Manila shows BEP the love

Where’s the love for the Black Eyed Peas (BEP)? Pretty much everywhere, thank you very much.

It was certainly a raucous display at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds last Oct. 25, as a multitude of devoted fans of all ages descended upon the open-air venue to witness what is arguably the world’s leading party act. Pinoys and foreigners alike crammed the premises for a one-night-only affair that organizers promised to be the “biggest concert event” of the waning year.

Fans will recall that this is not the first BEP show in the country. It was July, 2006 when apl.de.ap (Allan Pineda), will.i.am (William Adams), Taboo (Jaime Gomez) and Fergie (Stacy Ann Ferguson) packed the Araneta Coliseum with screaming fans for the Monkey Business Tour. I was at that memorable show where BEP promised to be back the next year. We waited... and waited.

It took them long enough to fulfil a promise to return, yet I must say BEP didn’t disappoint — turning the seething mass of people into a party pit. Front act after front act was trotted out before the appointed hour (8:30) — climaxed by the multi-Asian-nation (Philippines, Hong Kong, India, Korea, and Japan) girl group Blush (which has, incidentally, impressively hit the top echelons of the dance chart in the United States). I don’t know if the crowd reaction (or relative lack thereof) was because of impatience for BEP, or simply because Blush has a specific niche crowd — methinks a much younger one with its bubblegum, Spice Girls-y material.

The excitement after Blush exited reached a fever pitch, as we anticipated BEP to mount the stage shortly. That quickly turned to impatience, as the production people took their sweet time to make sure everything was right. I could understand making sure everything’s perfect — but one hour to wait for them to tweak and fix whatever it is they had to fix (such as the subwoofer output, apparently) was inexcusable.

A laser light show and smorgasbord of visuals as backdrop of the The Black Eyed Peas concert at the MOA Concert Grounds. — Photos by Mong Pintolo

Still, whatever misgivings we had was forgotten when the house lights went out and the huge stage screen blinked to life. Black Eyed Peas launched into Rock that Body, and the place just went ballistic. A lush laser light show, a smorgasbord of visuals and numerous costume changes upped the excitement and the production value. The futuristic garbs (often with LEDs) extended also to the backup dancers, and I often found myself at a loss at who to watch — which is very good, indeed.

BEP have aged well on the stage and in the limelight. apl, will, Fergie and Taboo move and sing (with Auto-Tune most of the time) confidently. Fergie still wields (and displays) her terrific chops — a great counterpoint to all the rapping. Speaking of which, one of the high points of the night was a freestyle rap number by will. He later comes back in a quasi-Iron Man outfit, and DJs the heck out of a turntable all while raised a good 10 feet from the stage. This is vintage BEP: Showmen (and showgirl) to the maximum.

It was a lovefest, too, with BEP professing how special the Philippines is not just to apl, but to all of them. There was an homage to the humble roots of apl, along with a spiel (and song) about his Apl Foundation’s drive for increased support for education, in tandem with the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation. That was well and good. I don’t know about you, but I like my concerts politics-free. And then the telco endorsement was a little out of place, too: It certainly would be for people who paid up to five figures to get in. What gives?

So it was with much gratefulness that we enjoyed the last few songs of BEP that night. This might also be the last time we or anyone else would see Fergie live with the rest of the boys for a while, as it is widely known she wants to settle down and have a baby with actor-husband Josh Duhamel. Fergie was seen shedding tears as she thanked and hugged the rest of the BEP whom she called her brothers.

All said, the Black Eyed Peas gave Manila one of the more memorable shows this year. This time, they didn’t promise to come back, but maybe they’ll remember all of the love that’s here for them, and do.

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Where is the Love? This is the Love Black Eyed Peas Concert was presented by Futuretainment, Inc.; Music Management International; Smart; and Oktoberfest Beer Festival with SM Mall of Asia, Cebu Pacific, Guess, TV5, McDonald’s, AKTV, Crocs and Samsung Smart TV.