Rocking Out with Paramore! Live in Manila

August 27, 2018

Who among you have not gone into that awkward emo phase of your teenage years and had Paramore as the soundtrack of your life (blasting inside your room?) Well for most 90s kids I bet they did. No wonder it was such a blast from the past when Paramore went back to the country again for a sold-out one night show!

Tickets to this concert was so in demand that the show got sold out an hour after going on sale. I remember being on the watch on the clock, promptly positioned in front of my laptop waiting on the SM Tickets site. From my experience with the Bruno Mars concert, buying tickets will be Hunger-Games like. The competition is high because you're going against the crowd lined up in various SM Ticket outlets nationwide + those who are waiting online also. Since I was a lone watcher, it was easy for me to select seats that I wanted and pay right there and there (no need to depend on anyone's choices 😉). I knew a few people who badly wanted tickets (they're such huge fans) but because tickets got sold out real fast, they weren't able to get any. I didn't have an update if they were still able to get hold of some passes though. I hope they did.

And so the day of the concert came. Typical me, I was not in concert mode (yet) during the start of the day. I had an unplanned work-from-home session and I went through the day sluggishly. The concert starts at 8PM, so I reckon I still had time to snooze for a bit before I prepare to go. But 'lo and behold, I woke up at 5PM (fresh from a nightmare that I wasn't able to make it to the concert haha) and hurriedly prepared my stuff. I was able to leave the house at 6:30PM. The hell, right? I know too well the horrors of Manila rush hour traffic, so why didn't I leave earlier? Oh well so among the many possible routes to the arena, I chose the cheapest one: ride two buses to MOA. I was able to go through the first bus (I had to squeeze through the gap between two buses in traffic omg I will never do that again), but riding the second bus was close to impossible. I had no choice but to get a GrabCar, and good thing I chose that because of two things: it's safer and it will take me to the venue faster.

It's already past 7PM when I got to the GrabCar. I scrolled through Twitter to check out what's happening at the Arena and my heart sank with what I have read - Reese Lansangan was the front act tonight! 😲😫😭 She's one of the local acts I've wanted to see live for the longest time, and now I just lost one opportunity to see her. After several deep breaths, I calmed down and told myself I guess we've learned a lesson tonight, didn't we? #alwaysbepunctual

Oh well, no real harm done anyway. Luckily I was able to arrive at the venue just in time. I think I still had around 10 minutes waiting time before the show finally began. And wow, it was indeed a sold-out show!!! The crowd was insane!


Paramore is such an icon of our generation, especially the 90s generation. Song after song, such nostalgic feels crept through me. I remember during the peak of the Twilight series hype, I was so into the song they released entitled Decode, which is the movie's soundtrack (unfortunately they didn't sing it that night). Their songs have lots of teenage memories for me. I had to struggle when to shoot and when to just enjoy the experience. But of course, the latter is the more important part to accomplish. The result: shaky videos and lots of blurry photos. Haha! But no regrets here. I was there to have fun!


Good thing I was at the first row of the GenAd section (hehe tight budget concert goer here) so my view was not really obstructed by heads and hands (thank goodness). Song after song, the crowd jumped and screamed the lyrics along. It was a pleasant view to not see much people in the VIP section holding up their phones during the show. I guess we were all thinking in the same lines: we've waited long enough for Paramore (the original date of the concert was in February but got rescheduled because Hayley was not feeling well), and we're not wasting that to watch them perform from our phones! Wohoo! I've been to several concerts and I could just compare the crowd energy with that of Maroon 5 (2012), and The 1975 (2015).



There's no question about the band being such performers on stage. Honestly, I couldn't help but focus on just Hayley (I'm unfamiliar with most of the guys). She has such oozing charisma on stage: she has the looks, the voice, and the attitude. If reincarnation is true, I'd want to be a frontman of a rock band in another life. Hayley Williams is #lifegoals!

But of course no one is perfect, and we see with Hayley's speeches that she's been through a lot for the recent years. And these emotions can be felt through her songs, especially when she performed 26. This song is the first one in their After Laughter album that I got attached with. And I am glad she holds this song special too. Their acoustic performance of this song is one of my favorite parts of the show. The second performance of that night that I really liked was that of Fake Happy. These songs have the same message, but exact opposites melody-wise. I liked how the fans held up upside down smileys and Hayley even picked one and held it up in front of her face too. Such good vibes during the show!

And of course, let's not forget that one performance, but it's not by Hayley, but by a fan whom she called to come up on stage. I was not able to get anything on camera as I was so into the experience of seeing a fellow fan hug and sing along with Hayley. And he did such a fantastic job! 

acoustic setup of the band during mid-show
What a night! This is another concert to remember for sure. There are only a few bands left on my dream concert list and I hope I'd still get the same great vibe with them just like all the fun I had with Paramore. 🙃🙃🙃

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