soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2013-07-07 01:52 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-07-07 01:52 pm
Entry tags:
my second fun. concert
Last night I was at a fun. concert in Toronto. It was really good! I've seen fun. in concert once before, and this was a really different experience because HOLY CRAP THAT WAS A LOT OF PEOPLE. The venue was Downsview Park, and I've been trying to figure out via the magic of the internets how many people were there and I am failing. BUT IT WAS A LOTTTTTTT.
Anyways. Last time I was complaining because doors opened at 7 and fun. didn't come on until 9:30. This time doors opened at 4 and fun. didn't come on until 9:30. I WAS LUCKY LAST TIME.
Part of the reason for this very long lead time was the fact, of course, that there was more than just fun. and one opener playing. This is a double-headliner tour with Tegan & Sara and fun., and then they also had TWO opening acts. So that all took a long time.
But also just GETTING ALL THE PEOPLE INTO THE VENUE took half of forever
I had driven in to Toronto with two friends (Elizabeth and Burnaby), and we got to Downsview Park a little before 4:00. And there was a huge line-up. The two of them went to stand in the line to enter, but I didn't because I also had plans to meet up with two other friends (Dinah and Jay) once there, and one of them had my ticket, so I wouldn't be able to enter till they arrived. So I hung out and read the novel I'd presciently brought along, and watched the line-up. When 4 p.m. arrived the line-up was only getting longer, not shorter, despite the fact that it was finally moving. There was this constant stream of people arriving. The line-up took until 5 p.m. to all get in! (of course, people kept coming after this, but 5 was when the initial massive huge line finally dwindled to just a bit in front of the ticket gates.)
So in some respects it was nice that Dinah and Jay didn't arrive till after 5 with my ticket, because it meant I didn't have to be standing in that line the whole time, but was sitting on a bench enjoying my book.
Anyways. Then we were finally inside and met back up with Elizabeth and Burnaby; they'd managed to get a decent spot not TOO far away from the stage.
Time passed, music happened, whatever. The ground was rather muddy and I'd neglected to bring anything to sit on so my dress got kind of dirty but these things happen. The two openers were Dianna and Family of the Year. They were okay. I don't have much to say about them because I remained seated on the ground, so I couldn't see the stage over the people standing, and I kept forgetting to pay attention to the music.
Then Tegan & Sara came on (at 7:45) and everybody stood up, so I stood up too. I've never heard Tegan & Safa before, but Dinah and Jay and Burnaby are all fans, and Elizabeth quite likes them too. It was -- I could tell the music was good? But as I have said before, concerts are not a good introduction to a band.
So yes, by this point in the day I was starting to wonder to myself if this whole thing had been worth it, because yeah, it was nice to spend time with my friends and stuff, but I could have done that in far more comfort and for much less expense by just visiting them or something. Tegan & Sara were particularly causing me to doubt myself, because everyone else I was with were all "yessss this is super great" and I was like "I could go for a nap right now".
I was starting to wonder if my memories of the last fun. concert I'd been at had been warped by time, as can so easily happen to memories: was the experience of seeing them live ACTUALLY as amazing as I remembered it being? Was this whole thing going to have been worth it?
WELL. fun. finally came out at a little past 9:30, and started playing, and YEAH NO, TOTALLY WORTH IT, TOTALLY AMAZINGGGGGGG.
I just hadn't been taking into account thoroughly enough the fact that to get the best experience out of a concert I need to be already familiar with the music being played!
So yeah. fun. played until ten past 11, and it was GREAT and here I can just quote what I said last time: "Pretty much it was SHINY MUSIC AND SUPER EXCITEMENT AND WATCHING NATE BE ASTONISHINGLY ENERGETIC ON STAGE AND FEELING THE MUSIC POUND THROUGH ME AND SINGING ALONG WITH ALL I HAD. Shiiiiny. It is such an amazing feeling, being at a concert like that. I just can't even -- how to describe what it feels like?"
And I want to talk further about that feeling because it is WEIRD. It's not even really about the specifics of the people I was seeing (though they were adorable dorks) or the music I was listening to (though it is great music). It's just...some sort of transportative intense emotional experience, and I can't pinpoint what it is about the experience that does that.
And now in the cold light of day I can't even quite bring up whatever those emotions were anymore in order to try to analyze them or figure them out. They dissipated when I walked out the gates of the concert venue last night and now they're gone. And while I was at the concert and experiencing the feelings I was like YES THIS IS ONE MILLION PERCENT WORTH ALL THE TIME AND MONEY and now I'm like....what just happened? What was that? It was kind of freaky, actually -- it felt almost like my emotions were hijacked by the experience, like it wasn't quite me or something.
idkkkkkkk concerts are weird and feels are weirder. I had a great time and I am glad I went but SOMETIMES I CANNOT HELP NAVEL-GAZING.
Anyways. Nate Ruess was wearing this really snazzy white suit with hipster-pant-length and no shoes, and he looked amazing. Although he's cut all his hair off since last time I saw him and HE DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT with his hair so short! Also I really appreciated the outfit that Jack Antonoff chose to wear: black leggings with short black-and-white shorts over top, and then a long patterned shirt that did not exactly match the shorts. YEAH FAMOUS ROCK STARS KEEPIN' ON WITH THEIR WEIRDO HIPSTER FASHION CHOICES.
In terms of the songs they sang, it was interesting to note how they clearly didn't expect a lot of the crowd to be familiar with songs off of their first cd, which at first felt really weird to me, because I was like, "if you are into a band enough to spend time and money going to a concert for them, wouldn't you want to LISTEN TO ALL THEIR MUSIC?" but then I remembered that time I went to a U2 concert when I hardly knew a single U2 song and I shut up with my internal judginess.
When they played We Are Young, which was their first bit hit, I could immediately hear the difference in the volume of the crowd singing along: EVERYBODY knew it, and that wasn't the case even for other songs from their new album.
I was also interested to note the difference in the types of people at this concert versus the last fun. concert I was at. The last one, the (much much smaller) audience was entirely populated with young hipsters. This one had a MUCH wider range of people, including kids and grey-haired folks, hipsters and "cool" people and other. At the last fun. concert I felt like I wasn't hipster enough to belong there. At this one I felt like I wouldn't have been out of place almost no matter who I was.
...I think I'm basically just talking around the fact, here, that this was a popular concert for a popular band. APPARENTLY I AM NOT YET OVER THE WEIRDNESS OF LIKING SOMETHING POPULAR.
Anyways. Yes. I seem to recall having had other thoughts but I've rambled for long enough so let me cut myself off here.
Anyways. Last time I was complaining because doors opened at 7 and fun. didn't come on until 9:30. This time doors opened at 4 and fun. didn't come on until 9:30. I WAS LUCKY LAST TIME.
Part of the reason for this very long lead time was the fact, of course, that there was more than just fun. and one opener playing. This is a double-headliner tour with Tegan & Sara and fun., and then they also had TWO opening acts. So that all took a long time.
But also just GETTING ALL THE PEOPLE INTO THE VENUE took half of forever
I had driven in to Toronto with two friends (Elizabeth and Burnaby), and we got to Downsview Park a little before 4:00. And there was a huge line-up. The two of them went to stand in the line to enter, but I didn't because I also had plans to meet up with two other friends (Dinah and Jay) once there, and one of them had my ticket, so I wouldn't be able to enter till they arrived. So I hung out and read the novel I'd presciently brought along, and watched the line-up. When 4 p.m. arrived the line-up was only getting longer, not shorter, despite the fact that it was finally moving. There was this constant stream of people arriving. The line-up took until 5 p.m. to all get in! (of course, people kept coming after this, but 5 was when the initial massive huge line finally dwindled to just a bit in front of the ticket gates.)
So in some respects it was nice that Dinah and Jay didn't arrive till after 5 with my ticket, because it meant I didn't have to be standing in that line the whole time, but was sitting on a bench enjoying my book.
Anyways. Then we were finally inside and met back up with Elizabeth and Burnaby; they'd managed to get a decent spot not TOO far away from the stage.
Time passed, music happened, whatever. The ground was rather muddy and I'd neglected to bring anything to sit on so my dress got kind of dirty but these things happen. The two openers were Dianna and Family of the Year. They were okay. I don't have much to say about them because I remained seated on the ground, so I couldn't see the stage over the people standing, and I kept forgetting to pay attention to the music.
Then Tegan & Sara came on (at 7:45) and everybody stood up, so I stood up too. I've never heard Tegan & Safa before, but Dinah and Jay and Burnaby are all fans, and Elizabeth quite likes them too. It was -- I could tell the music was good? But as I have said before, concerts are not a good introduction to a band.
So yes, by this point in the day I was starting to wonder to myself if this whole thing had been worth it, because yeah, it was nice to spend time with my friends and stuff, but I could have done that in far more comfort and for much less expense by just visiting them or something. Tegan & Sara were particularly causing me to doubt myself, because everyone else I was with were all "yessss this is super great" and I was like "I could go for a nap right now".
I was starting to wonder if my memories of the last fun. concert I'd been at had been warped by time, as can so easily happen to memories: was the experience of seeing them live ACTUALLY as amazing as I remembered it being? Was this whole thing going to have been worth it?
WELL. fun. finally came out at a little past 9:30, and started playing, and YEAH NO, TOTALLY WORTH IT, TOTALLY AMAZINGGGGGGG.
I just hadn't been taking into account thoroughly enough the fact that to get the best experience out of a concert I need to be already familiar with the music being played!
So yeah. fun. played until ten past 11, and it was GREAT and here I can just quote what I said last time: "Pretty much it was SHINY MUSIC AND SUPER EXCITEMENT AND WATCHING NATE BE ASTONISHINGLY ENERGETIC ON STAGE AND FEELING THE MUSIC POUND THROUGH ME AND SINGING ALONG WITH ALL I HAD. Shiiiiny. It is such an amazing feeling, being at a concert like that. I just can't even -- how to describe what it feels like?"
And I want to talk further about that feeling because it is WEIRD. It's not even really about the specifics of the people I was seeing (though they were adorable dorks) or the music I was listening to (though it is great music). It's just...some sort of transportative intense emotional experience, and I can't pinpoint what it is about the experience that does that.
And now in the cold light of day I can't even quite bring up whatever those emotions were anymore in order to try to analyze them or figure them out. They dissipated when I walked out the gates of the concert venue last night and now they're gone. And while I was at the concert and experiencing the feelings I was like YES THIS IS ONE MILLION PERCENT WORTH ALL THE TIME AND MONEY and now I'm like....what just happened? What was that? It was kind of freaky, actually -- it felt almost like my emotions were hijacked by the experience, like it wasn't quite me or something.
idkkkkkkk concerts are weird and feels are weirder. I had a great time and I am glad I went but SOMETIMES I CANNOT HELP NAVEL-GAZING.
Anyways. Nate Ruess was wearing this really snazzy white suit with hipster-pant-length and no shoes, and he looked amazing. Although he's cut all his hair off since last time I saw him and HE DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT with his hair so short! Also I really appreciated the outfit that Jack Antonoff chose to wear: black leggings with short black-and-white shorts over top, and then a long patterned shirt that did not exactly match the shorts. YEAH FAMOUS ROCK STARS KEEPIN' ON WITH THEIR WEIRDO HIPSTER FASHION CHOICES.
In terms of the songs they sang, it was interesting to note how they clearly didn't expect a lot of the crowd to be familiar with songs off of their first cd, which at first felt really weird to me, because I was like, "if you are into a band enough to spend time and money going to a concert for them, wouldn't you want to LISTEN TO ALL THEIR MUSIC?" but then I remembered that time I went to a U2 concert when I hardly knew a single U2 song and I shut up with my internal judginess.
When they played We Are Young, which was their first bit hit, I could immediately hear the difference in the volume of the crowd singing along: EVERYBODY knew it, and that wasn't the case even for other songs from their new album.
I was also interested to note the difference in the types of people at this concert versus the last fun. concert I was at. The last one, the (much much smaller) audience was entirely populated with young hipsters. This one had a MUCH wider range of people, including kids and grey-haired folks, hipsters and "cool" people and other. At the last fun. concert I felt like I wasn't hipster enough to belong there. At this one I felt like I wouldn't have been out of place almost no matter who I was.
...I think I'm basically just talking around the fact, here, that this was a popular concert for a popular band. APPARENTLY I AM NOT YET OVER THE WEIRDNESS OF LIKING SOMETHING POPULAR.
Anyways. Yes. I seem to recall having had other thoughts but I've rambled for long enough so let me cut myself off here.