I heard two people talking the other day about concerts. They were saying how they didn't understand why people would go to concerts. "They sound better on the record right? Why would you go listen to them sound like sh/ it when you can just listen to them on the radio?" "You already paid for the album, why are you paying to go listen to them again?" "You're in a mass of sweaty people yelling lyrics so loud you can't hear the band."

I don't think either of them have ever been to a concert, or at least one that truely meant something. Concerts are the most beautiful thing that I have ever experienced in my entire life. I will never experience anything better. The whole point of seeing the band live is because they sound different than on the album. If they sounded the same, auto-tuned high notes and perfect guitar solos, it would be boring. Hearing the messed up notes and the worn out voices is what makes it exciting, the singer throwing in different ways to sing it, keeping your attention. Being in a massive pack of other sweaty people that love that band just as much as you, and for that two hours you are all one giant family, yelling so loud because who would want to just stand there? When your favorite song comes on the radio, do you just listen? Or do you sing along? It's the same as at a concert. I love concerts because they are feeling. They are the five or two or three people getting up on a stage and really singing and playing to show that they are more than just a record and that they are real, and they are right in front you. Its hearing the music through your feet into your eyes vibrating your bones. It's about hearing that song actually leaving the singers lips, that song that saved your life, maybe more than once. It's knowing that everyting is worth it. Concerts are having a connection. It's having the singer point it microphone at the crowd and ten thousand people chanting the lyrics back perfectly. It's expressing all the emotions you've felt while listenging to that song alone with ten thousand other people that feel the same. It's feeling different than you did when you were listening to that song alone, it's feeling better, feeling stronger than you were when you were alone, because there are now ten thousand people with you. It's about waiting nine hours outside the door of the arena so you can get the front row, talking to the people behind you, all conected through your love of music. It's getting to the front row and looking over your shoulder and thinking "holy sh/ it, there's ten thousand people behind me, i'm here, i'm doing this." It's the crowd chanting the bands name, the curtain dropping, the earsplitting, ground shaking roar of pure happiness, excitement, adrenaline when you see the people you care about so much appear on stage, that first note pumping through the speakers. Concerts are the most beautiful thing. That's why I would go to a concert, because there is nothing more powerful than ten thousand people showing up to scream their love for something.