Like many, I use and appreciate technology every day. I love social media, I love Google, I love how I can stay updated with the rest of the world in an instant. Personally, what I love most of all is the ease with which I can listen to music. Any time, any place, as long as I've got my headphones, an entire database consisting of millions of songs lies at my fingertips. Spending hundreds of dollars on music is no longer necessary when you can stream it with a few clicks. When this is the case, you would think concerts would drift away into obscurity, but despite this, live music continues to thrive.
Why? As Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner puts it, "I suppose the one thing that you can’t just download on your phone is that experience of going to a concert." Something magical, something technology cannot replicate, occurs when the fog shrouding the stage parts and the band you've stood in wait for hours to see finally mounts the stage. Spotlights flash and the opening crescendo of guitar riffs, booming bass lines, and drum beats pump through the speakers, vibrating within your chest. The mass of people ebbs and flows along with the music, thrashing and dancing to upbeat songs and swaying to the slower ballads. By the end of the show, your legs ache, you're sweaty, you may even notice bruises from being jostled in the crowd so often- but you feel proud of your dishevelment like you've emerged victorious from a battle.
Besides the music alone, part of what makes the whole concert experience unique is your fellow concert goers. From the moment you line up in the queue to the end of the show when you're crying on your neighbor's shoulders, the people you spend time with at a concert are some of the best you'll ever meet. The bonds you make may only last the duration of the band's set list, but there's something about sharing such a transcendental experience that makes it impossible not to become temporary best friends. You'll encounter people from all kinds of backgrounds, people who have traveled hours to see their favorite bands, people who have never been to a concert before, or maybe people who are on their hundredth show. Regardless, everyone comes for the music, and that alone binds you together for a couple hours. Even Dave Grohl, frontman and former drummer of Nirvana recognizes this, saying "That's one of the great things about music. You can sing a song to 85,000 people and they'll sing it back for 85,000 different reasons."
Perhaps the only con to attending concerts lies in the aftermath. Post-concert depression, as many concert-goers call it, sets in quickly. It'll leave you wistful; you'll find yourself watching and rewatching videos from the show, listening to the band's albums obsessively, and desperately wishing for another concert to come to your town again soon. In the end, though, it's all worth it. While technology has progressed to the point where you can livestream concerts as they happen, it's just not the same. Experiencing live music in person is gratifying in a way that no other method of listening can be. Live music is here to stay.
