I love live music. There’s nothing else like it. Seeing your favorite artist perform your pump up songs or the ones you listen to when you’re having a bad day is one of the most euphoric experiences someone can have. When the crowd and the musician are full of energy, the performance becomes the best it could be.
Everyone has different views of their best concert. For some, it’s getting to the front and leaning up against the stage attempting to touch the artist’s hand, and for others its spending time with their friends. For me, I just want to listen to the music and dance.
The most recent concert I went to was QuinnXCII. It was in a small venue in DC, and I could not have asked for a better crowd. Sometimes people go to general admission concerts just to have a fun night out with their friends, and don’t actually go for the music. But the people who were there, were there for Quinn and wanted to hear him perform.
My favorite part of concerts, besides the music itself, is when the artist speaks to the crowd. At my first concert, Taylor Swift’s Red tour, she talked to us in between songs. Even in a large stadium like the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, she made the concert intimate by communicating with us, and shared more than we get from her songs. She showed the crowd that she’s not just a singer, not just a celebrity but a girl trying to find her way just like the rest of us.
Quinn not only talked to us in between songs, but in the middle of a song openly said he messed up his own lyrics. Once again, he showed us, the audience, who he is as a person and not just as an artist.
The energy and vibe the crowd creates and emits at a concert is called collective effervescence, and it was discovered by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Elite Daily states that collective effervescence is “when a group of people get involved in something that allows them to communicate the same thought simultaneously while participating in the same action,” (Elite Daily). There is something about everyone singing the same songs and exchanging energy at a concert that is utterly blissful.
While I’ve loved every single concert I’ve been to, there’s one moment in particular that stands out from the rest. I was at GovBall in NYC, and The Strumbellas were about halfway through their set. I had never really listened to their music, but some of my friends wanted to see them; I had nothing better to do so I tagged along. The performance itself was captivating. The band was so happy to be playing for us, there was a violinist playing on stage, and everyone there just wanted to have fun. There was a moment in the middle of one of their songs, I don’t exactly remember which, where I felt the most alive. I was in the middle of an incredible crowd with some of my best friends by my side, and I could not have imagined a more perfect ending to my senior year of high school. In that moment, that euphoric, amazing moment, I felt free.
And that’s why everyone should go to concerts.
