#nneh

        Hearing that your favorite band is coming to a town near you (or to a state that you can convince somebody to drive you to) is arguably the nicest and most pleasing feeling out there. Upon reading that tour flyer and seeing your date you have this sensation that can only be described as “butterflies in my stomach as my heart is smiling and everything all over is really warm and nice.” Does that make sense? No. But it’s accurate.  

        One advantage of a not as well-known band is that they’re much more approachable and easier to get ahold of. You can find bands like 7 Minutes In Heaven who have made friends with fans over Twitter and recognize them at shows when they finally get the chance to meet them. These kinds of bands are really good about having individual conversations with each fan that they meet that night. They’re not just putting on faces and talking to fans and saying the same thing to each one of them. They want to know what you thought of the show and they want to know how you’re doing. Of course there are bands who you don’t want to meet/talk to because they’re not the more approachable or the nicest people but there are enough good guys to outshine the bad.

           When a band is playing, the energy they’re giving off is really crucial to the crowd’s energy.  There are bands out there like The Millenium who I don’t think could put any more energy into their shows. As a band you want to give the audience a show they’ll never forget, so by just standing there and singing, yeah that’s cool, but interacting with the fans on stage by getting closer to them, switching sides of the stage, and other things like that can really impact us. Matt from The Millenium is jumping, dancing, screaming, and every other verb you could think of during their sets. You see how he is and you want to dance until you can’t feel your feet. Bands like this remind me why I love going to shows in the first place.

            With any job, the more love and passion and hard work that you put in, the farther you’ll go. I love seeing a band playing and having the time of their life. Even if they’re the very first band and not many people know them, they’re jamming out and smiling and getting into the show because it’s what they care about. I got the chance to ask Matt, the vocalist of The Millenium, about this topic: “Playing a show is one of my favorite parts about being in “The Millenium”.  Most of the time before the show you can see me pacing silently like a dog stuck in a cage.  In this moment I am collecting my thoughts, and figuring out where this show is going to come from emotionally.  Some days are easier than others, and I’m ready to go on stage the second I wake up, and some days I need to dig a little deeper.  This is to ensure that I’m giving it my all at every show.  I put a lot of effort into reimagining the songs for myself so that I can play them every night, and still mean it just as much as the first show we ever had.  A funny thing happens for me when I play songs I helped write over and over again, and I think it’s one of the most redeeming quality to writing and playing music for me.  If I play the song enough, the problem I was writing about whether it be something romantic, or something in my life I’m tired of, goes away.  A lot of the first record is about toxic relationships, and I swear I hardly speak to most of the people I was specifically inspired by when writing, and going forward I can’t wait to shed some of the problems I have now either.”