Matthew Richardson
2-2-10
English 2010
Music is a complex force of nature, but is one to be enjoyed. For the record, nothing
can match the excitement of seeing your favorite band live, in concert. My favorite band,
Muse has been wildly acknowledged to be the best live performers. Now, this doesn’t mean
that many of the other bands I’ve seen in concert aren’t bad; this just means that I enjoyed
Muse’s performance more. But for me, going to concerts are always awesome. Some of my
favorite memories come from going to concerts of sorts. The first concert I saw was in
Denver, Colorado.
The Nintendo Fusion Tour, a tour in 2006 they held to promote the video games and
the 5 other rock bands that were with them, weren’t coming to Utah. At this point in time, I
was just getting into my taste of music, which would soon blossom gloriously into a general
love for all thing rock ‘n’ roll. Since both were something I was interested in, I had the
genius idea that we travel from SLC, Utah to Denver by train. Having arrived in Colorado,
we spent a couple of days in Denver in anticipation for the concert, which would be a couple
of days from arrival. I, my sister, and my grandmother all took the scenic route in Denver.
For a minute we were panicking because we had left the purse on, but I grabbed it,
kept in mind that we needed it for the trip, and left the bus. Grandma saw that I had the purse
and was extremely relieved. She hasn’t let me forget it.
Then we were at the concert. This was where I finally had a hard look at the Nintendo
Wii, their new console, which I was into at the time. As exciting as it was, I didn’t hear very
much of the music there. Soon it became apparent that we weren’t having a good time; the
Wii was new to me, the games for the DS were only as interesting as the demos allowed, and
all we could get as seats was a sort of terrace at a table, since all the rest of the audience had
much better seats. Soon, it became too much for my grandma, and we had to leave. But since
we left, I knew the music was great, but not satisfying enough to my ears for the time being. I
was fresh into the world of rock ‘n’ roll in my generation, and I needed to know what I could
get.
That was admittedly my first concert. And while that was all well and good, it would
be about a year or two before I could see another band in concert, which was the Canadian
band Rush. Rush had been a staple of music for the family for years, combining a great sense
of rock and roll with almost pure spirit and feeling. The lead to an eclectic, particularly an
80s feel that rolled off your back pleasantly. Its kinda hard to describe in this format. They
were performing at the USANA Amphitheater, a venue in West Valley City, UT. This year
they were rolling a tour for their new album, Snakes and Arrows. My father had gotten
tickets, and everyone was to go, and since it was RUSH, I figured it was the thing to do to go.
Well, me and everyone in Utah apparently; when we got there, there were thousands
of people waiting on the grass, on top of a hill above the seats. We were so far away from the
stage, we had to bring binoculars, which only reached so far. Predictably, when Rush finally
appeared on stage, the crowd erupted in noise. Soon we were yelling to. Not too long into the
performance, far in the back I noticed there was a pressure cooker filled with about 50
chickens, cooking in what is apparently a “bass cooker”. All this brought an awesome rock
atmosphere (for instance, when the band started to play Tom Sawyer the house erupted. It
was such an awesome feeling that apparently South Park decided to join in the fun with an
intro); the only problem was I didn’t come for their new music. I would ignore the new songs,
playing my DS, and perk up again when the older songs started to play. This doesn’t mean
that they’re losing style; it just means that I wasn’t impressed, personally, with their new
music.
So when compared to my first concert, the Rush concert was obviously a much more
enjoyable experience. The atmosphere was rich and vibrant, and there wasn’t confusion;
everyone there knew why they were there and how they were doing it, and it was an
awesome feeling. However, since it was outside, during the summer, there were a lot of
uncomfortable people sitting on the grass. It gave me a much better idea as to what to expect
and how to react next in a concert.
To keep things short, Muse really are my favorite band, so the next couple of
paragraphs will have a slight sprinkling of bias. my next concert experience happened to take
place in South Salt Lake. Muse had finally come to Utah, and I wasn’t going to pass this
chance up. Muse is a British band with a sound I liked. It was a sort of pseudo rock/disco/pop
sound that, to me, made me smile with each track. In my opinion, complexity at its finest.
Getting me and my sister tickets was not the hard part; the hard part was finding a
spot to drop us off. We also had a time limit; our dad had to pick us up at 10:00 or around
that time, or he’d risk being late to work. I thought to myself, well I should know that it
wouldn’t take that long for the concert to be over, and the chances were they’d be long
finished before my dad had to pick us up. In regard to that fact, the line that day was longer
than any I’ve ever seen in my life.
The concert itself was no less than extraordinary. As it started, the pre-concert music
was playing over the intercom. Before long, the lights dropped, the audience silenced, and
then roared, and out came…not Muse. As a matter of fact, unbeknownst to me, two more
bands had been supporting Muse for their Black Holes and Revelations tour, and I still don’t
really remember them to this day. The two bands took about an hour or two combined before
Muse finally came out. This really screwed up my plans. But once Muse came out, and it was
awesome, everything became moot. Long story short, the band pulled off a spectacular show,
which is a shame I didn’t get to see all of, because of the aforementioned time limit.
Disappointed, I went on in my life, and soon, before long, we’d be going to our next
concert, the Linkin Park 2008 tour supported by Coheed and Cambria. This time we’d be
going to the E-Center, a venue much closer to home. Contrary to popular belief, Linkin Park
was a pretty respectable and good sounding band, and not the emotional, stuck up band
members people like to think of them as. They’re not my favorite, but they definitely had
good music. They’re electro beats were crazy enough that what actually was produced was
good sounding music. So in 2008, when they advertised they were coming to Utah, my
parents somehow got tickets, and before I knew it we were on our way.
On Redwood Road and 3300 S, when someone obscenely famous was visiting the ECenter, a venue practically on the same street as us, the roads would be packed, not unlike
pickles in a jar. Linkin Park, again contrary to popular belief, was no exception. Getting there
amongst all the cars was a hard event, but eventually they dropped me and my sister, who’d
be joining us again, off. Again, the music that played before the concert was wafting through
the air, a large screen with texts from the audience hanging from the huge ceiling. Soon it
was time to start the concert, but first, a band called Coheed and Cambria came out to play a
short set list. This band, named for comic book characters, had an interesting sound, which I
took a liking before on their performance on the radio. These guys are pretty good, with a
couple a songs quite to my liking.
Once Linkin Park arrived on stage, the audience again blew up in applause and noise.
Everyone started standing up, which was hard for me as my back makes it tire out quickly. It
was a little disorienting to realize that if I’d wanted to see anything I’d have to stand up.
Nevertheless, I found myself enjoying the show and admittedly banging my head to some of
the songs.
If all the concerts taught me one thing, it’s that the reward for supporting your band is
an enthralling experience. Muse, once again, is coming to Utah, and I am hoping for the best.
Since these songs are some of the best of heard from most of these bands, it’s natural that I
take a liking to their live performances as well, which is quite complex and entirely satisfying.
Self assessment:
For the record, writing this essay has been fun. I had a chance to look back as far as
2006, and for a lot of people, the sights, sounds, and smells are second to none. Travelling
out of state is always awesome, and the fact that it was for a video game didn’t change that.
Meanwhile, I thought of all the other concerts seriously and I thought it was awesome to go
through personally. I really can’t wait for Muse later in the year.
My writing style, as exampled above, is quick, to the point, and disorganized at times.
My real problem is that I don’t think about what I write or say before I say it. Generally I pay
for it numerous ways, but in writing I always have to look back. I feel though that my
technique has improved over the year or so, and I feel really confident about that.
In this essay, I tried to tell this in the form of spastic memories as they entered my
mind; a story missing a plot. This is good, as I don’t remember everything right now, and can
be fixed later. I feel like I touched more on what I needed, but could still use more.
What was so important in this memoir was generally trying to figure out what the
memories were about, and picking out and fine-tuning the details so that they’d stand out in
the readers’ mind, but it looks like I haven’t done that. This essays getting better, but could
use fine tuning.
Bibliography:
Muse Logo, n.d. Muse Message Boards Web. March 5, 2010