This is one of those out-of-the-blue concert decisions that I have made in my life so far. Ever since doing the same thing with Lunafly during the 5th PH Kpop Convention, I always have this motto now to go and check out a band that's coming to town, and if it happens that I get to like them, I would need to see them in concert! Who knows when they'd be back, right? That's basically what happened with me for ONE OK ROCK. I had zero idea who this group is until Pulp Live World announced that they were bringing the band to Manila. I believe they are the first Japanese band to have a major concert here, so I bet everyone was curious who these folks are.

So what made me think it's worth seeing them live? It's because of this video. I was casually googling them at work. When the video started and the first notes of the song were played, my world literally stopped. I had to drop everything I was doing and just focused on this voice singing one my most loved songs ever. I was so moved. In that moment, I fell in love with this band, and I knew I had to see them live.


The concert was held at the Mall of Asia Arena on the 19th of January. There were only limited sections available (Pulp only opened seats up until the Lowerbox section). The ticket prices for their show were actually suprisingly cheap. This was my chance to get those nearer-to-the-stage tickets. I bought VIP seats, though I selected the seated ones because I don't want to be squished within the standing crowd. (ーー;)

The audience of this band (based on my observations) is mostly youngsters, the same ones in the anime crowd, because I guess ONE OK ROCK's songs have been OSTs of a number of animes in Japan, even in motion pictures. The number of males and females were evenly distributed, and they were mostly wearing black, but not too emo. There was even one wearing a full-body Titan costume. Talk about effort and dedication, right? ヽ( °◇°)ノ

There was no front act, so we went straight to the main event!

They started the show with their instrumental track 3xxxv5, then went to rocking the stage with Take Me to the Top. OMG the goosebumps I felt during that moment!!!

This is by far the best rock concert I've ever been to!!! The crowd was so amazing!!!

Taka's voice is so good live! What you hear on the studio version of the tracks is the same live. I am so happy I decided to see them in concert! His English is very good too, no sign of the Japanese accent.

Bassist Ryota with his glowing guitar. xD

Their next song was entitled Deeper Deeper. I was not that familiar of that track, so I took that opportunity to snap lots of photos of the band instead. I looked like a killjoy though, coz everyone was having fun while I was just standing steadily with a camera on hand. (~_~;)

Handsome guitarist Toru. #love

ONE OK ROCK didn't fall short of my expectations. They have such rocking songs, and they were able to keep up with that same (even higher) level of energy on stage. They don't seem to get tired jumping around the stage. I never heard Taka's voice sound tired during the entire concert. It was amazing! This is also one of those shows where the crowd was just amazing. We were really having the time of our lives there! When Taka asked the crowd to clap their hands, we all did! It just felt so good being one with the crowd, with the music, and with the artist on stage. This is why concerts are so awesome. 


The band slowed down things a bit with the acoustic version of Heartache. For people who have seen Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, you'd be familiar with this song as this was the ending track of the film. Though I have not seen that myself, the song has been close to my heart because it's just so beautiful.

Decision, Suddenly, The Beginning, and Mighty Long Fall followed after. Really, there was no moment to sit down in this concert because of these performances!



An acoustic version of Wherever You Are came as a surprise for the fans (for me and a friend who was there at least xD). No Scared and Dreamer came last.

It was evident that the members were having so much fun during that concert (see IG posts from Taka, Toru, Tomo, and Ryota after the show). They felt the love of the fans!