In The Mix: The 1975, Panic! At The Disco, Third Eye Blind, and more!

In The Mix is a concert event/festival which features six amazing artists: The 1975, Panic! At The Disco, Third Eye Blind, James Bay, Elle King and Twin Pines. And I was there!!!

The concert was, of course, held in Manila, at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. For someone who lives 7 hours away from Manila, I'm proud to say that I'm very willing to travel that far just to see my fave musicians.

So far, I've been present during the three concerts/events of The 1975 here in the Philippines. That makes me a REAL FAN now, right? I remember writing a blog about The 1975 before and I wasn't THAT MUCH of a fan then. But now I can say that come hell or high water if The 1975 is coming to my country then I WILL BE THERE.

I've never been to a concert where multiple artists performed. In The Mix was my first time. In The Mix had its pros and cons, in my opinion. The pro is getting your money's worth since you get to see more than one artist. The con is that I have no idea who the other artists were and, as much as I love exploring other types of music, I feel like I won't have time to invest emotions in their music. Another con is when your favorite artist (The 1975) plays last.

I've heard of Panic! At The Disco many years ago (LOL). But I think I've only heard one of their songs: "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". And that was all. I knew about Third Eye Blind, of course! I used to hear their songs on the radio when I was in high school. However, at that time, I was not yet that much of a "music enthusiast". I might have listened to A LOT of their songs back then, but I can only remember the titles of a handful of them. "Semi-Charmed Life", "Never Let You Go" and "Jumper" were some of them.

My friend/concert buddy told me a bit about James Bay. She said he's an English singer and his songs were a bit Ed Sheeran-ish. I wish I knew who Twin Pines and Elle King were. But due to a series of unfortunate events before the In The Mix concert, we weren't able to watch these two artists. We were 2 hours LATE for it!

Okay, so they weren't really unfortunate events, they were more like carelessness on our part. LOL. The whole time that we were waiting for this In The Mix concert, my friend and I thought it will start at 8 PM. That was what we saw in ALL the posters and tweets and online posts about it. I even Googled an image of the poster the day before the In The Mix concert and posted it on IG, I think. And I swear to god I saw that it was 8 PM, not 5 PM!

So yeah, lesson learned: ALWAYS TRIPLE CHECK THE TIME ON THE CONCERT TICKETS!

But then again, we didn't really come for Twin Pines and Elle King (no offense). When we arrived at the MOA Arena, it was past 7 PM but there were still plenty of people loitering outside. And they were very "chillax". So that means they don't care about the first 2 artists too. We sat outside, relaxed, and ate my sticky rice with mango first. We were late, YES, but we didn't really miss anything. :)

I would love to talk about Third Eye Blind's and Panic! At The Disco's awesome performances, however, I honestly came to the In The Mix concert for The 1975. I was a bit surprised at how rabid and insane the Panic! At The Disco fans were! I mean, I knew they were popular, but I didn't know they had such a huge following here. The fans were just all over the place! There was this young man sitting next to me. He was by himself and he was very quiet while Third Eye Blind was performing. in fact, he was sitting so still that it almost seemed like he was sleeping.

BUT, when Panic! At The Disco started playing, this young man - I kid you not - started jumping up and down, screaming his lungs out and making other incoherent noises, swaying left and right, waving his hands up in the air, stomping his feet and almost knocking my water bottle on the floor. He was like possessed or something. LOL! It was so cute but scary. We, therefore, named him "PATD's number 1 fan boy". Haha!

The whole arena just exploded as the Panic! At The Disco fans screamed and shrieked and sang out loud to EVERY SINGLE SONG that the band played. It was quite a sight to see. I was a bit moved. It always blows my mind whenever I experience incredible and once-in-a-lifetime things like that. And THAT is why I think going to concerts is one of the BEST and most IRREPLACEABLE experiences ever. I feel like I became a bit of a Panic! At The Disco fan after their performance. Although some of their songs were a bit "too rock" for me and some were even "gothic rock-ish", there were some pretty cool ones. I especially liked "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" and "Nine In The Afternoon". And when Brendon Urie effortlessly sang the classic "Bohemian Rhapsody", I swear even I was screaming my lungs out like a crazy fan girl! It was effing amazing!!!

Hands down to Brendon Urie for keeping the crowd hyped up and on their feet. What a fantastic performer! He was just all over the place - running around, dancing and prancing here and there, and even doing a backflip at one point. And can I just comment on this guy's VOICE QUALITY??? Like, what the hell man?! His high-pitched parts and his low bass parts were both ON POINT no matter how much he moved around the stage. It was like he never got winded! I get winded just by walking up a flight of stairs!

Anyway, just when we thought it was finally The 1975's turn, on stage came JAMES BAY. I think one thing I didn't like about the In The Mix concert was the fact that each artist was actually given ONE HOUR to perform. And that one hour did not include the 20-40 minutes time that it took for the staff to set up the stage and their instruments. A little break is okay, but I needed the concert to finish at around 10 or 11 PM because I still had to travel back to my city and go to work the next day. That was another thing, why would you hold a freaking concert on a THURSDAY night?! Those kids have school the next day and grownups, like me, have work the next day! I just don't get it. This is becoming an annoying "trend" nowadays - concerts on WEEKDAYS. Ugh.

James Bay was alright. His music was okay. But at this point, my friend and I were already half-asleep and on "battery-saving mode". We just sat there and I swear I couldn't count how many times I've yawned. I was REALLY drowsy and I had no energy left. When The 1975 came on stage, it was already past 11 PM! Like, damn!  

The first song they played was, of course, "Love Me" and the moment the whole stage was lit with PINK NEON LIGHTS, I was zapped back to life! Like the PATD fan boy, I was dancing like nobody's watching, singing out loud with my ugly tone deaf voice, and jumping up and down. The 1975's stage was the most colorful and the brightest stage I've ever seen! Those neon lights were just FABULOUS!  

Here's a set list that I found online:

I was seated way up in the "Gen Ad" section so I couldn't see Matty's face clearly but I bet he was making all those funny facial expressions and rolling his eyes while singing . They played next and I swear Matty was just dancing like there's no tomorrow during this track. This man CAN really dance. He's got THE MOVES. I was so stoked that they also played some of their "best songs" from the previous album, like "Heart Out", "Girls", "S E X", "Robbers" and, of course, the crowd favorite "Chocolate". I'm not sure if it was just the fact that I was drained and worn out or the fact that I didn't really like those songs that much, but there were some "ho-hum" moments during The 1975's performance. Those were the times when I decided to sit down and save my remaining energy for the latter part of their performance. They didn't play right away and I was very much looking forward to that.

The last 3 songs that The 1975 played: "Chocolate", "The Sound", and "Sex" all kept me on my feet. I gave it my all. I just screamed and sang along and danced away. It was funny coz right after the last beat of the song "Sex", my friend and I (along with a herd of younger people) were already out of our seats! Usually, we would linger there and take pictures and chat some more about what just happened, but ain't nobody got time for that! The concert ended at past 12 midnight already! Those kids' parents were probably worried sick and waiting outside the arena.

All in all, it was a better experience than I've expected. Except for the fact that it took too long and it ended SOOOO late, everything was pretty awesome.

I'm looking forward to The 1975's return - a solo concert PLEASE - to the Philippines. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the pictures here. Credits to the rightful owners. :D