I’m an avid concertgoer, and when I heard Shawn Mendes was playing in Dallas at the American Airlines Center (the closest venue despite it being 3 hours away) I immediately bought tickets. Two to be exact. And when I asked my dad to go with me so we could spend time together, the night went a very different way than I expected.
The day started with my dad and I hopping in the car for a 3-hour ride down to Dallas. We’d both agreed that we would get him familiar with Shawn’s music. So I proceeded to play both of his albums (Handwritten and Illuminate) while we cruised down I-30. Shawn is primarily acoustic guitar/piano based, which my dad is a super big fan of. Plus telling my dad that Shawn is only my age (18) only upped the wow factor. Safe to say, he seemed impressed. However, I knew this didn’t mean he would be screaming along with the thousands of teenage girls filling the seats of the venue.
When we arrived at the concert there were not many other dads there. It was mostly screaming girls, crying girls, excited girls, and of course their mothers. But my dad, being the trooper he is, was more than happy to be there with me. All that mattered was that we got to spend time together. So, when we found our seats the young girl behind us decided to give us a warning that she would be “singing and jumping around all night” and that she was sorry in advance. My dad and I laughed at her confession partly because we knew it was true, but also because it was just so cute. And let me tell you...when the lights went down we knew for sure that she wasn’t lying.
Given that fact that my dad only truly knew 2 songs... sort of... he immediately seemed entertained when Shawn came out on stage. Shawn walked out under the bright blue/green lights, acoustic guitar strapped across his chest, and looking essentially perfect. Nobody had to convince me to love Shawn seeing as I have for quite some time, but I felt like I had a weird responsibility to turn my dad into a fan. After each song, my dad would turn to me and tell me if he liked it or not. There was even a moment after ‘Stitches’ when he just started clapping and said: “That was awesome!”. I was so excited that he seemed to really like him. For the next 2 hours, we listened to the rest of the setlist in pure happiness.
After the last song when the crying girls (this includes me for sure) made their way out of the venue, I asked my dad his true opinion of the concert. He quickly gave Shawn a 10/10 in lyric ability, entertainment value, and musical ability. Like I said, all that really mattered was that I got to spend time with my dad, but the fact that he really took an interest in someone I’m a HUGE fan of meant the world to me. Hands-down best moment of the night was in the car ride home when he asked me to play Shawn again. Now we can jam to ‘There’s Nothing Holding Me Back’ together, and it’s pretty great. So thank you, dad, for coming with me, and thank you, Shawn Mendes, for putting on one of my favorite concerts E-V-E-R. That concert will forever be one of my favorite memories.
