As the summer season is right around the corner, the season of concerts is also on its way. No matter how many times you listen to a song, nothing beats hearing it live. Concerts are a whole different experience than singing off-key in the car. Going to a concert is something everyone should experience, especially when it's warm and the concert is outside. There are feelings that go along with each phase of a concert: the before, the during and the after. If you've seen your favorite artist in concert, then you know what I'm talking about.
The Before
The tickets are going on presale at 12 pm. You're at your computer, you have your presale code, your phone (just in case your computer crashes) and your credit card in hand. You've been waiting for this moment for weeks when they announced the tour. Once the clock strikes 12, you just keep refreshing, refreshing, refreshing- and you hope your computer doesn't stop working for some odd reason.
There's the excitement you get when you first buy the tickets. This is the part of the phase where it hasn't hit you just yet because you're too busy feeling relieved that you were quick enough to get tickets. You do not want to have to buy resale tickets, which are so much more expensive.
The countdown begins. It's tedious. It's anxiety- striking. And you feel like the concert is never going to come.
After waiting what feels like eons, the day of the concert comes. For some reason you're nervous, but it's an excited kind of nervous. If you're like me, you take hours deciding what you'll wear and how you'll do your hair. It's sort of an unspoken rule to dress nicely for a concert.
Getting to the concert and trying to find parking is the least enjoyable thing about the concert- after trying to get out of the parking lot. Looking for a parking spot, paying for the parking spot, and then waiting in line to be beeped in. You never forget the sound of the scanner that scans your ticket and for some reason, that sound is the same for every big event that requires a ticket for entry.
It's amazing seeing how many people are here for the same reason. We all have something in common and that is the concert that we'll never forget.
The During
The houselights go down, your heart is racing, you've got goosebumps, everyone's screaming, and the concert is about to start.
Most of the time there's an intro video to get the crowd more excited and this is something you'll never forget either. The intro builds up your excitement and it makes you wanna scream louder- another thing you'll never forget.
The screams during the intro video get even louder when it ends, as the opening riffs of the first song start. You'd never thought you'd be louder than you already were but once the artist pops out on stage, your voice will hit its all-time high.
And just like that, it starts. You sing song after song, scream when the act gives the audience attention, interacting with a fan such as singing "Happy Birthday" if they have a sign reading "It's my birthday" in fancy lettering.
I can't describe the feeling because once you're there, you're just so in the moment and the amount of joy you feel during it does not seem to compare to anything else that makes you happy.
Hearing your favorite songs live makes you forget all of your problems, only living in the moment, looking at the artist or band and thinking how grateful you are for music. In that moment, you're in love with life and you don't care who knows it. And when you're in that moment, you usually neither realize nor care about what you look like when dancing or sound like when singing, just focusing solely on how happy you are.
During the concert, it's easy making friends. You're all here because of one purpose and even if you don't know each other's names, you squeal to them anyway when you both know what song starts playing because you lost count of how many times you listened to it.
The After
You know when the last song is because the performer starts thanking the crowd profusely for "coming out tonight".
The last song ends, the fireworks go off, the crowd once again gets louder, and you're almost on the verge of tears or you already passed that point. Either way, you're incredibly thankful for the night and it just happens to go by in the blink of an eye. You're thankful for the person or people who went with you and who also had to deal with the fan version of you- never a pretty version to see.
Concerts usually last around 3 or 4 hours but it really feels like nothing when you're in the moment. You get caught up in the songs and you don't realize that "oh there's only two songs left" or "oh it's over now". You truly don't process that it's over until you're home, thinking about the whole thing.
We'll wear the wristbands until they start to fray, until their colors fade, but our memory of that day will never fade. We'll never forget the feeling of being that happy- being caught up in the moment.
The idea of "Post- Concert Depression" is very much a real thing.
Every once in a while you'll hear a song they played at the concert and you'll think back to that day, back to the moments when you first heard it live.
Every once in a while you'll look up one of the songs that were played live just to remember that feeling- to pretend like you're back at the concert.
You'll go back and look at your tickets or the photos and videos you took. Nothing will ever compare to hearing your favorite song by your favorite artist or band live and I truly hope everyone gets the opportunity or has gotten the opportunity to experience that.
