First Concert Feels
This picture is a night I will never forget. It was my very first concert, and as I stepped through the doors of The Royal Oak Music Theatre (in Royal Oak, Michigan), I didn't realize I was about to experience such a rush of emotion and love. I just thought I was going to a concert.
I've always had a deep love and appreciation for music from a very young age. My lullaby's when I was a baby would change from Strauss Waltz's to Led Zeppelin on a nightly basis. My dad used to dance me to sleep while listening to "Fool In The Rain," or "All Of My Love," which are still two of my favorites. I find it mesmerizing that a song can invoke a feeling of tranquillity. My parents encouraged all genres of music and also encouraged me to have a deep appreciation for the arts from an early age. For that, I can never thank them enough. I learned how fascinating lyrics can be and how the beat of a song can take you back to a different time and place. Songs that create emotion, those are the ones that can make a terrible day into a great one. Then there are the songs that can make you cry because it's so beautifully written or tracks that make you dance and sing even if you're completely off key. Choruses can take you back to the first time you heard the tune, or the place you were in your life when you could relate every word of that song to a feeling or a memory. Perhaps the most important thing I've learned was the way live music can transport you. For years I had an aching to attend a concert, but my parents had a rule that I had to wait until I was 13, and that's exactly what I did. That night changed my life quite a bit and I'll never forget the atmosphere.
January 2011 was when I finally saved enough money to purchase my general admission ticket to see The Script live in concert. I didn't know what to expect, but I was so excited. At first, I found it unsettling that so many people were crunched together into a tight room with loud amplifiers, but as soon as the band walked on stage, that all changed. Something clicked, and I forgot about my uneasy feeling and was completely taken away by the music. Every song they played, everyone in the crowd sang along to and hung onto every note together, and it gave me chills. I found myself thinking there was something absolutely beautiful about being surrounded by complete strangers that all bond over a song that you could spill your heart out to.
This rare, addictive feeling set in like I was completely free from the world and nothing else mattered except for this moment and these songs. Every concert I go to now, I wait for that electric moment in the show when something just clicks and I feel infinite. Being able to let go of hardships you have in your life and forget all responsibilities for a few hours, to just focus on music, is a magical thing. It always depends on the show, sometimes it happens, other times, you leave without it. One line of a song could trigger that concert feeling or a beat of a drum. During my first concert, it was the entire two-hour show.
The crowd itself was something I'd never experienced before. As I looked around, I saw such a large group of exquisite, eclectic people. I think music heals people, and it gives them hope in times they might have none left. Music brings people together in a way nothing else can, because it's so unique. A story an artist is telling through lyrics is interpreted thousands of different ways. When a crowd shouts back those lyrics, they're singing there own story and emotions behind the words. It's an unspoken bond between fans that cling onto their tickets and become jittery with excitement as the lights black out seconds before the start of the show. When nothing in the world makes sense, music still does, and I've found that most people that attend concerts feel that way. Music is bigger that just itself.
A year after my first concert I was able to see The Script in concert for the 2nd time and it was just as magical as the first. After the concert, I even got to meet the band. I waited on the sidewalk in Detroit outside the venue with my best friend, just waiting for the band to walk to their tour bus. When they finally came outside, I took lots of pictures and managed to have a conversation with the lead singer.
"I love you guys so much, you're the reason I play guitar, I know every song of yours." I blurted out in the midst of being starstruck. Then, Danny, the lead singer, shook my hand, gave me a hug, and thanked me. "Never stop playing, that's how we got started," was his response. Such an unbelievable night made me remember why I continued to go to shows in the first place.
If I hadn't gone to that concert in 2011, I would have never understood music so well, and I never would have had the opportunities or confidence to perform myself. Still to this day, I am obsessed with live shows, and it has become a very expensive habit. The atmosphere of happy people all there in the same room for the same reason is comforting to me. I wait for the moment in the show when I get that feeling like nothing matters except tonight. I wait for that insane feeling of confidence and ridiculous happiness. When people dance around or sing their hearts out because they feel the beat of the song, or remember a time, place or a person because of lyrics, it truly shows the power of music.
"In music everything leads to something else, melodies lead to words, words lead to feelings, and those feelings turn into songs. Those songs become the soundtrack of a moment. They take you back or they get you through until you find yourself in a new moment, in a new song, where everything leads to something else." - Chris Stapleton
