5 reasons why I'm almost too old for a rock concert

Last month StubHub sent me an email with suggested upcoming events.
One of them being Taking Back Sunday.
I immediately flashed back to being 16 years old, shopping at Pacsun, wearing Dickies, having my hair bleach blonde and dyed black underneath. Hanging out with the grungy skater kids in my new school, blasting this music as loud as I could in my really cool over the garage bonus room turned bedroom. I thought I was a pretty cool girl. I cared just enough to make you think I didn’t care at all but without seeming like I was a bitch. I spent my time with the angry kids that hated the popular kids. You knew of them but probably didn’t really know their names.
I knew I needed to go to this concert so I rounded up a friend of 12 years, we bought tickets, and off we went. I had never been a fan of a general admission event. A big crowd of people smushed together was never my thing but this seemed like a good deal at $15 a ticket. After arriving, it became apparent I was too old. Here’s why.

1. In general admission attendance, you stand for a really long time. If you want to be close enough to see – you have to get there pretty early and wait for what feels like forever. We got there at 8pm, which was the start time of the opening bands (both of which we had never heard of), then had to stand until 10pm when TBS was set to start. I know I’m too old because after about an hour, when I went to the restroom and sat down, my body was already sore. From standing. Just standing.
2. The crowd of clearly just-turned-21 concert goers were singing every word to the opening bands. Songs I had never heard, by bands I had never heard of. I have almost NEVER been to a concert where I didn’t know the bands. I usually have at least heard of them, could sing a line or two, at least look like I knew what the words were. These bands – I literally cannot even remember the names of because there was so foreign to me. This makes me old because I am clearly spending too much of my time listening to Kids Bop.
3. On the Thursday before the concert, they released the set times for the concert. I know I am old because when I saw that Taking Back Sunday was not set to start until 10pm, I immediately contemplated whether or not I could stay up that late. A 10pm – 11:15pm set time meant that I wouldn’t get to my car, out of the parking garage, and out of the city until at least midnight and then I wouldn’t get home until 1am. Hello, I haven’t seen 1am much in the last two years unless it is because of my children have woken up in their sleep. I wondered if I was going to need to find a Dunkin Donuts to grab a coffee at 8pm to make it through.
4. After finding a good place to stand, pushing forward to see a little better (hello we’re 5’3), and finally finding a spot with enough room to stand comfortably – the concert began. We were bobbing to the beat, singing along with the words, having a good time when all of a sudden about 20 people came barreling through in front of us. In made no sense in my mind because we were already packed in, where were they go? Suddenly they started to run around in a big circle, then the mosh pit began to form. At first we were back far enough to see it but not worry about being elbowed in the nose, but it didn’t take long for it to spread out far enough that we looked at each other and had to get out of the spot that took us 2 hours to find. I am too old to throw myself around in circles, into another person, for seemingly no purpose. After we escaped, we turned around to see that they had decided to crowd surf a trash can which I assume had trash in it and all I could think about was germs. Because well, I’m old and hand sanitizer obsessed.
5. We stood in a little corner for a little until 3 songs went by and we didn’t know any of them. After a total of 6 songs, I knew 2. I realized maybe I wasn’t the fan I thought I was. We agreed to venture out of the crowd into the back of venue. One song later – we looked at each other and said “its ok if we leave now”. This is was 30 minutes after the band we came to see started. We didn’t even make it through their whole set.

What I have learned from this experience is that I need a concert with seats, so I can sit down and have personal space. I am far too old to hangout with freshly 21 year old mosh pit creators. Self – please avoid general admission concerts at all costs. Lesson learned.
xoxo K