I was scrolling through Twitter this morning, and I came across a post that said, “Still amazed at the fact that just one live performance could change your life and how you live it forever.” It was tweeted by @ConcertWeirdos, and it made me stop and think. Is this true?
I’ve seen a few shows over my lifetime. Okay, more like a few hundred…not all Duran Duran of course. In thinking back, how many of them, if any, would I consider life changing?
One show repeatedly comes to mind, primarily because it is the one that brought me to the Duran Duran fan community. While I’ve been a fan for a number of decades, I can’t say I’ve always been involved with the fan community. For one, the internet didn’t really exist back in 1980-something. At least, not in the way it does now! Also, I didn’t really “discover” fellow fans after graduating from high school. I didn’t know the fan community even existed until just after a gig in March of 2001 at the House of Blues in Anaheim. Life was different for me at the time. I was a new mom, and although I’d been pretty active on America Online, I don’t know why it had never occurred to me to see if I could find anything on Duran Duran. It just didn’t.
That ONE show, though. There’s no doubt in my mind that within the first thirty seconds of Simon LeBon arriving onstage on that fateful night in March, I had been sucked into a vortex. I will die on this island saying that my fandom was awoken from a very deep hibernation that night. The only way I can describe it is by saying it was like being reintroduced to a part of me I’d long forgotten. My husband describes it as “willfully unlocking Pandora’s Box without even knowing what might happen”. (He isn’t wrong, and it IS his fault. I tried to tell him we didn’t need to spend the money on those concert tickets! Alas…here we are, twenty years later.)
Everything I have done since that night – the trips to New Orleans, Chicago, New York City, the UK (he adds, “Twice. In a single year!”) – the blog, the meet ups, the convention and even the podcast – are as a result of that one gig.
I wish I could bottle the feeling I had that night, and the energy that continues to flow through my heart and soul for this band. It is worth millions, and I don’t regret a single thing. I know that the band doesn’t really read our blogs, and that they can’t worry or think about what a couple of fans think – but they changed my life that night.(Yes, even Warren.) I am so grateful.
Can you think of a concert that changed your life and everything about it?
-R
My first front row concert definitely changed my whole life and perspective on attending a concert… It was in 1992 and being so close to one of my favorite band made me change on how I can attend a concert and almost feel part of it because of being that close. Since that one concert, I have been a concert snob… and if possible, I will always try to attend a concert within the first rows, because yes, I want to feel that special each time.