Back in 2014 I got to see Rise Against play at the House of Blues in Boston, which was amazing, and just recently I went to see grandson and K. Flay perform together.
I think these are my two favorite concerts I’ve been to, and the key factor seems to be the energy between the crowd and the band. It’s a thing that’s kinda hard to express in words, but for me that’s definitely what makes a concert go from good to great. It doesn’t need to be a high-energy thing necessarily, either: one of the best moments from grandson’s set was actually a really somber, lower energy song that he came down onto the floor to perform, and you could just tell that everyone was really invested in that moment.
What about you all? What takes a concert to the next level for you?
Terrible audiences really ruin vibes. I’ve seen it happen mostly at festivals. During a headlining act at ACL some people started making a mosh circle, but just used it as an excuse to bash their way to the front. As someone who likes mosh pits quite a bit i was honestly pissed at their actually dangerous behavior.
It was grueling. I don’t think I can stomach going to another festival again because of the prior experiences. It was reminiscent of the behavior when people got trampled to death at Travis Scott’s show awhile back. Thankfully no one in my situation died. But the pushing/shoving that people were doing was very dangerous.
One thing I really appreciated at the grandson show I was just at was that he explicitly told everyone at the start of his set that one of his show’s “rules” is: if a mosh pit forms, and somebody falls down, you stop and pick them back up. None formed at this particular show, but still a really cool thing to ensure everyone’s on the same page about that up front.
It warms my heart too when artists will stop shows because they can tell someone in the audience is in trouble.