Okay, so Davao City turned 80 this week. In line with the Araw ng Davao (Davao Day) celebration, SM Lanang Premier (a local mall), held a 3 day concert series. It featured Filipino artists Miles Experience, Gab Alipe of Urbandub, and Reese Lansangan. The event was called “Urban Sound Concert Series”. Unfortunately, I missed the first two performances, but I certainly witnessed the set of Reese Lansangan.

Before anything else, I know I said last week that I am going to continue with the second installment of my tour in the National Museum of the Philippines. Well, I thought that it could wait because I am more excited to talk about Reese!

Who is Reese Lansangan?

Aside from being a singer-songwriter, Reese is also a visual artist. She is probably one of the most accomplished millennials that I have met. We are of the same age, but she has done way more stuffs  stuff than me: performed at music festivals, designed clothes, published a book, and the list goes on. “Home”, the first love song that she wrote, is a wedding song for Vic Sotto and Pauleen Luna (Filipino celebrities). And oh, do you know that she also loves space? Hello, stargazer here!

How did I find her?

It’s not like she’s lost or something. I mean, being an indie artist, her name doesn’t always ring a bell with people. I first heard of her through my boyfriend. He was able to watch her perform during a ‎Jensen and The Flips gig. He loved her voice. I’ve looked her up and stumbled on her blog. Through it, I can definitely say that she is a very talented person. Then I saw an ad that she’s performing in the city where I am living. I sent my friend her Spotify link right away. I told that friend to listen to Reese’s songs because I am taking her to the show this Friday.

Performance

Let me just say that she has a very beautiful voice, hands down. It has a soothing tone which is being accompanied with the sound of her acoustic guitar. I feel like she has mastered triggering ASMR, but that’s another topic to talk about. I also like it whenever she makes side comments during a song performance. I remember that there was this kid who tried to climb up the railing and got reprimanded by a grown up. She also made a joke about it and cracked people up. It gives off a sense of engagement with the audience. There was also a time that she paused a song because her guitar was off-key. She tweaked her instrument. When everything seems fixed, she resumed singing. I don’t know if she did it intentionally, but it was an effective way of adding a cute touch to her performance.

I also love the crowd because we are so cooperative (Yes,”we” because I was also there :p ).

Meeting Reese

After the show, we found ourselves falling in line to buy some merch. My friend got a sticker and a pin-back button. I bought the “Arigato, Internet!” album, and a supposedly limited edition metal badge with stickers. Once we got the merchandise, we went to Reese to have them signed. Unfortunately, her writings just ended up blotting the glossy CD case.

I must say that Reese is very friendly. She even chats with her fans while doing autographs. She was even nice enough to let me film her doing a shout out to my boyfriend.

Reese, if you’re reading this, ありがとう！ 

When we got home, my friend sent me a text message and thanked me for tagging her along. She said that she has now someone new to look up to.

Don’t forget to check her out! I am sure you’ll love her music too! I personally love the song “St. Petersburg”, but I recommend that you should listen to either “Home” or “Exploration No.5”.

Reese Lansangan

E-mail: [email protected]

Instagram: reeseypeasy

Twitter: reeseypeasy

Facebook: reeselansangan

Website: reeselansangan.com

Youtube: reeselansangan

Soundcloud: reeselansangan

How about you guys out there? What do you call your city’s birthday? What do you usually do to celebrate it? Let me know by commenting below!