With news of John Mayer’s upcoming tour, I spent many a moment this week thinking about all the good times I’ve had at his concerts, and many others I’ve attended over the years. The time I’ve spent listening to my favorite bands live are among some of my happiest memories. The second your music idol walks on to stage for the first time is monumental; it feels like someone just hit the pause button on life, and nothing matters but the moment you’re in. The first few notes of your favorite song, played live for your very ears to hear, is capable of throwing your emotions to extremes beyond measure. So today, I have for you some of my favorite concert memories to date.
It had been years since I’d attended a concert by the time I got to see one of my favorite musicians of all time (for the first time), John Mayer. My friends and I (pictured above) raved for months about this concert, and when the day finally came we were so excited we barely made it through the school day! We made concert t-shirts “jerseys” (even though we were in the nosebleeds) with various songs on the back that we loved (mine was Bold As Love, a Jimi Hendrix cover) and the fronts of our shirts made up a train when we stood beside each other and the slogan it spelled out said “John, Please Don’t Stop This Train” – a quote from one of our favorite songs on the Continuum album. For some reason we never got a picture of all of us side by side, but I still have that shirt hanging up in my closet, 5 years later. John’s then girlfriend, Jessica Simpson, was in the crowd that night, and John was pretty disengaged from the audience (compared to his other concerts I’ve been to), but I still had the time of my life. Being that this was the Continuum tour, one of my favorite albums ever, hearing those songs played live was an experience I can’t even begin to explain – pure magic.
What you see above are pictures from one of the best days of my entire life. If you know me even a little bit, you know that Hanson has, and always will be, my favorite band. As a birthday present in 2008, my parents subsidized my Hanson Fan Club membership. Why, you ask? 1) Because I have loved Hanson since the day MMMBop came out and 2) Because when you’re a Hanson Fan Club Member, you have the chance of winning a meet & greet for any concerts you attend. Mom and Dad’s early birthday gift was the gift that kept on giving, and I did win that meet & greet I so desperately wanted! I got my very first Middle of Nowhere CD signed by Isaac, Taylor, and Zac, I got to chat with all of them (Taylor told me he liked my name – the one memorable moment I can even recall. Funny how excitement makes it nearly impossible to clearly remember things), and we got first dibs on front row since we were let in before the line of girls camping outside all day long. In the process, I made a great friend, Emily (the blond wearing blue in the picture above) who I still talk to nearly every day, and is now my tour buddy for every Hanson concert.
Lily Allen has been a long time favorite of mine. She is sassy and fun, and her music is so full of life and character! I went with my girlfriends Chi and KTB and we had so much fun! Lily was really talkative, and true to her fashion – she smoked and drank nearly the entire concert, which I thought was pretty rockstarish and hilarious. We enjoyed the whole thing from just a couple rows back, and it was epic! Lily has supposedly “retired” from the music biz, which I hope is only temporary, but if it’s final – I’m glad I got to see her before she quit music for good!
I love hearing about others’ tastes in music, so tell me – what are some of your favorite concert moments?
Like the very first concert you attended? Is that also one of your “happiest moments”?
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Definitely NOT! Hence its nonexistence on this list!
My first concert was awful and I won’t tell you who it was, but it was in your home town, which tells you it wasn’t anyone big. My college bud and forever friend introduced me to the music of Michael W. Smith. I don’t even know for sure how many concerts I’ve seen of his – at least 6. And now my daughters can sing along with some of his songs as they are timeless. My most memorable concert was Carlos Santana – seemed like one big party jam! I took my college bud Lori to that one too!