In a blink of an eye the dimmed lighting in a packed arena darkens. Your heart skips a beat as the confetti cannons or the smoke machine goes off, and in the distance you see a silhouette of something unreal. The song you may have heard a thousand times on your iPod or on the radio becomes entwined with your heartbeat; instead of listening to the song you are finally feeling it.
This is exactly how I felt in my most recent concert experience. I saw Halsey taking center stage with a kaleidoscope of color encompassing her figure and her voice. Though I could hear the youthful cacophonous screaming in the background, the presence of it seemed peaceful. It was like being in a deprivation tank, feeling completely weightless. I experienced the sensations of the concert even more so because I went alone.
In my life, I have only been to two concerts and attended both unaccompanied. There is something comforting and intimate about experiencing music individually. Perhaps I enjoy loneliness or appreciate my favorite artists differently, but I mainly attribute to my experiences to the latter.
Music is a holistic experience for me. I perceive the lyrics, the tempo, the voice, and the instruments. That independent sensation cannot be shared. It is too intangible to do so, and since that seems impossible, I have decided to always go to concerts companionless. Subsequently, it also helps that friends do not judge me and say “OMG. I did not know you had that in you” or “Yaaaas girl” at these events. That sort of presence interrupts everything and the musical experience becomes lost in translation.
Aside from my concert decisions, I have also noticed some differences between this concert and the last concert I attended. There is something fulfilling when you go to a new artist’s concert. “BADLANDS” was Halsey’s first album, and I had the chance to not only listen to her album numerous times, but I also took moments to watch her videos and truly understand her intentions. This was the first album in which I fully understood the visuals and how they intersected with her musical style and lyrics.
My comprehension of her style felt applicable in the stands. When she was singing “New Americana,” “Control,” or “Gasoline,” her performance felt like it had added an additional dimension. The concert also mirrored school. If you truly care about your subject or are just good student, you read and comprehend the material in preparation for the lecture the next day. When you enter lecture, if you have a good professor, he or she will add an extra level of thinking whether it be personal or completely abstract to what you already know. Instead of acquiring knowledge about science or current events, I instead cultivated a deeper grasp of how I perceive my own emotions.
In contrast, when I went to my first concert to see Imagine Dragons, the experience was basic. I had known the band before every radio station overplayed "Radioactive." Despite this fact, I still sensed that I did not know them well enough to see them in concert. They had numerous songs before the “Night Visions” concert, and I was not as exposed to them. I was a relatively new fan at that point. I did not feel evolved or shaped as I did in the Halsey concert. Imagine Dragons is a superior group; although their sound was familiar, it was not sufficient to fully enjoy their concert.
For music-lovers, concerts are the best outlet to embrace and become the music. I have been a music lover for most of my life, and choose to be selective with concerts. After going to the Halsey concert, I realized how much I appreciate going to concerts headlining new coming artists with whom I am familiar with. To top it all off, for me fully experience these concerts I have to go solo.
Music is a language that everyone understands but for some people it touches the deepest parts. It is my true companion and there is not a moment that I feel lonely when I am with it. Music brings out the joy, the tears, the shivers, the breathlessness, and the weightlessness. Though music encompasses all of these traits, concerts convert these abstract emotions to tangible ones.
