Anyone who knows me knows I am the biggest concert junkie. I value the power and influence that music has, especially when thousands of people are gathered in one room to create music together. Music can save people. Music can heal people.
Recently, I have also learned that music can humble people.
I went to the Twenty One Pilots concert in Phoenix on Tuesday and it was incredible. They are my favorite band and to see them live is always a blessing. However, I have begun to realize how wrapped up I get into my plans. I bought the tickets for this concert 9 months ago, and had honestly been planning for it ever since. Not everything always goes as planned, and I was consistently reminded of that throughout this concert experience.
It all started when my friends and I were planning to camp out over night, and then an excessive heat warning swarmed in. Welcome to Phoenix! At first I was bummed that we couldn’t camp out, but we soon found out that the venue had another plan to hand out wristbands in number order so that people didn’t have to wait out in the heat. It was an awesome idea at first.
The security unfortunately didn’t stick to their plans and started handing out wristbands way before they said they would. We ended up being numbers 304-311 in line. At first it was really discouraging, as we were hoping to at least be in the first hundred, but we soon brushed it off and decided we would have fun either way.
We got to the venue the day before at the time the security told us to get there and, of course, there were already a ton of people there. The security separated the numbered wristbands by hundreds and didn't line up fans in numerical order. In other words, numbers 300 and 399 were in the same line, but number 300 wasn't automatically ahead of 399. It was whoever got there first. This was also very discouraging considering we were supposed to be at the beginning of our line and certain fans wouldn’t let us get there. Regardless, I tried to stay positive.
We finally reached the end of our waiting and were allowed into the venue. With still a lot of waiting ahead of us, we tried to make the mood light and listened to the Shrek Soundtrack before the opener started. Highly recommend for when sweaty Twenty One Pilots fans are surrounding you.
The opening acts started and chaos seemed like an understatement. The crowd moved like ginormous ocean waves knocking people from left to right. But, if you are a Twenty One Pilots fan, this is to be expected. Their pit of fans is the most aggressive I’ve ever seen. It’s part of what makes it such an experience.
However, something suddenly started to dawn on me that most definitely was not a part of my plans. I realized I was dehydrated and didn’t eat enough that day, and I was starting to not be able to sing along to the lyrics. That combined with the extreme heat and claustrophobia of the mosh pit resulted in seeing yellow dots and feeling dizzy. I decided to sit down, and I was afraid I was going to pass out. I tried to stand back up, but it didn’t last long. I eventually had to plow my way through the crowd of fans up to the barricade and get a security guard to pull me out. I made the wrong choice in putting my plans before my health, which backfired and ended up ruining my plans of being in the front anyways.
After trying to stay positive the whole night, I officially lost it. Everything seemed to go wrong on a day I had prayed would go perfectly for months. However, not staying positive only made it worse, and I found myself losing a good portion of what still was an incredible concert to my disappointment in the situation and myself.
Now, how does this tie back to music keeping you humble? Well, throughout months of planning and orchestrating everything, I have learned I can’t always get ahead of myself. I can’t be too confident in what I have and where I am going. Sometimes things don’t go as plan, and sometimes it takes going from the top to the bottom to appreciate both heights. After all, unexpected twists and turns make for great stories and great adventures. Who gets to say they got crowd surfed out of a mosh pit for their favorite band? Now I do!
I will never forget this concert. I will never forget the incredible friends that followed me out of the pit to make sure I was okay. I will never forget the incredible moments we had before we got pulled out, and after. I will never forget sharing my favorite band with over 18,000 other people. And I will never forget that every moment is a gift. Every moment is a blessing. And even if the moment was from the back or from the front, I was still surrounded by so much love and so much music. Being put into perspective allowed me to see the true essence of both angles.
