Not With The Band: Why You Should Go To Concerts Alone
I go to a lot of shows alone, right,… just by myself. I know that most people do not like going to concerts alone, since concerts are considered as social events. Most people go with a group of friends or their boy/girlfriend, since it is an occasion for them to drink, laugh, talk together, and do anything but listening to the performance. I go to show to listen to the music, not to entertain a bunch of people. However, for most people going solo is still a bizarre, antisocial and unthinkable thing to do, so am I a weirdo?
When you are not talking about live music, most people listen to music alone anyway, in their cars, with headphones at the gym or sitting at home, why should it be different for concerts?
There are many reasons why I go to shows alone, the first thing being the overwhelming experience of a total concentration on the music, with an absence of distraction, the second thing being the difficulty to find people available or even interested by the same music than me, and why should I skip a show in this case? Another thing is that I can move around easily, find my favorite spot close to the stage without taking someone’s opinion into account. In seated shows, I sometimes get the occasion to move up a few rows without asking anyone’s permission, and especially without being spotted by guards, something which would have been impossible as a group. At a Massive Attack’s show, I even managed to enter the pit, and I would never forget the experience of that show.
I encourage people to go to shows alone. But the main reason mostly lies in the experience of listening to the music alone. Sure there may be tens, hundreds or even thousands of people around, but I am truly alone, I don’t know the other ones around me and I don’t have to bother if they like this song, this band, this spot, this drink, this venue… When you are alone, music is all what matters, music takes all the place in your brain, music is the main character of the night, it fills the whole room and you don’t have to worry about anything else.
It would be impossible to repeat the experience I had with Radiohead, Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips and so many others if I hadn’t been alone, the shows always sound different and more intense when I am by myself. And I don’t even expect meeting new people, even though it had happened a few times, I generally block out any social experience and music becomes my only human experience of the night.
Music is one of the rare reliable things in this universe, and it is too much of a fulfillment to share the spotlight with anything else, so don’t pity me people if you see me at a concert, I go to shows alone and you should do the same.
