Whenever I tell someone that I haven't been to a "legit" concert, they're always surprised. I have seen live music before, but usually in a coffee shop or a restaurant where it's just a no-name band playing on a small stage with only a few people actually paying attention. I've never been to a concert where a band or solo artist is playing on an actual stage and everyone is standing in a crowd listening or singing along which I admit is a bit sad considering how much I like music.
When I imagined going to my first concert, I always thought it would be one of my favorite artists such as Logic, Childish Gambino, Panic! At The Disco, Cage the Elephant, etc. Basically, any alternative music artist or any rap artist that is seen as more "innocent" in a genre that is typically seen as "ghetto" or any other negative adjective your parents or grandparents have most likely used to describe rap. With this being said, it may be surprising to hear that my first concert was Desiigner and 21 Savage.
How does a white 19-year -old from a middle-class family end up at a Desiigner and 21 Savage concert, you may ask? Well, I paid $10 for a ticket, that's how. Even though Desiigner and 21 Savage do not create my kind of music, I still wanted to go to get the experience of "Atlanta trap music" which I respect a lot although it isn't my first choice (unless it's Migos at a party of course). So, when my cousin asked if I wanted to go with him I did.
To sum up my time at the concert, I was definitely out of my element. Desiigner was the opening act for 21 Savage and I do not think I've ever seen so much water thrown at people since my senior year of high school when we did the senior assassin game. Every five minutes he would take a water bottle and throw the water at the crowd. Thankfully, I wasn't in the front rows otherwise I would have been soaked. As for the light show that went along with it, I did not mind that at all but the clips that were being played behind Desiigner on a large screen were odd to say the least. The two most memorable clips being of someone taking a blowtorch and burning off Kermit the Frog's eyes and a clip of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th terrorizing people.
As for the actual music, I have not heard many songs by Desiigner besides, of course, "Panda" and "Tiimmy Turner" so I did not really have an opinion on his music before the show other than that I couldn't really understand the lyrics other than the choruses or "hooks." After the show, my opinion was still the same. Some of the beats to the songs were really good but I still had no idea what he was saying besides the tongue roll sound effect he makes that you just have to hear to know it, but there are definitely videos online if you're interested in hearing it. Overall, the opening act of my first concert was an interesting experience, but I was just really out of my element and the same still applied for the main event: 21 Savage.
21 Savage was definitely the part I was most excited to experience. I have listened to more of his songs than Desiigner's and they are usually much darker and melancholy with songs such as "No Heart," "X," and "Rap Saved Me," so I had no idea how he was going to put on an exciting show especially following Desiigner who was simply, the definition of "hype." However, I was definitely wrong about that. 21 Savage was much calmer than Desiigner in his demeanor but what made the show fun and exciting was how people actually knew the lyrics so they could sing along. Besides this, the songs 21 Savage performed weren't as dark as what I had heard before so the tone was significantly lighter than I expected. He also didn't throw water on people and show clips of Kermit's eyes being burned off so that lightened the mood also which was cool.
The concert as a whole was not as bad as I expected, looking back on it. Would I have rather seen an artist I actually listen to as my first concert? Probably, but I am a college student with no money so a $10 concert to see Desiigner and 21 Savage is the best I can do right now. If I were into their music, the concert probably would have been much better, but, as I said, I was just out of my element and now I know to stick with coffee shop open mic nights since that is more of my scene.
