Since this concert was the most recent, I gotta start with Louis. To be honest, it was not one of my favorites. While I absolutely adore Louis and his music, my experience at this concert was questionable!! While some of the fans were kind and accepting of others’ needs, some were not. There was specifically one couple who told me to “f*cking deal with it” after pushing in front of me where I couldn’t see anymore. Honestly, the worst part of the concert was the weather, so I can just blame Chicago for that! I kid you not, it felt like 20 degrees and I was in a short sleeved dress. Even Louis grimaced when he sang the word “cold” in his unreleased song “Copy of a copy of a copy” (which I love by the way.)
On the other hand, I thought that his actual performance and vocals were amazing. He interacted with so many fans in the audience, and you could just tell that he was a very grounded, humble person. Although he didn’t play “High in California”, one of my favorites, I enjoyed hearing “Saved by a Stranger” for the first time and obviously loved the rest of his set. I could tell that his newest album, “Faith in the Future,” really was made for performances like those, as he proclaimed. All of the tunes were very upbeat, and the environment during each song was great! My personal favorites were All This Time, Chicago (in Chicago of course), Lucky Again, and surprisingly Silver Tongues. I’m not a huge fan of that song, but it was really rowdy live, especially when he came up and basically crowd surfed on the barricade at the end. You could seriously tell how much he loved performing and doing the shows, and his band sounded amazing as well. Aside from his own show, I loved his first opener, Andrew Cushin! He had a breathtakingly clear voice, which sounded almost autotuned, and his songs were impressive as well. I would definitely check him out.
At the end of the day, I think that the biggest lesson that I’ve learned from this concert is to be more tolerant of the people around you, check the weather beforehand, and that you don’t need to know all of the lyrics to every single of the artist’s songs! My friends and I have discussed this quite a bit, but we think that after quarantine, the environment of concerts have changed so much. There’s become such a pressure to be front row, get a “notice,” and know every lyric religiously in order to prove that you’re “the most deserving fan.” While I understand the culture, having been there myself (and my cousin hates me for it,) I believe that it’s become increasingly toxic and can really ruin the fun of any concert. I compared this experience to the one that I had at Phish in September, and it was insane how different the situations were. At Phish, maybe because it was mostly made of adults (around my dads age,) they mostly just cared about enjoying the music live and having a good time. Although I noticed more drugs at this concert, everyone seemed calmer and less fixated on themselves.