This was, without a doubt, the best concert I have ever experienced in my entire concert journey. And up to this day (two years after LOL), I can attest that this statement still holds true. I was on a high from start to finish. The whole experience felt like a drug directly injected into my bloodstream, as pure euphoria overpowered my whole being during the entirety of this concert. 😍

It's with The 1975 that I kickstarted my solo concerts journey back in 2015 and I have never been the same since. This was the fourth time I was seeing them live in concert -- the second time was in 2016 during the In the Mix concert, and the third time in 2019. I have never been prouder to be a loyal fan right from the start. I have seen them develop their craft, and see their fanbase grow along that journey.

This concert, that I attended in May 2023, was to promote their new album entitled "Being Funny in a Foreign Language." They didn't have a concert tour dedicated to their previous album "Notes on a Conditional Form" because of COVID, but for this concert, they focused on promoting their latest album. I purchased VIP floor seats. 🎫I don't usually buy standing tickets in concerts (LOL if you are millennial you know HAHA) but for this band, I was ready to be physically tired. Besides, I knew I won't be sitting anyways😆

Over the years, I have observed the change in popularity of this band; they are now more famous, which is why the concert venue is more packed than usual. 

Since I got floor tickets, Pulp PH, the concert organizer, gave away freebies! I claimed a photo card of the band before the start of the show. I was given a wristband that says "Floor B." It is now one of the collectibles that I treasure and keep in my memorabilia box inside my cabinet. I was so happy to get my photo card. 🥰

Entering a concert venue when you have floor tickets never not takes my breath away. And this was exactly my feelings when I stepped into the arena.

At first, I was on the left side of the stage, but after some calculations, I saw that there were fewer people on the right side. And so I made my way to squeeze myself into the crowd. This was in 2023, and there was still the crisis of COVID, so I went to the concert wearing a mask. As a solo concertgoer, it can feel a bit awkward because you don't have someone to talk to, but I was used to it, so I just minded my own business. 

The opening act was Wallice. Her music style reminded me of Pale Waves. After their set, I saw her go to the tech booth area to watch the rest of the show. I was very near the tech booth, and I saw some people taking photos with her.

After a few minutes, it's showtime!!! I found it amusing that during the opening, they showed footage of the band coming out of the backstage, riding electric scooters shaped as animals that were obviously small for them to ride on. 😂

I was not focused on taking photos for the blog or concert photography like I had done before, since I have seen this band many times, anyway. Instead, I focused on enjoying the show, and what a show it was. It was truly one of the best concerts I have ever attended, setting a high bar for me. 

Matty Healy looked incredibly handsome; this was the best version of him I have seen live. This is significant because I have seen him during his struggles with addiction, but now he appears to be clean, and I am proud of his progress. Sometimes, I forget that we are the same age, having been born in the same year. 😅The timing of their concert coincided with rumors of him being connected with Taylor Swift. These are just rumors, but his market value certainly went high due to this speculation (and looking at everything that happened in retrospective, boy were the rumors so true 😆). 

I watched some of my clips from the concert, which I have not played since the event. I just looked at a clip of them performing "Looking for Somebody (To Love)," one of my favorite songs from the album. It’s a banger, but if you look closely at the lyrics, it has a very gloomy message. The goosebumps I felt during their energetic performance are evidence of my appreciation for it. 

One remarkable experience at this concert was that they played all the songs I love!!! As in there was no dull moment -- it was banger after banger after banger of songs.  This was the perfect set, the heaven-sent 1975 set. That really sent me to eargasm heaven. 😍🎵 It was also wonderful to see the rest of the band members; it felt like family. It was heartwarming to be reunited with them and see them perform on stage.

One thing I noticed immediately on stage was that it was not as large a production as the other stage setups for this tour. I did not watch any videos of their show before my concert day to maintain an element of surprise, but based on the photos I have seen, the stage I saw during their concert here was more minimalist, unlike those I have seen online wherein there were even rooms of a house on stage. Perhaps due to logistics constraints, they opted for this kind of setup. 

Going back to the setlist, the sequence of all those great songs created an adrenaline high for me; I felt euphoric during the show. I was jumping around (even though my knees were hurting LOL). And the crowd was hyped, just like me! If you look at the video footage I got, my camera was shaking because I was jumping all over the place. HAHAHA.

Before they sang About You, I noticed Matty mouthing some words to the camera. Little did I know that this was a crucial moment for the Healy-Swift romantic arc that will commence a few weeks from this moment. 😅

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This moment went viral, especially in the Swiftie universe, and I am proud I had firsthand experience of this. 😆

"The Sound" will always be a vibe to be seen performed live. I am so happy to be part again of the crowd that jumped on cue when Matty shouted "1, 2, 3, let's jump now!" Oh, but my knees were not cooperating. I wanted to raise my vibrations, but I think my knees won’t allow it anymore. 🥲 I remember wearing a mask that kept slipping down my face because I was dancing and getting sweaty, but I didn’t care. I was truly having a good time during this concert. 

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They sang twenty songs in total. They didn’t have an encore, but wow, solid twenty songs, and each one was a favorite of mine. It was truly a night to remember. I went home alone, but I didn’t care much. I really enjoyed that night, and even now, looking back, I’m so happy I was able to be there on day one of the concert.

Reliving that night was incredibly fun. I really missed the vibe and am happy to finally write about it on my blog. It was truly a night to remember, and it will be difficult to surpass. While I could talk about my experiences with Taylor Swift and IU, they just don't compare. The 1975 is a different breed of band, and attending their concert for the fourth time says a lot about me as a fan. 

I love them and am grateful to have seen them. I hope they tour again, and I hope to have the resources and opportunity to attend with someone by my side next time. Regardless, I will continue to enjoy their music. They were at their very best that night; they truly delivered. ❤️‍🔥

This experience occurred several weeks ago and significantly shifted my entire being, my perspective on the world, and how I will navigate life moving forward. To provide some context, I am not particularly religious; I would describe myself more as a spiritual person. I was raised as a Catholic, but as I grew older, especially during high school and college, my beliefs expanded beyond traditional religious teachings to include more spiritual practices. 

Over the years since college, I have been fluid in my beliefs, discovering spiritual concepts and foundations in other religions, such as Buddhism. I became deeply interested in meditation and other spiritual modalities (especially during the pandemic) and those became the foundation of my belief system.

However, several weeks ago, something clicked within me when I attended church on that fateful Sunday morning. On that day, my boyfriend and I arranged to meet to attend a mass. He is a dedicated Catholic. This aspect of him truly fascinated me, as it is not common in my circle to encounter a devout Catholic; most of the people I interact with are agnostic believers. He knows that I am not a practicing Catholic, but he accepted that. I admitted to him that I usually attend church only on special occasions, with my last visit being on New Year’s Day. He told me I was a "cafeteria Catholic." I had to Google what it meant. Well yes, I think it was accurate for him to say that about me. 😅

Even though I was not a regular church goer as an adult, church played a huge part in my childhood because my mother used to serve in church. I was kind of surprised that I still knew the songs that were sung during that mass, even having the lyrics memorized. It's as if some core childhood memories were being unearthed during that moment. 

Then came the homily, where things shifted significantly. I couldn't help but cry while seated in the mass. I was really ugly crying, like OMG. 😢 I felt fortunate to have a caring boyfriend who lent me his handkerchief to dry my tears (which he had done for me before). I let my tears flow because the lessons the priest shared struck a chord in my heart. And then I realized the things I had been lacking all these years. I recognized that I had been practicing a form of self-service DIY faith. While I know my faith is pure and my intentions are genuine in wanting to serve and give back to the community, I realized that the keyword is community. That is one thing missing in my life. I had forgotten or overlooked the importance of belonging to a strong community that would help me grow as a believer and guide me on my spiritual journey. I also realized that this might be the reason I am easily swayed by my inner demons. My faith feels weak because I have been nurturing it alone. This isolation makes me susceptible to negative thoughts and overthinking. I understand now that my foundation of faith has not been strong enough.

When the time for receiving communion came, a dream rushed back to me. I vividly remembered that a few weeks ago, I actually dreamed of receiving communion. I have not done so in a long while so I felt like it was really a weird dream. Well, little did I know that it's the Universe planting seeds into my mind.  I felt that this was the moment the Universe had led me to, a time for me to look back and renew my faith. I got up, went in line, and received my first communion since college. I felt ready to accept my faith again. 

As I knelt down and prayed after receiving communion, the tears flowed again, and I let it all out. Those tears were the culmination of years of feeling lost, a realization that I had been lost in my faith. Finally, I felt like I was home, and that I have finally found something that I could lean on to grow my faith.

 
I hope I didn't make my boyfriend feel awkward during that time, but that moment was truly something between me and my Creator. I am so happy, so glad, and so thankful that I found my way back to my faith.

After the mass, I felt really light, and it felt like a full circle because we visited the university campus where I graduated. We strolled around, and it made me reminisce, feeling nostalgic as I recognized my college building. Even after all these years, it felt the same, despite the many new buildings nearby. It felt both old and new at the same time, which resonates with how I feel about my faith. My faith is something that has been within me since childhood, yet it feels new to me at this stage of my life because I have not practiced it in a while. I felt like a renewed person that day.

The day after, I felt a shift in my body. I felt lighter, and the most amazing thing was that my kinder inner voice returned. This inner voice, which I didn't know I had lost, was the one that helped me navigate through high school and college during stressful times. I didn't even realize it had faded away. 

I also felt more secure in my romantic relationship, recognizing that God made him an instrument to restore my faith. For the past few weeks, I struggled with trusting people, especially regarding things beyond my control. This was an area in our relationship that I found challenging. However, now that I recognize and trust that God sent him to me for a purpose, I see him as someone from God. Previously, I had difficulty placing my trust, but now I can say that he has my heart and my trust. I know nothing is certain in the future, but at this moment, I am grateful that he led me back to Him. 

It's still a work in progress, but I am feeling a renewed gusto for life. I want to do better and be a better human being, especially for myself and for the people I love. I am slowly renewing my inner garden, reshaping how I see life, myself, and my purpose.

Thank you, Universe. Thank you, God. Thank you, Creator, for allowing me to experience this moment. I am grateful for it and will carry that gratitude for the rest of my life. 💖