Hoobastank in Taipei 2014Oh my gosh, there are so many people!!!

Last night the post-grunge, alternative band Hoobastank rocked the National Taiwan University Sports Center, and for a night I got to relive my high school years (oh man, am I that old?!).

I unfortunately missed the first two songs of the show because I was waiting for a friend, but at least I heard them outside. They opened with a bang with their song “Just One” off their second album The Reason. By the time I went inside the venue the band was on their third song, “No Destination (fight or flight)”.

Hoobastank is bringing the audience down a bit with one of their slower songs.

Hoobastank has a lot of energy and it was amazing to see them perform live for the first time. They covered a lot of their hits like “Running Away”, “Same Direction”, and of course their most well-known ballad “The Reason”. Hoobastank’s lead singer, Doug, pretty much knew everyone would be able to sing along to that song. But perhaps the highlight of the night was getting everyone to sing along to “My Turn” and inviting a fan by the name of Jerry to belt out “When’s it gonna be my turn?!” In a call and response, Jerry screamed out the line and the crowd went wild and the shock on Doug’s face was priceless. I really love it when bands are interactive with their audience like this because it makes it a much more memorable experience for everyone.

Hoobastank in Taipei 2014And they’re back to cranking up the energy to get the audience going.

The band closed out with “Crawling in the Dark,” which was the first song that brought them in the spotlight. It was also the first song that I heard back in high school that got me into their music.  Needless to say, I was rocking out and singing along pretty loudly to that one.  And maybe I freaked my friend out by letting out the rocker inside me out a little bit. haha

Overall the concert was a blast and I highly recommend seeing Hoobastank live. After all these years in the business they can still put on a good show and rock the house. Plus, they sounded great live! I thoroughly enjoyed the show and I think the rest of the audience did, too.

Hoobastank in Taipei 2014

Thanks for putting on an awesome show in Taipei, Hoobastank!

For those interested in the set list for this particular show:

  1. Just One
  2. Let It Out
  3. No Destination (Fight of Flight)
  4. Same Direction
  5. Remember Me
  6. If I Were You
  7. Don’t Think I Love You
  8. All About You
  9. Born To Lead
  10. Running Away
  11. No Win Situation
  12. My Turn
  13. Inside Of You
  14. First Of Me
  15. Pieces
  16. This Is Gonna Hurt
  17. The Reason
  18. Out Of Control
  19. Crawling In The Dark

And for more info on Hoobastank, visit their Wikipedia page or their official website.