Holding Hands While The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Tears for Fears finally played in Manila yesterday, May 2. Nineteen songs and it ended far too soon.

1. Mad World (intro/”orchestral”)
2. Everybody Wants to Rule the World
3. Secret World
4. Closest Thing to Heaven
5. Sowing the Seeds of Love
6. Call Me Mellow
7. Mad World (original version)
8. Memories Fade
9. Raoul And The Kings Of Spain
10. Quiet Ones
11. Floating Down The River
12. Everybody Loves a Happy Ending
13. Seven of Sundays
14. Billie Jean
15. Pale Shelter
16. Break it Down Again
17. Head Over Heels
~ Encore ~
18. Woman in Chains
19. Shout

Roland talked between #5 and #6 — he said that they had played all over the world in the past two-plus decades, and he wondered why it had taken so long for them to come here. This was of course met with a typhoon of enthusiastic screaming from the utterly packed coliseum. He and Curt seemed suitably overwhelmed by the responses of the Pinoy audience. Between #12 and #13 Curt spoke — he started off with “Mabuhay!” — and he mentioned that their Philippine visit had resulted in him being deluged with the most Twitter messages he had ever received.

The middle of their set was mostly unfamiliar to the audience (I still can’t believe they performed something from Raoul, and no less than 5 songs from Everybody Loves…) Curt Smith’s “Seven of Sundays” was surprisingly touching, and won the crowd over by the chorus, and then Roland did an unexpected and somewhat bizarre cover of “Billie Jean” (in response to the chants of “Eighties! Eighties!” perhaps?). “Break it Down Again” launched the screams into the stratosphere, and then “Head Over Heels” sustained the frenzy, and then they left for a while, but came back and ended strong with “Woman in Chains” and of course “Shout.”

Glad I was there. Thank you for the tickets, you know who you are.

Songs I hope they play the next time they come here: Advice for the Young at Heart, Change, Watch Me Bleed, Start of the Breakdown, The Working Hour, Mothers Talk, I Believe, Broken, Year of the Knife, Goodnight Song, Famous Last Words.

[Original Facebook note]