See a favorite band live in concert

“After a looooong wait, OneRepublic finally came on the stage. I’m telling you, I’ve never felt so… unreal as I did when Ryan sang the first few lines of Stop and Stare, their opening song. It was m a g i c a l. [...] They played Secrets, y’all. The song that started it all for me, the song I sang all the freaking time, the song whose chorus gives me chills till this very day. To think that I was actually singing the song with thousands of people to Ryan’s unfiltered, live voice instead of in my room with my headphones on was…. out of this world.”

“There I was, standing in the crowd, looking up at the faces of the voices I have sang along with from my iPod speakers for the past eight years. But now, I was singing along with them in real life, and everyone around me was singing along too. [...] That was the moment I had been waiting for since I was a sad, lost teenager trying to get through high school. That was the moment I had been dreaming of. I started sobbing as my favorite band played my absolute favorite song.”

“I still remember getting ready for the concert that night, playing my favorite Bon Jovi CD while I brushed my hair and put on my "Have a Nice Day" T-shirt. After a quick train ride, we were there. I was literally rocking back and forth in my seat, unable to sit still from my excitement. This was it, my moment. The lights went out, they hit the stage, and Jon Bon Jovi’s voice filled the venue. I still remember singing along to every song, and staring nonstop at the stage, afraid that if I looked away, even for a second, they would disappear. It was an eye-opening, unforgettable experience for me. Hearing their lyrics live made the words more powerful to me, and each note seemed magical.”

“Seeing a band like that again is a weird experience because there were younger people in the crowd that reminded me of myself and my friends. It took me back to having to convince my parents to drop us off at a concert venue one to two hours away and proceed to wait for me until the concert was over. [...] In high school, my friend and I had designated one song specifically as “our song” and towards the end of the concert, they performed it. [...] We danced with each other and both felt the same way we felt junior year.”