Concerts are back! There’s truly nothing like live music and with the recent lifting of Covid-19 restrictions across Canada large gatherings like concerts are finally allowed to go ahead. It’s been two long years of rescheduling and postponing but it looks like we’re about to be hit with a flood of concerts. Between the slew of original tours planned for 2020 and 2021 and the new additions, we’re truly spoiled for choice. I recently saw English singer-songwriter Louis Tomlinson perform in Vancouver – the only Canadian stop on his world tour – and it reminded me just how unparalleled live music is.
Live music is an experience. It’s an escape, an event, and a privilege. It brings people together and creates an environment where you feel bigger than just yourself. No two concerts are the same, it can change depending on the performer, the crowd, the venue, even the city, and that’s part of what makes them so special. The feeling of standing in the middle of a crowd, surrounded by people there because they love the music, is unbeatable. It’s a unique phenomenon, the feeling of unity and unbridled joy a concert brings, and it can feel a bit like stepping into a different world. Similar to when you leave a movie theatre after living in the film’s world for two hours, stepping back onto the street after a really good concert is disorienting in the best way.
When the lights went down at the Louis Tomlinson show the excitement in the air was tangible. 3000 people, many of whom had been waiting two years since purchasing tickets, were screaming, shouting, and altogether losing their minds. It was exhilarating. In a post-Covid world, it was almost unbelievable. It’s crazy to me that large events like concerts, sports games, and music festivals were on hold across Canada for two years, and now suddenly they’re back. Standing in a room with thousands of others united by the shared desire to dance and scream and sing for the night is incomparable to anything else. The pure human joy experienced at concerts cannot be replicated through a screen and I’d forgotten just how wonderful it is. For an hour and a half, the entire theatre left their problems behind to sing, scream, and jump. I’m pretty sure the venue, which is home to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, has never been that loud.
Few things top the feeling of music surrounding and pulsating through you. It’s impossible to replicate through listening to a recorded version and it will leave you in a post-concert depression for days. Arriving at the Louis Tomlinson show, the line-up went around the entire city block, full of excited fans and attracting passersby to stop and question why so many people were gathered. It was definitely a shock of normalcy in post-Covid Vancouver. The show itself was outstanding. High energy from the crowd and Louis himself, paired with a killer set and lights show made it impossible not to have a good time. The feeling of community created in a concert, especially this one, is incredible. You could feel the love and support in the room, especially in moments like fans holding up a rainbow of lights and the plethora of signs expressing everything from joy and love to knock-knock jokes. For a show in a city where dancing and large events have been restricted since the pandemic, it felt like the crowd was letting loose two years’ worth of pent-up energy.
The atmosphere of being at a gig is hard to capture in words. The overwhelming feeling of the music pulsating through your body combined with the roar of the crowd and the artist ecstatic to be there in front of you is a high I still haven’t recovered from.