, underrated cover of Britain’s best, Coldplay’s ‘Us against the World’, which went down very well. Even so, Tyler filmed himself and the crowd during the song and later uploaded it to his YouTube channel.
It was Tyler Hilton’s very first time in London and he seemed to love and appreciate every minute of his performance. He was in awe of the crowd’s reaction to him that he vowed to tour the UK again.
After a short interval, anxious fans finally got to see who they’d been so patiently waiting for. Boyce Avenue took to the stage appearing through the mist to hoards of hysterical screaming fans. One by one they came and slowly collected their instruments and took their places; Alejandro centre stage, with equally talented brothers either side. The mist seemed to suddenly disappear as the lights were raised and there they were, Boyce Avenue, ready to put on a great show. Starting the night of amazing live music, was a very cleverly mastered medley of ‘Daylight’ and ‘Tonight’ which went down a treat with the crowd. After performing a few more of their own songs, the once screaming fans now turned into an enthusiastic choir as together with Boyce Avenue they sung a medley of some of their best pop covers; ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, ‘We Found Love’ and ‘Dynamite’. There was a sense of passion within the fans to join in and have fun as much as they could.
Boyce Avenue were nothing but thankful to the devoted audience, none more so than trusting the crowd to experience a love story in the making. When gaining the crowds full attention, Alejandro introduced one of the bands friends and his girlfriend to the stage, neither the 5000 fans nor the girlfriend knew what romantic gesture was just about to take place. The friend took to mic talking to everyone, pouring out his feelings for his girlfriend, then got down on one knee and proposed. All 5000 people managed to be hush for this spectacle holding their breaths awaiting the answer. As a simple YES rang through the mic, the Hammersmith Apollo roared with excitement and happiness for the newly engaged couple.
This same excitement remained until the end; Boyce Avenue performed an encore of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ which again allowed the entire audience to sing along to this heart-warming song. It was almost like a bunch of walruses wailing together as the crowd tried to hit those high notes. To end such a fabulous night they sung ‘Hear Me Now’, which shows off their abilities to entertain and involve a crowd, splitting the audience in half to get each side to sing different parts of the chorus. This set up is traditionally used in their shows, so old fans would know what to expect. This once 3 minute song had now turned into a 10 minute encore version, finishing with Boyce Avenue thanking the crowd for being such a great audience and gracefully taking a bow overlooking the admiring crowd.
The volume of high pitched screams throughout and the crowd’s response can only reassure Boyce Avenue of being welcomed to return to perform in the UK again. This was the best concert you could ever attend, the atmosphere was immense, fans joining in to sing the chorus, jumping, clapping, crying and cheering. Never have I been so totally amazed by what I witnessed at a concert before, it was so worth the money. Boyce Avenue, have now been established as a worthy, talented singing act to wow the crowds in years to come, they deserve all the fame and recognition they get. Boyce Avenue, Exceptional Talent!
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