Rock Concerts

Last weekend I went down to the Electric Factory in Philly with a few friends to see MxPx play. MxPx was awesome, but several things I observed before and after the show started making me realize that I really am getting older.

First, I remember how much smaller I felt than others in the crowd at rock shows when I was younger. While I am not that big now (but height helps), it is interesting that my perspective is beginning to change from being one of the smaller people at the show, to being one of the bigger people in the crowd. No longer being intimidated by the size of others in the crowd makes for a lot more boldness- even making it possible to get right up front after arriving after the first act at a pretty packed, big-city venue. (Of course having your friend shove you towards the front through four rows of people helps too). It is a nice feeling.

Not only size, but it also seems that I am older than most of the crowd. The first show I went to (Newsboys, but everyone needs to start somewhere, right) I was really young and thought everyone was older than me. Most of the other concerts I felt at least in my own age group in the crowd. However, for the past couple years, and at this show in particular- where the other bands which were playing are older, mid to late 90's ska acts- my friends and I really noticed that we were well above the mean age of the crowd- which we determined was about 17. It was really funny when one girl at this show said she just turned 16, barely one year older than MxPx is a band.

Not so nice is how much longer it seems to take to recover from a good show. The day after a concert is always rough with soreness, lack of hearing and loss of voice. But at least after this show (and the last show I went to, which was ironically MxPx) the soreness has lingered for much longer than I recall before. Furhter, perhaps accidental, after both shows I got sick. An unfortunate aspect of aging, but still I will rock on (that is so sickingly cliche, but oh well).