Reflections on a summer of live performances
Cigar news editor Liz Fusco attended three concerts this summer, her first since the pandemic. PHOTO CREDIT: Maddie Bataille | Photo Editor
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out over two years ago, I was a freshman in college. Because of this brutal pause in my young adult life, I went four years without going to a concert.
As a music lover, this hiatus was very difficult for me. Before this year, the last concert I had attended was Harry Styles’ tour for his self-titled debut album at TD Garden in 2018.
So my goal at the beginning of this year was simple: cram as many concerts as possible into 12 months.
The total I have ultimately bought tickets for this year (so far…) is five, three of which have already happened over summer break.
Let’s go chronologically, shall we?
Picture this: It’s June 7, and my sister calls me asking what I’m getting my father for Father’s Day. I tell her, I don’t know. What did she get him? She tells me she got him a shirt from the legendary Paul McCartney’s current tour, “Got Back,” since my dad could not go to his 15th Paul McCartney concert this year due to a scheduling conflict (what a shame). I commend my sister on such a great gift.
Now, here’s where she made a mistake: she says to me, forgetting that I inherited the paternal trait of worshiping The Beatles from the time I was cognitively aware of what music was, that the tickets for the concert the next day are actually quite cheap. Next thing she knows, she’s been roped into bringing my best friend and me to Fenway Park to see Sir Paul in concert for the third time in my life.
Did Paul McCartney play basically the same setlist that I had seen him play the previous two times I saw him live in concert? Yes. Did I scream and sing and dance and get blisters and laryngitis? Yes. And it was amazing.
Say whatever you want about the old geezer: no one puts on a show like him. Three and a half hours at 80 years old, playing some of the most influential and classic songs of all time? I’ll go any day.
Next, there was the 5 Seconds of Summer concert in July. I bought these tickets back in February when the tour was almost completely sold out, and I definitely overpaid for tickets in the last row. However, my closest friend from high school and I have been 5SOS fans since middle school, and I knew that going to their tour was an opportunity we couldn’t put off any longer.
The show was great. My friend and I sang songs we grew up with, we danced for two hours and we drank water alarmingly named “liquid death” (that definitely scared me). However, the best part came before the show even started.
We nervously get out of our Uber as quickly as possible about an hour before doors open (we like to be punctual) and find ourselves in the middle of a street. To my right, about ten girls standing on the sidewalk, and to the left a massive bus. It takes me about one minute of standing in the road to realize that this is, in fact, the band’s tour bus.
We cross the street and ask a mother and teen daughter trio if they are waiting in line, and she tells us that they’re waiting in the back because some fans met the bassist earlier in the day. The line hasn’t even started yet.
So, we have no choice but to stand with them on the sidewalk, and in the span of about 45 minutes, we’re given chocolate off the tour bus by their manager and hear them sound check from behind the venue (playing songs they didn’t play in the show, mind you). Ashton Irwin, the band’s drummer, even walks out and says hello.
I could have left then, but boy am I glad I didn’t because the whole experience was amazing. I rediscovered old songs and even got to hear some songs that hadn’t been released off their new album before.
And last, but certainly not least, we have Harry Styles for his iconic 15-night stay at Madison Square Garden.
I can’t begin to explain the emotions running through me at that concert. From Harry’s sequin-studded jean outfit to being in one of the most iconic venues in the world, to having a full circle moment realizing how much both he and I have grown since the last time I saw him, to being there with one of my very best friends – it all overwhelmed me with such an amount of great joy that I was actually hysterical for the first ten minutes he was onstage.
I have grown to have even more appreciation for concerts after this summer. Seeing my favorite artists and songs performed live just gives me a feeling of adrenaline like no other. So far it’s been a three-for-three success, and I can’t wait to see how the last two shows in my itinerary end up as well.