Forever? Indeed. One of our favorite bands we added to the playlists of our youth that molded us during the early 2000s, All Time Low, came back, returning for the sixth time in the country to celebrate their 20th year in the industry with their ‘Forever Tour’ in Smart Araneta Coliseum last May 3, 2024, presented by PULP Live World.

The band was serious when they included two decades’ worth of music with a setlist of 33 songs that got the neighboring countries jealous of Filipino fans. Not surprising of course, as we are known as one of the best concert crowds in the world, with unprecedented energy and digesting the whole concert setlist like we are in karaoke.

Check out how the band hailing from Maryland, USA with lead singer Alex Gaskarth, guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, made a home with the Filipino music fans with their longest setlist yet.

“We’re back! The energy here f*cking crazy!” as the band started their setlist of the evening, expanding two decades’ worth of discography, as the setlist was mashed in one incredible night of punk rock music. Alex also expressed that they’d never thought they would still be playing halfway across the world when they started their band in the humble basement of Rian’s (Dawson) parents in 2003. It was just instruments and a dream, and decades later, they are still filling up coliseums and contributing to the rich punk/emo rock music that raised us.

The setlist was plucked from their albums in a surprise setlist arrangement that differs with each stop. From the newest album just released last year, “Tell Me I’m Alive” stretching to their 2006 album “Put Up or Shut Up”, the band did not leave the crowd any room to breathe with hit after hit and fan favorites, to surprise songs.

“I don’t ever wanna stop playing in Manila!” frontman Alex commented in the middle of the show, as how would they want to stop when the Filipino Hustlers (their fandom name) would always welcome them in a full room, seemingly not wanting to stop listening and rocking out with the band either. Whether it was singing along to the songs, to glittering the event with their phones, (literally glittered during the surprise acoustic version of ‘Glitter and Crimson’), the Filo Hustlers gave the band another reason to come back. Bassist Zack Merrick even captioned his picture in the country with, “Manila, you will be hard to top,” while Alex promised the Filipino fans that they would be back.

Not a hard promise to keep as both the fans and the band just can’t get enough of each other. And while the emo/punk era is now living in our nostalgic boxes, we’re still in that Future Hearts Club, no matter where we are, and starting a riot. It’s Nothing Personal, it’s just music.

Setlist
Tell Me I’m Alive
Some Kind Of Disaster
Weightless
Lost In Stereo
Six Feet Under The Stars
Poppin’ Champagne
Stay Awake
Shameless
Jasey Rae
Vegas
Damned If I Do Ya
Do You Want Me Dead?
Runaways
Time Bomb
Backseat Serenade
Something’s Gotta Give
Somewhere In Neverland
Kids In The Dark
Old Scars / Future Hearts
Glitter & Crimson
Missing You
Remembering Sunday
Sleepwalking
Fake As Hell
Dirty Laundry
Monsters
Afterglow
PMA
Calm Down
Modern Love / Stella
Dear Maria, Count Me In

Special thanks to PULP Live World

Words and Photos by Arielle Elep