My best kept secret is that I love pop punk and post-hardcore music. My phone is filled with songs by Mayday Parade, State Champs, A Day to Remember, Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens. I live to sing (and occasionally scream) along. But the best part about listening to this music is the fact that I get to go to the concerts.
As anyone who had gone to a concert knows, the atmosphere is one of the most amazing things. Listening to your favorite artist live is so much better than sitting in your room and listening to your iPhone play. I've been to concerts where you have an assigned seat, and that's great and all. Maybe it's because I'm awkward and don't know what to do with my body, but the best concert experiences I've had are in a pit. I think that if you are only allowed to go to one concert in your life, the best music experience comes from being front row in general admission.
I am a front row junkie. If I'm not able to be in the first few rows, I probably won't go at all. But that's because I've experienced front row, and I'm not going back to stadium seating. The energy around you while you are squished against the barrier is like nothing I've ever felt before. Everyone is pushing to get to the spot that you have chosen. The fans around you are all as excited as you are to see the next band. It's a community like I've never experienced, where at the same time you try to protect each other from getting hurt but if it comes to it, you become enemies in order to control your territory.
I've been able to hold up the bassist of Beartooth when he stepped into the crowd at a show. I've made eye contact (or at least I tell myself we made eye contact) with a band member at every show I've been to. Dan Smith from Bastille has come down from the stage and sung right in front of me. But, for me, the best parts are not these little happenings, but the fact that you can see everything on the musician's face. You can see their passion for the music. You can see how much fun they have doing their job.
This year at Warped Tour, I spent 5 hours at the barricade of one of the two main stages. I was there to see my favorite band of 4 years, but I found so much more in those 5 hours. Listening to bands that I had never even heard of from that distance made me an instant fan. Not only could I hear the music, I could see the singers mouth the words, the strings on the guitar vibrate, and the drums reverberate.
By being in the front row, there is a different connection that you have to the music. Since you can see everything that's going on onstage, you have different attachments to the music. When you listen to the music again, you can see the faces the lead singer made when he belted out that high note, or how the guitarist played during his solo. And you can also feel the pressure of being pushed even closer to your favorite artist by the crowd of hundreds standing behind you.
When you're front row in the general admission pit, you aren't thinking about the fact that you will have bruises under your arms from the metal barricade. You aren't thinking about your phone which is becoming dangerously close to cracking under the pressure in your front pocket. You aren't even thinking about the crowd surfers that come over your head and sometimes crack your neck. All you feel is excitement, joy and the vibration of the sound as it comes out of the speaker directly in front of you. And that is the best way to experience live music.
