(read the first part here)

Somehow, by some unknown means, live music either is or created by a kind of magic. This magic grips your heart and reaches into your soul, completely encompassing your focus on the music in front of you. You ignore the pain in the balls of your feet, the stiffness of your knees or neck, and the dozens of sweaty, starry-eyed people in front of you. For minutes or hours, you lose yourself in a world all its own.

By the third song, my brother was hooked. He knew every word and could tell me which song on the album was going to play next. At first he seemed a little overwhelmed by a couple of things, namely the pulsing of the bass and drums that surrounds you and seeps into your ears and lungs.

But as I looked back at him, he was entranced. When there wasn't a smile on his face, his gaze was fixated on the band (his height proved useful in obtaining a view above the crowd on the messy floor) in a sense of wonder.

Boys Like Girls easily reflected the same sense of wonder. After ten years, they were just as captivated by the magic as we were. They weren't just captivated, they were humbled as well, like they couldn't believe this was really happening. They reflected the stars in the eyes of the audience, and we fed off each other's energy.

They could have told plenty of stories. They could have paused every other song to laugh or share a moment from their past, but they didn't, because that wasn't the point, it seemed. The point was to let their music tell its own story. Occasionally the lead vocalist would add in a small detail that tightened the image we had in our minds: small things like "we were sitting at our kitchen table, writing this song" or "I wasn't gonna end up with her anyway" or "what was I so bitter about?"

Boys Like Girls' self-titled album was one of the few CDs that I ever owned. Others included Hilary Duff, Paramore, Green Day, Plain White Tees (a gift from an old boyfriend), and Nickelback. Eventually I moved to get rid of my CDs as I transferred them to iTunes, but I ended up giving the Boys Like Girls CD to my brother. This was more than five years ago.

Now here we were, hearing the entire album played live, as friends as well as siblings. After years of playing these songs over and over, of falling in love with the music again and again in different ways, here we were. He and I were here, the band members were here, fans that listened from the beginning were here, fans who were new to the music were here. And through one of us or app of us, the magic happened.

"You still remember this sh*t, don't you?" the singer asked.

Yes, we do.