Listen Here
By Kelsey Nevius
@kelnevs
During this past week, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to become involved in the arts. While I love to immerse myself in music or theater in any time I have available, this past week has been a totally new experience altogether. While I’ve been to musicals and plays, I hadn’t before this week, been to any type of concert. I was weary of them at first, mainly because I wondered how you could sit through two hours and just listen to someone sing or play an instrument. In plays or musicals, you have a plot line of some sort and different people speaking or singing, so I didn’t know how I would react to concerts in general. Luckily for me, I got to experience two concerts that were completely different.
The first concert I went to was the Rebecca Luker featuring Phil Reno concert, which was held right here at The University of Findlay. Since I was required to go to this concert for my class, I had prior knowledge of who she was, and a general idea of what would be going on and what she would be singing. I did not know, however, that she was so accomplished. Luker is a Tony-nominated Broadway star, starring in shows such as “Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” as Marie the fairy godmother, “Mary Poppins” as Winifred, and a revival of “The Sound of Music” as Maria. The fact of the matter is, we as a University are extremely lucky to have musical talent like Rebecca Luker come and preform for us. She was absolutely fantastic. It’s not every day that you’re able to go to a concert featuring a Tony-nominated Broadway star. After this concert, I had high hopes for my next one, considering that I knew more about the second than the first.
My second concert of the week was Fall Out Boy. Though I had to drive three hours to see them because the venue was in Michigan, it too was an amazing experience. I’m sure everyone has heard their music featured on the radio, especially songs like “Centuries” and “Uma Thurman.” It was an amazing experience in addition to the Rebecca Luker concert because they are completely different. While the Luker concert was more mellow and graceful, the Fall Out Boy concert was crazy and loud. Both were amazing, but on total different ends of the energy spectrum.
But what I noticed at both concerts, aside from the music, was the sense of togetherness they brought. Everyone was there for a common reason and a common love for the music that was being performed. There was no judgment, nobody cared who was there or who was doing what, just masses of people coming together to enjoy a single thing they loved. It’s almost like the world faded into the background, and it was just you and what was happening onstage. And I think that that is why I love concerts so much now. There is such a sense of togetherness and bonding with complete strangers over music. And to me, that is something very rare in this world.
