SEPTEMBER 26, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Margaret Freeman
I love concerts. You would be hard-pressed to convince me that there is a better way to spend a summer evening than outside, listening to live music. For a long time, I would spend the weeks leading up to a concert “studying” the artist’s work, listening to all their hits and going through their discography album by album, making sure I knew every song. So, when a friend offered me her extra ticket to see Mt. Joy at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater in August, I felt extraordinarily unprepared because I didn’t know much of their music. Sure, I knew the big ones— “Silver Lining”, “Jenny Jenkins” and “Astrovan”—but I had never listened to most of their other songs.
Showing up to a concert where I didn’t know the majority of the songs being played created a unique experience to hear them for the first time in a truly electric setting. The colorful lights, upbeat music and exuberant crowd created an energetic atmosphere to dance and sway. Even without knowing the lyrics to the songs, I was able to have an incredible night. While I was worried about awkwardly swaying to songs I didn’t know the lyrics to, I ended up making the most incredible memories. The concert was a perfect combination of upbeat folk music and rock. I didn’t have many expectations but an hour of headbanging was certainly not one of them. I got to hear some of my new favorite songs for the first time in a crowd of people who loved the music as much as I have grown to love. I cannot hear “Orange Blood” or “Strangers” without thinking of that incredible night.
I’m not the only one who has felt the need to familiarize myself in a band’s music before a concert. My roommate has been listening to certain artists for her upcoming concerts nonstop. But as college students, especially at CC, we expose ourselves to unknown music all the time: We venture to Lulu’s to hear music from small artists in an intimate setting, hear a variety of artists at Llamapalooza that many of us have never listened to before and go to Sacred Grounds to hear original songs from student bands. This desire to listen to live music exposes us to genres and artists we would have never heard otherwise. The beauty of being a college student is that you are learning and changing and the music we listen to shifts right along with us. Going to unknown concerts is just another way to facilitate that.
I will never let not knowing an artist stop me from going to a concert again. So, my advice to you is to buy that ticket. Dance to the songs you don’t know––you may walk out of the venue with a new favorite artist.