Concerts have to be, quite honestly, the most exhilarating things to experience. This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the concerts of one of my favorite bands, One OK Rock, a Japanese rock band. I have been following this band since about late 2012 when I discovered Kanzen Kankaku Dreamer, probably when I was in the middle of my anime phase.
While I am not a fan of them like I am of Infinite, as I didn't even know what the members looked like or what their names were, that didn't stop me from lining up at 9am. If there's anything that Kpop concerts have taught me, it is that you'd want to be front and center in order to get the best experience, whether that'd be just enjoying pit, the best acoustics, or making eye-contact with a member.
It was surprising. I've been at this venue (Playstation Theater/Best Buy Theater) 2 times before, but this is the first time I've ever seen it so empty. Even an hour before the concert, there were probably only about 100 fans lined up, which took me back since their MVs receive millions of views and the tickets were only about $44 each.
It's nice lining up early, because we literally saw all of the members of OOR walk into the venue holding coffee. It was a surreal experience because no one charged forward and no one started screaming, people just politely said hello to them and waved? This makes me look back at Kpop fans and think "smh." Like, look at how civil it was. (Also, I'm such a casual-non-fandom OOR fan that I had to ask my Big why people started whispering furiously when three random Japanese guys walked into the venue, and spoiler alert, it was OOR minus Taka).
Funny aside: I accidentally met one of my mutuals from Twitter! While we've met before and have had DM conversations (and she even joins my Group Orders sometimes), actually waiting in line and sitting across from each other caught me off guard since this wasn't an Infinite concert. She was holding a Jimin (BTS) fan and I decided to chat her up since I was bored and my friends weren't due to come for another few hours. Apparently she recognized me because she asked if I was **insert name** and then we both made the connection that hello!! that's a close Twitter mutual who I've been in group chats with! That was the extent of our conversation though, since we both had our other friends to go to. Jocy if you're reading this, I'm sorry for not talking to you more! I think I got a little shy and I wasn't prepared to actually meet someone (again) who I knew only through Twitter.
I'll leave all the boring details about waiting in line with my friends to myself, but know that waiting in line with good company makes all the difference. I actually got so tired, not from standing in line, but from how much my Big and I were talking for all of those hours.
Enjoy some pictures that I took! I was lucky enough start at about the 3rd row back, right behind the VIP section. Lots of people left after the 2 opening acts, since apparently they only stayed to watch them. After some pushing and reorganizing of the crowd, I ended up in the second row, basically touching barrier.
Quick aside: one of my friends had work so he had to come in late. Here's a picture of where he was standing when he first got into the venue
Rock fans are apparently significantly less violent than Kpop fans? There weren't any extreme cases of pushing, even when Taka jumped down to the barrier. It was a great environment as people were just singing along happily to the songs; the lyrics were in English for almost all of the songs, so while Taka was drowned out at some times, the entire atmosphere was amazing because you just felt connected to the music and to the people around you. The only thing that left a little to be desired was how Taka would constantly stop singing just to let the crowd sing along. I get the sentimentality, but "Take What You Want" and "I Was King" was basically all the fans singing.
Another difference in the two concerts experiences of Jrock vs Kpop (I've been to Infinite twice, once in the United States and once in Korea, BTS twice in New York, and Exo once) is that there's significantly more fanservice and talking with Kpop groups. Every couple of songs, the Kpop group would talk to the fans for maybe 8 minutes, go backstage and change while a VCR plays, and come back out to continue the setlist. OOR didn't stick to that AT ALL. It was just song, after song, after song, after song, and that would explain why Toru was soaked after the first 2 songs. It was just non-stop adrenaline and excitement and emotion and even the pain of standing in 5 inch heels for 10 hours pales in comparison to how much fun I had.
All in all, I'd love to go into more detail but I'm pulling blanks. The OOR guys are all rather short/average height, "Take What You Want" will always be my favorite song ever (I remember the first time I heard it too), "Taking Off" is apparently A LOT better of a song than I thought it was, and no singer can ever compare to Taka in terms of notes and stability because W O W (Woohyun you're still my number 1 vocalist but I swear I forgot about how much I loved your voice when I heard Taka sing "can you hear me" for the first time.). Taka had a moment of silence for Chester (Linkin Park) before he started singing "Take What You Want" and I swear I didn't start crying a little.
Below are my own fancams that I posted on Youtube! Please excuse my terrible singing (but if you don't know what my voice sounds like originally, then hopefully you won't be able to pick it out ;__; )
Take What You Want (with Lyrics)
I Was King
My love for them stems purely from how much their music means to me. Kpop aside, I am obsessed with rock music (Infinite's Last Romeo anyone? A Song) and while they tour the US consistently, this was the first time that my schedule managed to match up to when they came.
While I am not a fan of them like I am of Infinite, as I didn't even know what the members looked like or what their names were, that didn't stop me from lining up at 9am. If there's anything that Kpop concerts have taught me, it is that you'd want to be front and center in order to get the best experience, whether that'd be just enjoying pit, the best acoustics, or making eye-contact with a member.
It was surprising. I've been at this venue (Playstation Theater/Best Buy Theater) 2 times before, but this is the first time I've ever seen it so empty. Even an hour before the concert, there were probably only about 100 fans lined up, which took me back since their MVs receive millions of views and the tickets were only about $44 each.
It's nice lining up early, because we literally saw all of the members of OOR walk into the venue holding coffee. It was a surreal experience because no one charged forward and no one started screaming, people just politely said hello to them and waved? This makes me look back at Kpop fans and think "smh." Like, look at how civil it was. (Also, I'm such a casual-non-fandom OOR fan that I had to ask my Big why people started whispering furiously when three random Japanese guys walked into the venue, and spoiler alert, it was OOR minus Taka).
Funny aside: I accidentally met one of my mutuals from Twitter! While we've met before and have had DM conversations (and she even joins my Group Orders sometimes), actually waiting in line and sitting across from each other caught me off guard since this wasn't an Infinite concert. She was holding a Jimin (BTS) fan and I decided to chat her up since I was bored and my friends weren't due to come for another few hours. Apparently she recognized me because she asked if I was **insert name** and then we both made the connection that hello!! that's a close Twitter mutual who I've been in group chats with! That was the extent of our conversation though, since we both had our other friends to go to. Jocy if you're reading this, I'm sorry for not talking to you more! I think I got a little shy and I wasn't prepared to actually meet someone (again) who I knew only through Twitter.
I'll leave all the boring details about waiting in line with my friends to myself, but know that waiting in line with good company makes all the difference. I actually got so tired, not from standing in line, but from how much my Big and I were talking for all of those hours.
Enjoy some pictures that I took! I was lucky enough start at about the 3rd row back, right behind the VIP section. Lots of people left after the 2 opening acts, since apparently they only stayed to watch them. After some pushing and reorganizing of the crowd, I ended up in the second row, basically touching barrier.
Quick aside: one of my friends had work so he had to come in late. Here's a picture of where he was standing when he first got into the venue
And props to him, because he somehow managed to push up to where I was, which can be seen in this picture:
Honestly I'm just surprised no one made a fuss. I mean, this one guy did but my friend looks like he can and will bench 250lbs so. There ends that. Can you imagine if I managed to do this for Infinite thoughhhhh (but tbh this was me for both Exo and BTS).
Here is a picture of Taka that I took personally (and before you ask, I have a Samsung S6 Edge+, which has an 18 mega pixel camera, which is also the only reason I got this phone haha). And while being at barrier helps with the nice pictures, wearing 5 inch platform heels also was amazing in giving me the extra leverage! Thank god for short Jrock fans though.
Another difference in the two concerts experiences of Jrock vs Kpop (I've been to Infinite twice, once in the United States and once in Korea, BTS twice in New York, and Exo once) is that there's significantly more fanservice and talking with Kpop groups. Every couple of songs, the Kpop group would talk to the fans for maybe 8 minutes, go backstage and change while a VCR plays, and come back out to continue the setlist. OOR didn't stick to that AT ALL. It was just song, after song, after song, after song, and that would explain why Toru was soaked after the first 2 songs. It was just non-stop adrenaline and excitement and emotion and even the pain of standing in 5 inch heels for 10 hours pales in comparison to how much fun I had.
I was literally so close to them that it was basically impossible for me to get a shot of all 4 them into one picture, nevermind the fact that Toru and Ryouta were running around all over the place.
All in all, I'd love to go into more detail but I'm pulling blanks. The OOR guys are all rather short/average height, "Take What You Want" will always be my favorite song ever (I remember the first time I heard it too), "Taking Off" is apparently A LOT better of a song than I thought it was, and no singer can ever compare to Taka in terms of notes and stability because W O W (Woohyun you're still my number 1 vocalist but I swear I forgot about how much I loved your voice when I heard Taka sing "can you hear me" for the first time.). Taka had a moment of silence for Chester (Linkin Park) before he started singing "Take What You Want" and I swear I didn't start crying a little.
Below are my own fancams that I posted on Youtube! Please excuse my terrible singing (but if you don't know what my voice sounds like originally, then hopefully you won't be able to pick it out ;__; )
Take What You Want (with Lyrics)
I Was King
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