On May 18th, 2017, I had the opportunity to attend the St. Louis date of The Chainsmokers’ “Memories…Do Not Open,” Tour. This show was definitely a different experience for me, but honestly, if I was given another chance to see them, I would.
Let me start off by saying that I am not heavily into The Chainsmokers like I am All Time Low and Fall Out Boy. I started off only attending the show because my friend Sam had won tickets, but the person she was planning on going with could not get off work, so I offered to go, but by the end of the night, I was having so much fun and I did not want it to end. I ended up buying two shirts from the merchandise table because I liked how they look. I have a weird thing about always buying a shirt at every show I go to; it’s like a keepsake you can wear!
Because of traffic and me getting off work at 5:30, we missed the DJ who was the first opener. We were walking in and getting our tickets scanned as the set was playing, and from what I can tell, he was really interacting with the crowd, and the crowd was clapping and cheering every time he finished a song. I can’t give a review of the DJ since we missed him, but to me, it sounded like his set was cool and I wish that I would’ve gotten to see it!
Next, a girl by the name of Kiiara opened for The Chainsmokers, and I would give her a 0 on a scale of 10. I say that because she did not interact with the crowd whatsoever, she had an attitude and was so full of herself, and she lip synced during a few of her songs. A big pet peeve of mine at concerts is when the opening acts try to steal the show and make it theirs, but this girl was not doing anything. She did not seem one bit interested in the crowd or being on stage. I would not ever pay money to see her ever again.
From the second the lights went out and the crowd started going crazy, I could tell that this concert was going to be different from the other ones that I had seen. One of the members, Drew, came on stage acting nervous; he was texting the other member, Alex, and that conversation could be seen on the screen behind them. Alex had “forgotten” that they had a show that night and asked Drew to stall for him while he hurried up and got there. After that conversation had ended, the screen went black and was pulled upwards to reveal a large DJ-ing table.
Something that I did not know about the Chainsmokers was that they started out as DJs, and that is what I thought made the show a lot more entertaining. It was unusual to me that they only had six songs that they sung and interacted with the crowd during, but I thought it was humble of them to incorporate DJ-ing into their set since it’s a big part of who they are and how they got their start as a duo.
I really liked how they switched it up every couple of songs; going from the DJ table to singing a regular song. No two songs sounded alike on the DJ table which is something that kept me intrigued. Sam and I were dancing along the entire night. We were sitting in the mezzanine level seats, so we had a nice view of the general admission dance floor. The people who were towards the back of the pit were dancing, they were spread out all over the floor and gave themselves room.
This is a picture of what the backdrop looked like before their set started. Memories...Do Not Open is the name of their newest album that dropped earlier this year.
Although the entire concert was fun, my favorite parts were the songs that I knew, like Closer, Paris, and Don’t Let Me Down. Before they started Paris, they invited a girl by the name of Nicole Starr on stage to sing with them because her fans had tweeted them repeatedly, and they eventually saw the messages. I thought it was amazing how they brought an aspiring singer on stage to live out their dream and get experience for when it’s their turn to go on tour. The one thing that I did not like about her being on stage, however, was that she needed her phone for the lyrics. But other than that, I thought she sounded great, and I can’t wait to check out some of her work when it’s released. During Don’t Let Me Down, they had their friend by the name of Emily Warren come on stage and sing with them.
Overall, if I had to rate the concert on a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 20. All throughout the arena, there was high energy and there was never a boring moment. Watching The Chainsmokers’ DJ made me feel like I was at a party, which made it a memorable experience for me. Next time they announce a tour, and if there is a St. Louis stop, I honestly would attend it because it was so much fun, and I’ve gotten into them more now after seeing them live for the first time. If you haven’t seen them live yet or haven’t listened to any of their music, I highly recommend it; they’re amazing, and I’m shocked that I didn’t get into them sooner!
