Concerts

[zanarkand]

when i was in high school i saw streetlight manifesto and i was all excited to be in the front row, but the crowd started pushing really hard and going wild when the show started and i was getting squashed against the metal barrier in front of the stage. a security guard saw me and made a thumbs up gesture and i shook my head, then he pointed up and gave me a look like he was asking if i wanted out and so i nodded really big, next thing i knew he lifted me straight up over his head and over the crowd like i was a sack of flour. it was great to get out of there since i was getting crushed but also it was a wild experience to just go flying over the crowd like that and then be back on the ground XD thank you random security guy. show was great! yay ska!

[PurpleHello98]

I've been to my fair share of concerts, like one for my mum's favourite Canadian sea shanty singer where I got the opening act's autograph, one for some Gaelic guys my parents loved when I was little, and a series of charity classical concerts the state symphony does every year around Christmas, which my family and I have gone to every year they've had one (so not 2020) except 2021, because of...:

THE BEST CONCERT OF MY LIFE!!! I'm a huge fan of Verivery, a k-pop boygroup, and I've been a fan since early 2019, shortly after their debut, so when they came to somewhere relatively nearby---in the same state!!---in 2021 (St. Louis) I begged my parents to go, and that's how I ended up spending a day in St. Louis. We went to a Van Gogh exhibit where it's kind of an interactive experience, and they even have a part where they project animated versions of his paintings onto the walls around you, and I even got to visit a whopping three-floor Macy's! (That's super large for a store in my neck of the woods!)

But of course the concert itself was the main event. I almost wish I'd gotten there a while earlier so I could've made friends in the line, but oh well. And the concert was freaking amazing! We showed up a few minutes before the doors opened, so I was close to the back, but it was a small concert so I could still easily see the members and all. My favourite member even waved at me! Or at the very least in my general direction, but I like to think it was at me specifically. :) And the setlist was really great---there were only one or two songs I would've liked to hear as well, and those are both somewhat obscure---and the Q&A section was really funny!

And I got all the merch I could (besides the pop-socket) and I still use/wear it all to this day. There was one shirt, the paint-splatter-style t-shirt which was the trademark merch item of the tour that the members wore onstage and all, that had sold out by the time I got there, but the last few tour dates were cancelled due to COVID and so I managed to snag one of the leftovers they sold on-line.

My only other regret is that I wish I would've not tried to film the whole thing on my iPhone and just lived in the moment instead, but given that that's the predominating culture in the k-pop world, and I hadn't gotten on my whole I-want-a-flip-phone-and-to-stop-being-tech-addicted train yet, so I really don't blame myself. So I really hope they come back to the US soon (they came in September of last year, but the nearest date was too far away to drive to, at least in my dad's opinion) and I can see them again! And despite my filming, I still really enjoyed the concert and it's one of my favourite evenings I can remember. It was super awesome!! :D

[mosquitoman]

I went to see The Cure a while back and it totally changed my life man... they sounded even better than the recordings (like killer sound design, honestly), and they changed a lot of their songs to work better for a live setting too. It was brilliant. So much fun to dance with everyone. 

[wygolvillage]

I went to see The Cure a while back and it totally changed my life man... they sounded even better than the recordings (like killer sound design, honestly), and they changed a lot of their songs to work better for a live setting too. It was brilliant. So much fun to dance with everyone. 

They're amazing live. I'm really glad I got to see them this summer. 

[CableCat]

I saw Avril LaVigne years ago at House of Blues. We didn't know it at the time, but she was still battling Lyme disease. She only performed for 15 minutes. It was a mixed concert, and Cobra Starship also performed for like a half hour and some other singers. I remember being a little disappointed because she was one of my favorite musicians and we thought she was the headliner, but her performance was super short. It was great, but we could also tell it was a bit lower-energy. She exited the stage so fast when people were still clapping at the end. Now looking back, she did a banger of a job pushing through, and I have no clue how she did it. I feel bad for feeling disappointed back then because we didn't know the whole story!

I also saw Linkin Park when Chester was still alive, and I saw Colbie Callait, and Halestorm both in Japan.

Also, most people won't know these guys. But the Japan concerts I saw were all preceded by performances by Hetallica. They were from the Fussa/Tachikawa/Kanto Plains area. They were a Metallica cover band entirely composed of older Japanese guys who barely spoke English, but they could perform Metallica songs in English almost 100% perfectly. They were straight fire, and they had unbridled wild energy like no other live performers I've ever seen.

I also saw Florence + the Machine Live in Orlando, FL right around the anniversary of Pulse. She performed Spectrum and the crowd was so intense, and it was beautiful. I made my own concert shirt with tie dye and fabric markers, and I drew copies of her doodles from her book Useless Magic with fabric marker all over my shirt, and I wrote in fancy font "High as Hope Tour" on it.

I will be going to see Ghost perform live next! I'm gonna dress up as a freaky Nun with my Spirit Halloween face paint pallete. I'm super excited for this concert!

[starbreaker]

The man might be pushing 80, but Alice Cooper still knows how to put on a hell of a good show. My wife and I saw him at the Hershey Theater back in April.