Secondhand Serenade Commences Asia Tour with a Nostalgic Manila Show

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It’s 2008, and emo songs are echoing through the hallways of your high school. Or playing on shuffle on your iPod. Or blasting from your desktop speakers as you listen to the CD you burned with your carefully curated love songs.

“Fall For You” is one of those anthems you’ve had on repeat.

The smash hit by one-man-band Secondhand Serenade is about the rarity of love, vulnerability, and the fear of losing someone you hold close to your heart.

Hearing it back then probably made you feel how special falling in love is. But while our young hearts couldn’t fully grasp romance the way we do now as adults, the connection to the song was there.

Fans of the American act experienced this profound kind of bond yet again when he kicked off his Asia Tour at the New Frontier Theater on a downcast Thursday night.

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Armed with only acoustic guitars and a laptop for backing tracks, John Vesely, the man behind Secondhand Serenade — alongside guitarist Will Garrett — opened the night with “Maybe.”

“I’m glad to see you again. It’s been a while since I’ve been here… This is the very first day of the Asia tour,” Vesely shared, adding a backstory about his two-night show in the Philippines. “The show tomorrow is sold out. And we wanted more of you people to be able to come here and be with us. So here it is.”

From there, Vesely launched into a string of hits from his debut 2007 album, “Awake,” including “Broken,” “Awake,” and the crowd-favorite “Vulnerable.”

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In one part of the evening, Vesely expressed his gratitude for being able to tour this part of the globe.

“It’s amazing [that] I can come to the other side of the world and be treated with so much love and respect. I started making songs in my living room when my kids were sleeping upstairs. I’ve been doing this for a long time. And now to be able to come here and play shows like this with you beautiful people, it’s incredible. It’s a blessing. And I’m the luckiest man alive,” he enthused.

Vesely also performed memorable hits from his 2008 record, “A Twist In My Story.” The titular track, which is a song he wrote as an ode to fatherhood, and “Like A Knife” both prompted sing-alongs from the crowd.

The singer-songwriter — who evidently knew how to command and converse with a crowd — then performed a track set to be released in October. The song, which he called “Just Because You Sing Loud,” was born out of an incident he had with a neighbor.

Vesely revealed how he received a letter complaining about his loud singing. But not one to be hindered by such criticism, the hitmaker conveyed an ever-so-timeless message about staying true to oneself.

“…All they’re doing is being a hater. You follow your path, and you follow your heart. And you sing loud — and that’s it,” he said before performing the track.

In some of the last moments of the evening, Vesely treated the crowd to another set of nostalgic performances, laying it bare with “Your Call” and “Goodbye.” Before the much-awaited “Fall For You,” he left the crowd in suspense and performed a brief cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You.”

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With the show clocking in at under an hour, the crowd — who had been singing their hearts out song after song — clearly wanted more. Vesely recognized this earnest request, returning to perform a song he said he hadn’t played in about a decade: “The Last Song Ever.”

The opening line of “The Last Song Ever” packed quite an emotional punch. As if to capture the timeless link between music and memories, Vesely sang, “I wish my life was this song ’cause songs they never die.”

Like all the songs he performed that night, it’s a raw and intimate celebration of music’s power to define and unite a generation.

The show was presented by Pulp Live World and Skesh Entertainment, with Thai-Italian artist Valentina Ploy as the opening act. Secondhand Serenade will also perform in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia as part of his Asia Tour.

Words by Emmy Borromeo

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