On the 17th of March, me and my boyfriend Jack went to see my favourite band, All Time Low, at Alexandra Palace, London. This was my third time seeing them live in London in the last 5 years. It was an incredible night, hearing them play two sets equalling to 28 songs; it was just heaven.
The feeling of being at a concert, or being in the same room as your favourite band, is just unreal, the though 'omg I cant believe they're real' always runs through my mind when I see people live, because I've spent the majority of my time looking at them through computer or TV screens; it's almost impossible to believe they're real beings after that. And nothing is quite as thrilling as hearing them play your favourite song live, the song you play on repeat when you're having a bad day, nothing beats hearing it being played live and literally feeling the music running through your entire body.
Even though I had to queue for nearly two hours in the blistering March snow to the point where I couldn't feel my toes, being in a cramped venue hall where I was pushed and shoved and elbowed, I would still do the night over and over again (maybe apart from all the snow). Queuing outside with crowds of other fans just builds up the excitement for when you finally get to go inside, where you stand waiting, along with all the other exhilarated fans, until the lights go out and everyone chants, and finally the strobe lights light up the whole stage. This part makes my heart race as everyone around me is screaming, and I get goosebumps just knowing that it's about to start; a feeling i'll never forget. And as soon as they appear on stage, instruments in hand, you start singing like no one can hear you, so loud that you know your throat is gonna be sore the next day. After that, I find myself totally lost in the moment, like there's no one else in the room, just me and the band, I feel ecstatic, full of adrenaline, like I could sing and jump for hours and hours until I'd collapse from exhaustion. The worst part is when they play there final song, and you know you've only got 3 or 4 minutes left of this feeling before they walk off stage and you're left in a room full of sweaty people, all feeling exactly the same as you.
I always get a little bit of post-concert depression after a gig, where I wear my new band shirt from the concert for a week without washing it, and I only listen to that bands music and re-watching all the footage I got from the concert and reliving it over and over again in my mind. It sucks when you have to go band to reality after a concert, like I had to go back to uni, where I had to refrain from talking about how absolutely incredible my weekend was because I know everyone would get sick of hearing about it. I didn't get much post-concert depression this time, I did wear my new shirt and listen to a lot of All Time Low that following week, but it'll never be like the first time I went to see them when I was 15, and all I wanted was to be back in that crowded hall again.
Seeing All Time Low again, and being at Alexandra Palace with thousands of other fans remind me just how important this band is to me, how even at 20 years old I feel just as excited as I did 5 years previous, how I still sing my lungs out to each and every song like it's the first time I'm hearing them. It's a surreal feeling, like no other feeling I'd gotten before, it's a life changing experience seeing your favourite band, like nothing else in the world matters to you in that moment apart from the music.
I'm not really sure where I was going with this blog post, I just wanted to share my experience with you, but I sort of rambled on about how incredible it is to be at a concert. oh well, I hope you enjoyed it all the same.
India X