Concert addictions are a real thing
Hi. My name is Caroline and I’m addicted to concerts. I’ll never forget my first concert. It was a Destiny’s Child concert at the Air Canada Centre and I attended with my best friend at the time. It was beyond anything I could imagine and more. The connection with their music felt stronger, the bass pulsated through my body and even felt like it coursed through my veins. I had listened to music before but never like this. This was one feeling I never wanted to quit.
That was in 2002. 16 years later and I’m still going strong. I think it’s fair to say that music is a great invention and it is one of the few things that brings us human beings together. Regardless of what status you hold in life, music is available to everyone. It can be heard on the waves crashing on the beach to the beating of a drum, music is everywhere, and people have created it in a variety of forms and sounds. I get my music through online streaming services like Spotify and iTunes and honestly, I still listen to the radio to get my hip hop fix on the go through Sirius XM. But what really gets me going is the release of new music and most of all, tour dates of my favourite artists.
The whole process of getting tickets to a concert that I want to see is just the start of the adrenaline rush. I log onto my Ticketmaster account ahead of pre-sale time and you already know that I searched out any possible pre-sale codes to get ahead of the general public sale. Once that clock hits sale time — and I’m finally recognized as not a robot — I’m zeroed in on every single click and my eyes scan the seating chart to weigh my options quickly and decisively. Are these seats good enough? How much am I willing to pay? Do I have anyone to go with? I’m buying two anyway. The next thing you know I’m hitting process order and I am greeted with the payment success page stating, “You’re going to see such and such!” and the feeling of the elation washes over me.
I was just in an invisible race with thousands maybe millions of people vying for the exact same tickets as me, and I got them. I got them! The feeling of happiness carries me past the fact that my credit card was hit with a stomach wrenching amount. Time goes on and the high passes as the concert is months away but as soon as it inches closer, the high returns. I’m getting closer to getting my fix and I cannot wait.
Attending the concert is not enough. I also save the concert ticket, stand in an outrageously long line and buy an overpriced concert t-shirt to keep the memory alive forever. I wind my way to my seat amongst a throng of excited concert goers and once the bass hits my ears, my heart starts pumping, my body starts jumping and I’m in the full throes of the high I had been waiting for. I leave the concert still buzzing from the performance I had witnessed, my phone full of videos and pictures I will share on social media and I know that the next day the high will be gone. But it won’t be the last.
