Since the first time I heard the song “Take Me to Church” played on the radio in 2014, I was completely hooked. I googled the singer and by the end of the day, I had listened to each song on Hozier’s debut album. I loved everything about him from his lyrics to his voice and the blues grass vibe every song had. When his latest album came out in March of 2019, I took the entire day to listen to each song on repeat. He is easily my favorite artist.
A few months ago, I heard that he was coming to the Wang Theater in Boston, only a short distance from campus. The tickets were each over $200 and I closed out of the website almost immediately.
In addition to being Hozier’s Number 1 Fan (though self-proclaimed), I’m also an incredibly anxious person—especially when it comes to doing things by myself. I have a difficult time even going to the on-campus dining facilities without someone to sit opposite of me. It was only in the past year or so that I felt comfortable running even simple errands down the street on my own so big events, such as shows or concerts, were never something I would be able to do by myself.
Last week, Hozier was in Boston for two nights and on day one, I scrolled through Instagram living vicariously through people who got to attend. The second night’s show started at 8pm, and on the day of while at work, I decided to check tickets on a whim. Prices had dropped to $70 and I felt my heart stop (dramatic, I know, but he’s my favorite). However, with such short notice, all of my friends who would’ve wanted to go were unavailable. I decided to be spontaneous (and incredibly out of character) so I bought a ticket for one.
Initially, I felt on cloud 9 that I was going to get off shift and almost immediately head across the city to see my favorite musician live but soon, the nervousness set in. Who would I talk to? Would the people next to me look at me funny for being a party of one? What if my phone died and I had no way of finding my way back? I almost talked myself out of going a couple times but decided that no, I got this.
Getting to and from the concert turned out to be easy as I had mentioned to a friend that I was going alone and she happened to be going with her parents and offered me a ride to the venue. Grateful, I hopped in the car with them and the nervousness started to go away. That was, until, we arrived at the theater and went through security and it was time to split up and find our own seats.
Mine turned out to be the third seat in from the aisle in my section and I was one of the first people in the row to arrive. I sat down and got situated in my seat, waiting for the show to start. It wasn’t as bad as I had originally feared, the only really uncomfortable part, for me anyways, was not having anyone to talk to while the theater was filled with the sounds of excited chatter. That changed quickly, however, when the person in the seat next to me showed up alone as well. We started talking and I found out she was also a student in the Fenway area, like myself, and was a junior studying economics at BU. It was her third concert alone and I realized that perhaps this could be my first of many, too.
By the time Hozier arrived on stage and started singing, all of my fears were completely gone. I was singing and dancing and clapping along, crying to some of the songs even, and didn’t even care that I was here at a big event alone. Not to mention, the concert was amazing.
It made me realize that I was capable of way more than I had realized and that, honestly, I make pretty good company! Now if there is ever a concert I want to attend or a movie I want to see or even if I’m hungry when nobody else is, there is nothing stopping me from being just a party of one.