If there's anyone that can bring in sunshine on a rainy Manila night, it's Peach Tree Rascals.
While rain showered the streets of the city, the pop music collective painted the walls of the Maybank Performing Arts Theater with so much warmth as they ran through their sunny discography of feel-good melodies and happy reminders that everything will be alright. Their Manila show closes out their first-ever Asia tour and as the band's Tarrek said, there's no better place to do it than home.
Comprising Dominic Pizano, Isaac Pech, Tarrek Abdel-Khaliq, Joseph Barros, Jorge Olazaba, and Jasper Barros, Peach Tree Rascals began their set with the enchanting melodies of 'End Of Time'. Their entrance wasn't anything grand, they quite literally just walked out on stage but it was endearing and simple—pretty much everything they stood for as a group—and certainly caught everyone's attention.
Donning matching Muay Thai shorts and merch shirts, the five-piece outfit (with Jorge making appearances here and there on stage) threw out dozens of heart signs as they performed 'Good Advice', 'Mango', 'TINYA', 'JoJo', and more, encouraging everyone to sing along to the many la-la's and na-na's of their happy hits. At times, it felt like being in a recording of a kids show (think Hi-5 or The Wiggles) in the best way possible.
Amidst heavy-hearted shows where almost every song feels like a recount of your worst heartbreak or an emotional journey through the past, the Peach Tree Rascals felt like a refreshing breeze, the air ever-so light and bright. The boys sang about smiling amidst rough waters and pausing to take in the beauty of every passing day, taking breaks only to greet every soul in the crowd and to ask everyone to tell Joseph's mom that we loved her.
In a previous interview with Bandwagon, the group mentioned how they wanted everyone to leave their show to "fully get it". Admittedly, at the time of the interview, with no context of what a Peach Tree Rascals show actually looked like, I didn't understand what they meant. But lo and behold, they were right. I fully get it now.
Their concert, albeit short, embodied everything good about having a best friend, about screaming your favourite songs with no care in the world, about going a road trip with no clear destination. It was carefree, fun, and good—it's all of those quaint, mundane pockets of pure bliss that make life worth trekking through encased in a concise, hour-long show.
As they said in our interview, "When we're in there together, we're just having the best time and living in the moment, singing songs and dancing and forgetting about everything else."
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