This Is How We Live.

There is something about that feeling you get while standing before a stage where live music is being played; the opening bands are on that stage doing what they do best. Even if you don’t know who they are most of the time you give them the benefit of the doubt and enjoy their music as best as you can.

Brian Dales of The Summer Set; Tempe, AZ 1/14/2012

(Photo Courtesy of The Summer Set Facebook Page)

Then there is that insane moment when the lights go down and you can’t see anything but you scream as loud as you can because you already know who is setting foot on that stage next. As the headlining band walks on and begins their first song leaving the crowd to go crazy. Amazing fans all around you, people you don’t even know are right beside you and you smile with them because you’re all there for the same reason. The bass is pumping through your body and no one is making fun of you for jumping and dancing like an idiot.  Personal space is nonexistent and the girl behind you has genuinely smacked you in the back of the head a billion and one times though there is still no other place you would rather be.

Then that second when the singer points the microphone to the crowd and every single person in that venue sings their heart out and this is when the crowd truly has become one. Whether it is your first time seeing this band/ artist or your tenth time you can’t help but get chills and freak out uncontrollably. Everyone is so used to seeing their pictures and watching their videos online but that moment when you’re actually standing before them is priceless. Knowing you could look forward to this at the end of the night makes everything terrible that has happened, the stress of school and life seem worth it.

This is what I live for and though I wish I could experience this every day I have come to the realization that if that were to happen I probably wouldn’t be able to appreciate it as much as I do now. To you this is only an ordinary band, a crappy bar or venue, the set list is a simple piece of paper and a wasted night listening to noise but to us this is so much more. It's love, the soundtrack to our lives and what keeps our heart beating; it's home. Home is that one place where we can leave reality at the door and get lost within.

xoxo,
alicia