It's been two weeks already since my fave band Imagine Dragons rocked the stage of Mall of Asia Arena for their Smokes + Mirrors Tour stop here in Manila, but the memories of that epic night still remain fresh in my mind. :)

Dan Reynolds pouring his heart out during the concert

This band is part of my concerts bucketlist and I was so stoked when I learned that they are finally coming here for a show! On the first day of ticket selling, I waited for SM tickets online to open the ticket buying (I kept hitting F5!) and I successfully got front-row tickets.... at the Gen Ad section. xD The ticket price for that section was the only one within my budget and so I made sure I got the best seats there. Haha!

Concert day came. I was actually not feeling well that's why I excused myself from work, but I made sure I wouldn't miss their concert (heck I've been waiting like forever for this concert!) so I just rested throughout that day. I woke up just in time to prepare and travel to the concert!

I arrived at the venue at 6PM (concert starts at 8PM) and only a few people were already there. It was my earliest arrival in a concert actually. Since I didn't have much to do yet, I walked around the venue. There were still lots of merchandise available there. I was so tempted to buy that merch t-shirt but it's too expensive. :( Good thing I was able to control myself. Instead, I just went to the Spinnr booths and joined their games. The result - I won a Spinnr headset!

Thank you @spinnrph for these goodies!! #imaginedragonsinmanila

A photo posted by Kathleen R (@katalinarosario) on Aug 27, 2015 at 8:51am PDT

After winning, I went ahead to the Snacks section and bought something to munch on. Then I went to my seat inside and waited for my friend to arrive.

Fate wanted us to come closer to the band. Let's just say what happened at the 'The 1975' concert happened again that night. :D

And so the lights went out the screaming got loud! The show is finally starting! Their first song was Shots. Hearing the opening verse of the song, I swear, I had goosebumps! I always envisioned this to be their opening song, and my wish had come true! I attempted to record their performance, but just decided not to, and just focused in absorbing every bit of that live performance. I was so happy during that moment. （*´▽｀*）


As expected, Dan Reynolds had great vocals live. I very well much enjoyed hearing all my favorite Imagine Dragons tracks being performed live in the arena.


My major complaint regarding this concert was the number of songs performed. T^T  And seriously an encore with one song only? I was so thirsty for more!

Daniel Platzman being introduced to the crowd by Dan. (Did you know, 3/4 members of Imagine Dragons are named 'Dan' xD)

I also felt there was something amiss with the song transitions during the concert. With every pause they do after a song, the momentum of the crowd was lost. I'm not sure if this was just me or what. They all performed their songs very well live, though it would have been better if they did a different arrangement for one song, an acoustic or a piano version perhaps. I know they are capable of doing that (I discovered some of their amazing performance on youtube).

These are my best individual shots of Daniel Sermon (left) and Ben McKee (left) during the concert. Still potato quality. LOL.

Dan (the one on the electric guitar) and Ben always walked facing each other on some parts of the concert and I found it hilarious. xD


I don't know who the guy on the left (on the photo above) is though. He's not an official member of the band, right? Maybe he is just accompanying them for the tour (much like John Waugh during The 1975 concert, who played the saxophone for some songs).

I only have a few decent photos of the concert, which further proves how much I enjoyed the concert. I was too busy immersing myself to the live music the band was currently performing

I was kinda surprised that they're actually not that big here yet. I'm pretty sure they'd be back here again, and who knows, they might have a sold-out show here next time.


Thank you Imagine Dragons for serenading us that night.
Thank you for bravely trying our balut.
Thank you for proudly waving our flag during the concert.



I posted a few videos on Instagram, do check them out!