It’s been a good two years since I’ve gone to a concert.

A couple days ago, I was lucky enough to go to a twenty øne piløts show at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. It was an incredible venue, and by a miracle (meaning my friend, Marley) we were able to get right up to the front. I ended up having to get out of the pit eventually, since some of the people around me were getting too rough for me to handle, but the show was honestly just as incredible from farther back as it was right up front.

Here are a few things that went through my mind before, during, and after that evening. 

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1. Chef’Special and Mutemath, two groups I had never heard of before that day, blew me away with their opening sets. Honestly, I totally wasn’t expecting there to be such good openers.

2. Maybe it’s a Berkeley thing, because I’ve never had quite this experience before, but almost every single person surrounding me was so friendly. During the long waits, I had some great conversations with some cool people, and we even played a few word games to pass the time. I’ve always been on the shyer side when it comes to making conversation, but somehow all hesitation disappeared when I was elbow-to-elbow with strangers who share a love of this band.

3. Belting out those song lyrics alongside so many other people was one of the most satisfying feelings ever.

4. I’ve always been awful at classifying genres of bands and songs, but twenty øne piløts takes it to a whole new of difficult because their music is such an interesting combination of styles. The concert vibe felt mostly like a rock concert would, but the music isn’t quite that… but it’s a pretty cool thing that they can’t be defined as one genre.

5. It’s absolutely insane how something I had been looking forward to for the past five months happened so fast.

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