Do Your Part To Save The Scene And Keep Going To Shows

BY LIV SLABY

Let's be honest: There's no money in music anymore. If you actually manage to make good money selling physical or digital copies of your songs, you're either a marketing genius or of One Direction caliber. This leaves all the young artists trying to make it in an incredibly harsh industry to do one thing: Hit the road. And that's definitely not a bad thing for us as fans of music. Being at a show is an incomparable experience, fleeting but overwhelming while it lasts.

It's the difference between mainstream and alternative shows that make the latter so amazing. You can't buy your way closer to the performers. When you lose your friends
in the crowd, you make new ones with the people right beside you. The stage is often yours to jump on and dive off of. The performers might actually look right at you, and it's your job to keep them in the air when they crowd surf. No one's going to judge you if you start dancing like crazy or doing cartwheels in a mosh pit. You might get kicked in the head or knocked to the ground, but people will help you up and later you'll say it was awesome. It's intimate, supportive, and it's where you feel loved and accepted by not only the performers but everyone in the audience because every person in the room can relate to the band's music.

Set It Off by Joel Pilotte, Equal Vision Records

Shows are a safe haven, a bonding experience, an amazing Friday night, and a way to forget all your problems, if only for a few hours.

"Concerts are a whole new way of viewing not only the music, but the band as people," says Anna Novak, a high school student from Chicago. "You meet people you can relate to and you really feel like you're a part of something."

Live music creates a special bond between the audience members. It also creates that same bond between the performers and the audience.

"My favorite aspect of performing live is the energy and the relationship between the band and the crowd," says Josh Manuel, drummer of Issues. "I think it's great that one show can bring so many different types of people together."

The next time your favorite band comes to town, don't miss out on the opportunity. One of my greatest regrets is going to homecoming instead of a Real Friends and Neck Deep show. If you're concerned about price, consider the fact that I've never paid more than $50 for concert tickets (and that's the maximum - most are $15-20). Shows are a place where you're accepted unconditionally, and places like that can be pretty hard to come by. So take advantage of this amazing thing we have called live music.