MANILA, Philippines—February 8 felt like a solid throwback to the ’90s, thanks to the 20-song setlist concert of American pop-punk band New Found Glory (NFG) at SM North Edsa Skydome on Sunday night.
The band is one man short now as guitarist Steven Klein officially left the group in 2013. But the nostalgia each NFG song brings is still there.
For its ongoing tour in Asia, NFG is composed of Jordan Pundik on vocals, Chad Gilbert on guitar, Ian Grushka on bass, and Mike Ambrose (of Set Your Goals) on drums as original drummer Cyrus Bolooki is on hiatus while anticipating the birth of his first child.
Bolooki is expected to be back in the band for its upcoming US tour on March.
Pop-punk revived
NFG opened its Manila show with “Selfless.” It was followed by “Understatement,” “Don’t Let Her Pull,” “Resurrection,” “Hit or Miss” and “Something I Call.”
A few tracks after kicking off NFG’s Manila gig, Gilbert (also Hayley Williams’s fiancé) said the Skydome gig felt more like an NFG show as NFG was always about having a good time with music and not filling arenas just for the sake of it.
The band then carried on with the show with tracks “Hold My Hand,” “Anthem,” “Worst Person” and “Truth of my Youth.”
‘Love what you do’
Apart from rocking the stage, Gilbert was inspirational when he told the audience that NFG would never disband because playing music was what they love and that they would keep doing what they love.
He also told the crowd to “Keep doing what you love, because if you love what you do, you die a happy person.”
Gilbert, on behalf of the band, endlessly thanked NFG fans for making it possible for them to continuously play music and tour the world at the same time.
10 more songs
To the audience’s delight, NFG prepared a total of 20 songs for the Manila leg of its tour. The band also played “Listen to Your Friends,” “It’s Not Your Fault,” “Ready and Willing,” “Failures,” “Kiss Me,” “Dressed to Kill,” “My Friends Over You,” “One More Round,” “Truck Stop Blues,” and “All Downhill From Here.”
After Manila, NFG is playing one show in Singapore and four more in Japan.
The New Found Glory concert in Manila was organized by PULP Live World.