Cebu City, Cebu—The Ayala Malls in Cebu were the venue for the first in-person performance in the city for indie-folk band Lola Amour.
To promote the launch of their new music video for “Dahan-Dahan” and to celebrate their stellar performance on the Spotify New Music Top 200, the boys jammed with their Cebuano fans for a special two-day concert, first in Ayala Center Cebu on October 15 and then in Ayala Central Bloc on October 16.
It’s a big step for the band to be going on a multi-city stop, especially when before the COVID-19 quarantines they were playing only strictly in venues around Metro Manila.
“It’s really exciting for us to be in Cebu, as many of us are here for the first time,” shares frontman Pio Dumayas. “We look forward to finally meeting our Cebuano fans.”
And meet them they did. Both venues for both days were packed with screaming teenagers and yuppies, some of whom traveled from neighboring towns specifically to watch Lola Amour live.
Raymond King, who plays bass, was particularly pumped to perform live again, especially in a new venue.
“The past two years have been all online sessions and singing on cam in your bedroom because of COVID. It’s fun enough, but it just doesn’t make you connect with your audience the same way,” he said. Trumpeter Angelo Messina concurs: “It’s sometimes soul-draining to constantly sing into a camera in a room by yourself.”
Apart from their online jamming sessions while the world was in lockdown, what were they up to? “Plenty of changes happened in the band,” says guitarist Zoe Gonzales. “Some of our bandmates left, and we gained a new one. And we also honed our sound.”
While they don’t feel that they credit their music to a specific genre, one can’t help but notice that over the six years the band has been together, they’ve never sounded more mature.
“The lockdown has been kind of good for us since it really got us to work on our sound and rework some old songs,” says Pio. “And completely delete some of the really bad ones we thought were good,” adds Raymond with a hearty laugh.
Speaking of the new band member, rounding out the five-man band is David Yuhico, who mans the keyboard. While the rest of the band members grew up together and in fact formed the band as classmates in the De La Salle Santiago Zobel School, David just joined last year. “I had just come home from the States, and I was invited to join one of their jamming sessions. And I’m glad I was able to shake things up a bit.”
The band has achieved massive success online. Their single “Madali,” released earlier this year in February, garnered a million views on YouTube in a span of 10 days. “Fallen,” their biggest hit so far, peaked at the 18th spot and has been viewed almost 13 million times across YouTube and TikTok.
And the boys are looking forward to making even bigger waves in the coming days.
For example, their much-awaited album is nearing completion. “It’s definitely coming out within a year’s time,” they shared. And since it’s been five years since their last EP, fans are absolutely clamoring for a big release from the boys.
This Lola might just give the young ones a run for their money.