As London’s pride celebrations continued into the night, Japanese pop punk band One Ok Rock brought their ‘Luxury Disease’ tour to Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo, with support from Scottish rock duo Vukovi. As a massive fan of Vukovi, more so than One OK Rock, I was perhaps the most excited person in the Apollo for them to take the stage.
Marking the 7th time I’ve seen them live, Vukovi played predictably heavily off their latest Heavy Music Award winning album, Nula, beginning their set with single “HADES”. Frontwoman Janine and guitarist Hamish follow on with lead single, “C.L.A.U.D.I.A”, the one and only song the duo performed from their sophomore album Fall Better. To my delight, the rest of Vukovi’s set consisted of many of my favorite tracks.
“Lasso” follows on from “C.L.A.U.D.I.A”, before the Scottish duo slowed things down to perform my favorite track of theirs off their 2017 self-titled debut album, “Colour Me In”. Nula singles “Slo” and “I Exist’ bring the energy back up before the band close off their reliably energetic set with their hit single “La Di Da.”
Vukovi demonstrated once again that they are one of the best UK bands working today as they reliably brought their unique brand of fun, crowd work and sensual energy which makes them a treat to behold.
After an exceptional support set from Vukovi, the sold out crowd eagerly await the post COVID return of One Ok Rock. The lights eventually dim and the crowd loses their minds as Taka and co. explode onto the stage with “Save Yourself” off their 10th studio album Luxury Disease. “Taking Off” from 2017’s Ambitions follows on, and the crowd scream along to every word of every song the Japanese quartet plays.
The band then played “Wonder” and “Let Me Let You Go” in what would become a very Luxury Disease heavy set. The band would play the occasional older song as the band played “Clock Strikes” off their 6th album Jinsei x Boku, before reverting back to newer songs with Luxury Disease lead single “Renegades”.
Frontman Taka leaves the stage temporarily as guitarist, Toru Yamashita, bassist, Ryota Kohama and drummer, Tomoya Kanki perform an instrumental version of “Neon”.
Taka returns to the stage and the band continue to perform tracks off the new album as they bash through “Vandalize” and “Broken Heart of Gold” before slowing things down with an acoustic rendition of “Your Tears Are Mine.”
Near the end of their main set, One Ok Rock play a hang full of oldies with Jinsei x Boku’s “The Beginning” and “Deeper Deeper”, before playing “Stand Out Fit In” off their 9th studio album 2019’s Eye of the Storm and closing out with “We Are” from 2017’s Ambitions. As is the case with most concerts, the show is not over, as One Ok Rock takes to the stage once again for one final song.
Before they played their last song, the band took a final moment to thank everyone in attendance for their support and coming out to see them play. The band seemed very grateful for their fans as they took several moments throughout the set to thank everyone for coming.
The band then closed out their night with the Eye of the Storm single “Wasted Nights”, which brought this energetic night of pop rock and fan gratitude to a satisfying conclusion.
Although their set is half composed of new songs, One Ok Rock delivered their catchy pop rock tracks with an earnest tone and genuine gratitude for their fans which delighted many die hard fans in attendance, whilst also endearing newer fans, such as myself to their catchy brand of pop rock.
With an exceptional choice of support act who delivered an equally exceptional set, It was an excellent night of rock music that made for a brilliant way to cap off pride 2023.
Words by Dan Harden + photography by Martina Antonia Liberini
