Concert Anticipation

In the last 5 days I've been to 4 concerts. Tonight I add to the total. First I saw two friends' bands, Sleep Experiments and Whiskey Holler on Wednesday and Thursday. Then I saw Hellogoodbye on Saturday and Titus Andronicus on Sunday. Tonight is the crown jewel: Jimmy Eat World. All of these shows were fantastic in their own ways, being in a variety of venues (library, dive bar, ex-church, college ballroom, dance club, respectively) and featuring a variety of tunes and fans. Tonight, though, the anticipation is immense.

Jimmy Eat World is one of my all time favorites and they are still blowing it up after all these years. I first saw them in 2002 at Metropol (now Club Zoo) with some friends from Blade Runners when I was a junior in high school. They blew my mind. Energy, musicianship, songwriting; it was all emotionally moving. Fans were in love with what they saw on stage. Five years later I saw them at the Carnegie Library Music Hall in Homestead, which is arguably the coolest venue in Pittsburgh. They still had it down and were killing it on stage. There was a wide range of favorites played from almost every album dating back to 1999. But they stuck with what worked, which was the hits from Bleed American.

Tonight, the anticipation is high. After seeing four very different and very good bands this week, it all climaxes with one of the best. It's how you feel when you're about to run out for the opening tip of a basketball game. The butterflies are there, but you can't help jumping all over the room with excitement. I already saw the set lists from the last few shows, which has killed the mystery, but the fact is that even without the element of surprise Jimmy will still blow me away. I never get to shows early (except for the Avett Brothers), but I'll be there 30 minutes before the openers hit the stage because I don't want to miss a lick from David Bazan, either. I simply cannot wait to hear that first riff!

What makes you so excited that you bounce off the walls in anticipation?