Boyce Avenue: Third Time's A Charm

Picture Credits: Qadirah Wahid, Hype Records

I spent a pretty large part of my childhood jamming to Boyce Avenue covers on YouTube. So when the opportunity to catch Boyce Avenue live in Singapore came, no doubt I grabbed it eagerly with both hands.

This was Boyce Avenue’s third time in Singapore, with the latest concert held at the Star Vista.  Once inside, we got into our seats alongside 3,000 other Boyce Avenue fans and waited excitedly for the show to begin.

The stage featured a dark blue-purple backdrop with a simple, yet sleek Boyce Avenue logo projected on it with some guitars and various percussion instruments such as the cajón propped on the stage.

The three Manzano brothers, Alejandro, Daniel and Fabian, entered the stage with confidence accompanied by loud cheering from fans. Settling into their positions, they began on a powerful note with acoustic renditions from their original tracks which included Be Somebody, Hear Me Now and Find Me. Alejandro grabbed our attention with a loud and rich voice which he impressively maintained even as the concert progressed. In fact, I’m sure that his voice definitely got better with each song. Daniel and Fabian supported Alejandro with their impeccable skills on the guitar and percussion which, without a doubt formed the backbone of each song they performed.

The stage lights and fog also meshed into their performance seamlessly without diverting attention from the band. We were all truly mesmerised by their live performance which sounded exactly, if not better, than the studio recordings. Besides, it was hard to turn away from the stage thanks to their friendly and outgoing personalities. Fans were actively engaged with the band members as they talked to the crowd from the stage. One fan even shouted “hey!” all the way from the back and the three blokes responded with just as much enthusiasm.

Fans at the front were also busy diving for the guitar picks that were thrown into the crowd between the songs. To put it simply, the trio definitely made the night of many fans.As a long-time fan myself, it was heart-warming to see how Boyce Avenue managed to climb their way to success. They went from performing covers on YouTube to performing their original songs on a big stage that was shared by many other huge stars like Ed Sheeran, Fifth Harmony and Harry Styles.

The band didn’t seem to forget their roots as they called out for the audience that had discovered them through YouTube and not surprisingly, majority raised their hands and cheered passionately.

They then proceeded to play their own take on Fast Car by Tracy Chapman which was one of their early covers on YouTube. The slew of covers didn’t end there, fan favourites such as Yellow by Coldplay, A Thousand Years by Christina Perrie and Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran were also performed beautifully.

The concert ended on a high note with the audience rising to their feet and jumping to Anchor and Iris, despite the tight space we were given. The energy in the room was still very much alive even after they played their very last note for the night and fans could be seen swarming to the front of the stage to meet the trio who greeted them with warm smiles and open handshakes. In Alejandro’s words, “We can’t wait to come back again”, a sentiment which fellow Singaporean fans such as myself will definitely look forward to. If I were to sum up the concert with just three words, they would be: genuine, entertaining and raw. It’s not hard to understand why their Southeast Asian Tour has been successful in the Philippines, Thailand and now in Singapore.

Thank you Hype Records for giving us the chance to catch Boyce Avenue live!

Written by: Jelaena Torres

Edited by: Tan Yin Yun, Raymond Teoh