I’m a big fan of the Lumineers. In fact, in 2022, I was in the top 0.01% of listeners, according to Spotify. Now, before you judge me for liking the Lumineers so much, please keep in mind that shut up I just like them, okay!?
Anyway, the reason I bring them up, is because a few years ago, they were touring the UK, and they happened to be playing in Nottingham on my birthday. The stars aligning, no? I anguished over it for weeks, and in the end decided not to do anything about it.
I felt unbearably anxious about the idea of going to a concert. I’ve spent a big portion of my life being an anxious person in general, and having such an opportunity pass me by felt like such a failure. I remember kicking myself about over it for months afterwards.
So, as part of ✓ Project Bucket List, I decided that I was going to pull a finger out and force myself to go to a concert! I had created a bit of a mental list of musicians I’d listened to at length and knew that I’d enjoy. If you fancy a gander, I’ll stick the list below, in no specific order:
- Lumineers
- Barns Courtney
- Queen
- Marcus King
- Andrew Bird
- Kishi Bashi
- Sammy Rae & The Friends
- Khruangbin
- Kaleo
- Cage The Elephant
- Gotye
- Colter Wall
- Jacob Collier
- Black Country, New Road
- Amigo The Devil
As it stands, I’ve been to 3 concerts in 2024, the goal was to do just one! Again, I know for most people reading this, going to a concert isn’t a big thing, but for me, it was massive. So, I’ve decided that I’m going to include a few tips below for people who are nervous about going to a concert.
Get Seats
Honestly one of the things that made the most anxious about going to a concert was that I didn’t know what I was going to do with my hands. I’m not a dancer, and watching videos with the strapline “don’t worry about what others think about you, just enjoy yourself” were of no use at all. Not all concerts have seats, and the ones that do, you’ll pay a little extra, but you do entirely remove the uncertainty of what will happen by knowing that you’ve got a designated seat number, and that you can, if you need to, just sit there and tap your knee to the beat of the music.
I tend to try and get seats in the balcony, you get a great view of the act and you aren’t up close to anything, so it doesn’t feel claustrophobic. Another cool tip is to go to A View From My Seat, which is a great crowdsourced website that lets you view a photo of the stage from your seat. This really helps to give you an idea of what to expect once you actually get there.
Go With Somebody
Back when my partner and I were just friends, I asked her if she’d be an enabler for my Bucket List and come with me to a Marcus King concert. I didn’t even need to make a big thing of it, most people love to be invited to things! We booked it like 8 months in advance, and while I was far too nervous to go by myself, knowing that I had a good friend coming along made it feel so much more comfortable. I look back and realise that it helps if you ask a friend who you’re fairly open with. They need to be unjudgmental that you might be uncomfortable, and it also helps if they have similar music tastes. Marcus King was one of the musicians we both listened to at the time, so we were both very happy!
Of course, by the time we went to see King, we were dating, so the experience was even more comfortable and familiar. (I’m not suggesting you use concerts as a way to romcom your friendships into romances). After having been to a few concerts now, I can still pretty much guarantee that going to a concert alone would be very very anxiety inducing, but going with a friend or partner is completely different, there’s someone to share the experience with, and you know who you’ll be interacting with.
Loop Earplugs
One of the most amazing things that helped out with this, was a pair of loop earplugs, gifted to me by my girlfriend. They’re these tiny little plugs that go right in your earhole and make loud noises really manageable. I have a few neurodiverse friends who swear by them and use them in public spaces too – but oh my lord – they made the concert not just bearable, but FUN!
A few times I tried removing them to see what it was like and immediately I stopped being able to hear the music and just got this overwhelming pulsing bass where I couldn’t hear the music itself, just the noise. So I just stuck the loops back in and bam – back to music! I seems to be that not everybody experiences live music in this way, so this isn’t a tip for everybody, but if you have found that loud noises aren’t your cup of tea, loops have changed the game for me.
Concerts are really fun, there’s a big difference in the sort of experiences I’ve had. For example, Jungle was a very high energy, exciting show in a massive open venue. We saw them in The Piece Hall, in Halifax. There was enough space to move around so it didn’t feel claustrophobic, and they had this big focus on light and colour. The music was loud, and there were some people dancing and others weren’t. I found that once I was in there with Kymberley, we could dance and sway to the music without really worrying!
Marcus King is an incredible guitarist, we got seats high up looking down on the entire show. He played music we all enjoyed, and often when he’d start a new song, he’d get a round of applause as fans recognised the riffs. I found that while the music was excellent, sometimes King would walk to the back of the stage to fiddle with amps and get a drink of water, then turn away from the ground to solo with the other guitarist. It felt like we’d been invited in to see a bunch of amazing musicians jam together, rather than what a show feels like it should be! Still, a great experience, even if it wasn’t what I was expecting.
Khruangbin was amazing, they’re not everybody’s cup of tea, so I think everybody in the crowd were big fans already, so each song received a massive round of applause. We were seated where we couldn’t really see the drummer, DJ, but that didn’t really tarnish the show for us. It was incredible, and they managed to be so creative with the use of the set. Lighting and smoke machines turned every song into a completely new environment, and when they came back after the encore, they played an hour an a half of all of their classic songs. It felt like a marvellous show, I was blown away as Khruangbin isn’t necessarily an active listening band in most cases. I’d happily see them again!
I think I expected to do one concert and tick that off the list and move on, wiping the sweat from my brow and vowing never to do it again. But I’ve already booked Andrew Bird and Sammy Rae & The Friends for 2025, and I have no doubt that I’ll see more in the future too. Really worth breaking out of your comfort zone. Despite how fun everybody says concerts are – they really are fun!