The Cascades and The Lettermen Live at Resorts World Manila 2017

It must be my lucky month as I won another concert ticket this year. The previous one was the China Crisis performance in Kia Theater at Quezon City. John Claude Gummoe was there to represent Cascades and Mark Preston for The Lettermen.

In the show which was held last night at the Newport Performing Arts theater in Resorts World Manila, John Claude shared that their manager was responsible for their group's name which was formerly Precursors, if I heard it correctly. Apparently, they had to have a name and their boss looked around the kitchen to find a dish washing soap's name to be appealing. Unbelievable!?

The front act was Mark Preston who serenaded the crowd with a medley of their hits. It surely wasn't my era but it was all classics and I can sing along to most tunes I heard. The quality of his voice is remarkable at whatever his age is. I heard their songs due to my dad's music preference that played on our karaoke or boombox a decade or two ago and is in his tablet playlist recently. Mark Preston surprised everybody with his rendition of Filipino songs like "Ako'y isang Pinoy" by Florante , if my memory serves me right.

For two hours or so, the soothing voice of Cascades' John Claude Gummoe was heard on stage. John Claude wore a shining silver suit which he eventually removed probably after feeling hot.  I remember the same thing happened to the concert of China Crisis wherein the singer even brought an abaniko. To everyone's delight, Jose Mari Chan joined him onstage and sang the hit "Beautiful girl".


Like every concert, the audience clamored for an encore. John Claude responded by performing his Millennial version of "Rhythm of the Rain" which I find better than the original version since the arrangement seems to be melancholic and is apt to the lyrics. The concert ended with the song "The Last leaf" and the crowd seemed to be pleased like I was. How I wish my mom and dad were there at the concert too.