Boyce Avenue More Than Just A Youtube Sensation

The turnout at the Boyce Avenue concert at SM City Cebu’s Northwing last February 12 exceeded my expectations. As I was coming from another coverage, I was pretty confident I could still manage to gain access in a reserved area for the media even if I would arrive a few minutes into the group’s performance.

So, imagine my great surprise at the sight of thousands of people who packed the SM Northwing wherein a concert stage was set up for the first time. When I saw the crowd, I no longer wanted to hassle myself and press my way through the mass of hardcore fans. It was more than enough proof for me of the group’s large and fast-growing following in Cebu.

Call me clueless, but I didn’t know Boyce Avenue from Adam. But apparently, they’re so huge on cyberspace—a YouTube mega-wonder with 72 million hits on their videos!—for their “better” covers of chart-toppers. With so many young Filipinos who are Internet-savvy, small wonder their just-concluded Philippine concert tour was their first overseas gig.    

A presscon some hours before their performance was held at the Old Spaghetti House, and the group talked at length about their beginnings, their roots, their new album, among other things.

This American band, which is made up of brothers Alejandro, Fabian and Daniel, plus a friend, Stephen Hatker, is from Florida (the band name is inspired by a neighborhood street where they grew up). The brothers’ family name is Manzano and so naturally, in the Philippines, they get often asked if they had Filipino roots (“We know how the family name Manzano is so popular in the Philippines,” Alejandro, the youngest among the brothers and main vocalist, said), but they revealed that their ancestry is Puerto Rican.

Interestingly, Daniel graduated from Harvard with a law degree, while Fabian pursued architecture as a profession before (in other words, they have or used to have day jobs) but with developments coming up for their music career at present—including a new album entitled “All You’re Meant To Be”—they said performing as a band is now a full-time thing. 

They self-produced their album in the US, which is now available for download on iTunes, among others. In the country, it is being released by MCA Music. Proving that they are not a band merely capitalizing on modern hits and that they are more than just an Internet sensation, Boyce Avenue, which has won in major songwriting tilts in the US, composed all of the songs in the album, which is, by the way, earning positive reviews for the catchy melodies and passionate vocals.

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If their respective managers were able to arrange their schedules, most probably KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez had their second Valentine’s Day date last Feb. 14. They revealed during a presscon at the Cebu Parklane International Hotel last Feb. 11 that they went horse-riding in last year’s V-Day. KC said another ideal Valentine’s date would be spent at the beach.

Both KC and Richard maintain that they really are just good friends. Compared to the very popular primetime love team on the Kapuso network, who also insist that they are really just friends, it’s easier to believe KC and Richard.

Although all throughout their presscon, the two would seemingly fade into their own world, whispering to each other, staring at each other, and laughing over inside jokes not to mention perennially holding hands. To be frank, this is the first movie presscon I attended wherein its lead stars are this sweet and close. Still, their sweetness merited mixed reactions from the Cebu media. Some thought they were contrived and put-on for the sake of their movie “When I Met U” (now showing in theaters nationwide), while others thought that Richard was being a gentleman who wanted to make sure his leading lady felt the most comfortable person around him.

Nevertheless, they had very meaningful answers to certain questions. When asked if they believe that a friendship was a good foundation in a relationship, KC said that bringing a friendship to a romantic level is a risk that she’s afraid to take as a relationship might ruin the friendship. To this Richard reacted, “But it’s a risk you have to take.”

Both stars said that it would take a long time before they will team up anew, and that the bigger message of their two films (a result of an exchange deal between Star Cinema and GMA Films with Regal Entertainment) is truly about defying something that was deemed impossible to do. Lest the movie fans forget, KC and Richard belong to warring networks.