Sometimes, words just aren't enough. I wish I could communicate with enough hand gestures and sparkles, so that you could get a sense of it's awesomeness.
Flyleaf was the opening band. We got to the Alliant Center just in time to hear their big song All Around Me. It was a good set and they are definitely a fun, enthusiastic band with a lot of positive energy. It makes me wish that their sound check guys were competent and had arranged for the lead singer's mic to have the appropriate volume. She was drowned out by her band.
Breaking Benjamin went on after Flyleaf. Fargo has seriously fallen in love with this band since seeing them in concert. Don't get me wrong, I like them too, we're definitely going steady (non-exclusively) but I'm going to hold off on buying a ring just yet. If you've never heard of this band before, check out Diary of Jane and I Will Not Bow which are two of my favorite songs from them.
For the first two bands, we sat up in the stadium seating around the floor of the Alliant Center. For Three Days Grace, we decided to venture out onto the floor.
I'm going to be honest here. I didn't realize when Fargo suggested this, that he would want to push us up as close to the stage as we could get. I'm not saying I'm sorry about what happened next. In fact, it's probably better I didn't know or I might not have agreed to go.
The horrible part was waiting for the band to go on. We stood there, packed in like sardines, waiting, waiting, waiting.
Anybody who knows me in real life, knows I'm not super excited about being touched by people I know. I really don't like being touched by strangers. I really, really don't like being touched by sweaty, smelly teenage boys who reek like weed (because they decided what better time to smoke up than when standing in a packed arena and there's no where to go to get away from the smoke. Thanks for that, assholes).
I think Fargo was getting slightly concerned before the music began. I was getting slightly concerned before the music began. I have never been that close to the edge of a panic attack before. I had to really work to calm myself down and not freak. the. fuck. out about all the touching.
But, then.
Then, the music started and all of that melted away. It was (almost) blissful.
I was body slammed into lots of different people many, many times, although Fargo did try to protect me from the worst of it. I was repeatedly elbowed in the back when these bigger girls tried to force their way past us, even though there was no room. And, honestly, I was sort of blocking them. I may or may not have shouted "bitches" at them after they pushed through. I was kicked in the face when some girl body surfed past me.
And yet, it was still pretty much perfect.
It was a mob, united not in violence, but in common love for something. The rhythms of the songs they play cry out for movement, so there is a lot of Three Days Grace on my running mix. But, even when I'm running to it, it doesn't feel quite right. It's not how you're meant to move to it, but listening to it live with hundreds of other people who love the music too, things clicked into place.
I love, love, love this band. I loved, loved, loved this night.
I can't wait to do it again.
