The Ebb and Flow

I went to my first concert the other day, on a sunday night. It was one of my more favorite bands in my small collection of music. I’m not a concert-goer. I went to Riverfest where Big Sugar played in 2002 (I was twelve) and I went to see OKGO and the Frey last spring, but we had some of the worst seats in the house so I don’t count that one either.

I only had the opportunity to go because a friend of mine who attends concerts all the time had a spare ticket. I have to say, that being in a group of that many people, squished into your own tiny little space that is barely your own and swaying and moving to the music in all one motion with each other is one terrific experience. There was one point where everyone in the tightly packed group was jumping up and down at the exact same time so that, if you weren’t jumping too, you would be lifted off the ground with them.

This group mentality and group movement it like a perfect example of how society works. If someone gets pushed, they are pushed into the next person, and soon enough you have this wave of people falling over and all getting pushed one way, until everyone is rocking back and forth in extreme fashion.

You can’t stay in the pushing and shoving crowd for too long because soon enough you run out of air and can’t breathe because of the intensity of it, so you need to step back and watch for a while before working your way, clawing and shoving your body back to the place you were at before, and if you’re lucky even closer to the stage.

The concert-going scene is one I would love to enter and seeing my fav. bands play on a regular basis is something I know I would really enjoy. There is just something so satisfying to be in one place with so many strangers, but you’re all there connected by one single passion for music or a band or whatever you are there for, you are connected to the next person because of it.