State Champs return to Manila to defend their title as one of the Philippines' most favorite pop-punk champions at SM Southmall Events Hall April 11. Presented by PULP Live World.

Strong power-pop hooks? Check. Arena-sized sing-along choruses? Check. Emotional, oftentimes angst-ridden lyrics about life and love? Check. A fiery live show? Double check.  

Obviously, international pop-punk sensation STATE CHAMPS has ticked all the boxes as far as the whole music world is concerned, and they’re bringing both the sound and the standard to Manila this 2025!

You heard that right: PULP Live World will be bringing back STATE CHAMPS to do a one-night-only concert April 11th, 2025, at the SM Southmall Events Hall, Las Piñas. Without a doubt, Filipino pop-punk fans will be thrilled at this exclusive full performance which packs a punch and features the band’s numerous crowd favorites and anthems.  

The band – hailing from Albany, New York, and composed of vocalist Derek DiScanio, guitarist Tyler Szalkowski, bassist Ryan Scott Graham and drummer Evan Ambrosio – is equally excited, as their last visit and performance in Manila was a festival set at the famed Bazooka Rocks Festival in 2017 (held at the Skydome in SM North EDSA and also produced by PULP Live World) alongside The Maine.

Formed in 2010, the band proved their worth with catchy songs, a strong work ethic when it came to writing more songs for their discography and consistently energy-fueled live performances within immediate circles in – and near – their hometown. By 2015, State Champs was supporting household names like All Time Low, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Neck Deep on various tours, and secured slots at reputed stages like the famous Vans Warped Tour and Reading and Leeds Festivals in England. Soon after, the band was featured on the cover of Alternative Press magazine, whose writer was quoted saying: “[State Champs is] everything you love about old school pop-punk with a new-school heart.”

Aside from a multitude of diehard fan favorites and fun covers of big hits in and outside the genre, the band has quite a number of big singles and hits, including “Secrets,” “Where I Belong” (a monumental collaboration with fellow pop-punksters Simple Plan and We the Kings), “Silver Cloud” and their popular rendition of the Shawn Mendes smash hit “Stitches,” which has garnered close to 45 million streams on Spotify.

For more information on where and how to purchase tickets, interested parties can keep tuned in to pulpmagazine.com/ and follow PULP Live World on their official SNS accounts.

Live Loud! State Champs is coming back to Manila!

Here are our Top 10 State Champs picks: 

10). Outta My Head (2022)

A whopping, carefree, andinvigorating pop-punk love song

9). Criminal (2018)

The liveliness and havoc behind it is beautiful and rests on the punk aesthetic of New Found Glory.

8). Too Late to Say (2024)

A song that can acpture the affections of your musical heart.

7). Silver Cloud (2024)

“Silver Cloud” is clear-cut pop-punk, but the hooks are infectious, and the band inculcates an aspect of positiveness in it (“Standing underneath the silver cloud, but I don’t feel it raining now...”

6). Light Blue (2024)

An effortlessly-produced dirge about lost love intended for big sing-alongs.

5). All You Are Is History (2015)

Yes, musical genres tend to have their own staple topics and stereotypes that are hard to shake off, and pop-punk is no different. All in all, the key for every artist is to accomplish something that feels fresh and unique with same old thing. State Champs succeeds to do this with this track. While it dwells with a breakup and is most likely addressed to an ex, from the opening line “I’m a realist and an optimist, but I swear to you I’m not getting over this” followed by the guitar eruption succeeds in drawing the listener’s attention.

4). Dead and Gone (2018)

The gang shouts in this track shout textbook pop-punk, while the songwriting has taken a flavorsome notch higher without surrendering the unconditional demand to mosh to it.

3). Everybody but You feat. Ben Barlow (2022) 

They have continually been affectionate of giving out gargantuan hooks, and this song is no different. For this one, they reconcile on a sturdier yield by straightforwardly returning to that gushing, chugging steam engine melody. It’s what makes this sound undeniably like State Champs, mid-paced and inspiring while being molded more specifically by Derek DiScanio’s smirked vocals. 

2). Elevated (2013)

This song does – pardon the pun - elevate you into the a rocking fray with disturbing guitar feedback shifting into persisting chords and hammering beats before the straightaway identifiable voice of Tyler Szalkowski comes up, presenting enriching assured lyrics with promise in each syllable.

1). Secrets (2015)

A wall-to-wall banger with a spring and grittiness that’s utterly overwhelming.