Tuesday, February 2, 2016

One OK Rock in Manila with my concert buddy!

This is a super, super, late post about the very first concert I attended (not counting those other concerts held in our school which I don't even know and remember who the band is). The concert took place at the Mall of Asia arena (both my and concert buddy Nanz' first time on this place as well). When we bought our tickets way back September last year, we seriously don't have any idea what the layout of the arena looks like. If you have been a concert goer before and those concerts were held on the same place, you'll definitely have an advantage when purchasing a ticket since you know how close/far that seat is from the stage. However, Nanz and I were in luck since the employee of SM ticket outlet we went to assisted us happily and sort-of assured us how close the seats we chose are to the stage is.

When he handed over the tickets, it finally sinked in. This is it! We are really doing this. We are going to watch a concert!  A Japanese rock band's concert. One OK Rock's coming to Manila! - That's the best part. It's one of our favorite Jrock band and it's going to held a concert for the first time here and we will be part of history! Whatever Nanz was feeling at the moment, I'm sure it's the same feeling I got. 
My concert buddy Nanz and I goofing around before the concert starts. We are totally surprised of how close we are to the stage despite choosing  lowerbox seats. 

Let's rewind first on how I became a fan of the band. Back during the high school days, I've been watching this anime called Ruruoni Kenshin. I admit that I wasn't able to watch all the episode of the said anime but I've been a fan of it especially during the Shishio arc (but I'm not as good as my friends when it comes to the details fo the events). When the news came out that this anime will have its live action version, I was sooo excited. I forgot to mention that my group of friends are composed of people who love anime, jpop and jrock as well so everyone of us were spastic about it. 
Takeru Sato as Kenshin
photo not mine, credit goes to the owner.

Unfortunately when the first movie came out, I was not able to watch the film on the big screen. Poor me right? haha Well I have a reason why, it's because of work. Seriously. I have a stressful work load that all I can do after my shift is to go home and sleep and wake up and go to work again. It's as if I don't have any ounce of energy left in my body to do other activities. My friends did invite me to watch it with them but I told them I can't which is true. Work is really demanding for me back then. After the first movie was shown, my friends were talking about this song included on the film. A few months later though, my brother was able to borrow a copy of the movie and so I watched it. 

I now found out that the song they were talking about was this:


As soon as I heard that song... I fell in love with it. However I didn't research about their other songs just yet. The title of this song is The Beginning. Little did I know that this title perfectly describes how it will influence my choice in music will be in the near future.

For the next two Ruruoni live action movies, One OK Rock sort of became the official band to make the theme songs of the trilogy. The next song was Mighty Long Fall and the third is Heartache which is the song that leads me in searching for their other songs. 

Fast forward to the present time, Nanz and I already have their songs on repeat on the phone (for her) and I on my computer. I would no longer elaborate on how we ended up here. ("Here" meaning the events on how we became a fan, what songs we most listen to, etc) as it is really hard to explain. Since I'm already talking about the present time, let me tell you that during the months after we paid for our tickets, we were both planning on what to do, what time to meet up, what shirt to wear and etc. Of course we sometimes brought it up on our conversation occasionally of how excited we are but not as often as we talked about it now after the concert.

On the concert day, we arrived at the arena at 3pm and there's already a long line of fans waiting near the entrance. Nanz and I befriended 3 people while waiting for the gates to open. It's nice to talk to people who have the same interests as yours. At least the wait was bearable and ironically we didn't feel hungry at all even though we didn't have a pre-dinner. 
Finally! It was real!

Despite the delayed entrance time for concert goers, the whole event was 100% fun! Filled with joy and indescribable festive feeling. You can feel the overjoyed emotional state of each fans. It's like you can absorb the energy of the band. One OK Rock are definitely marvelous performers! They even sound better performing live! It's great to be part of their fans! I believe I'm not alone in saying that we truly truly appreciate you for coming HERE! 

The fans (including Nanz and I) are already anticipating for their return. Hopefully it will be SOON!

Btw, I didn't took a lot of photos during the concert as both of us are living the moment hahaha! We just couldn't take our eyes off the celebrities performing in front of us! :)