My summer was spent just like every other teenager my age; I went swimming on all of the hot days, I had soccer practice every day to prepare for the upcoming season, I vacationed in Hilton Head, and I spent every other waking moment with my friends. In addition to my typical summer activities, I was able to attend four different music artists’ concerts. These concerts ranged from single-day events in neighboring cities to overnight stays with an eventual four-hour drive home. All of the concerts I attended this summer were memorable experiences filled with my favorite music and surrounded by some of my best friends.
I started my concert endeavors immediately when school ended. On June 1st, I saw Louis Tomlinson, former One Direction vocalist, at Blossom with two of my close friends. With how close Blossom is to Green, surprisingly, I had yet to experience a concert at this location. Needless to say, my very first Blossom concert did not disappoint. Tomlinson was a great performer and performed a wide range of songs. I got to hear my favorite song, ‘Holding On To Heartache’ from his latest album, I got to sob to one of his saddest songs, ‘Chicago’, and I even got to hear the One Direction song, ‘Night Changes’. Blossom even contributed to making the concert enjoyable for every fan in attendance; the ample screens located around the venue showcased Tomlinson performing from all angles and gave each spectator the best possible view. Louis Tomlinson’s ‘Faith in the Future’ World Tour at Blossom Music Center was a fantastic show that started off my list of summer concerts on a good note.
The concert that followed Tomlinson was Noah Kahan’s ‘Stick Season’ Tour at Jacobs Pavillion. Tomlinson left some pretty big shoes for Kahan to fill, and for me, Kahan came in a close second place. I absolutely love concerts at Jacobs Pavillion, and despite my friends and I’s general admission tickets that left us in the very last row of the venue, we had a blast and even a pretty decent view. Kahan is another great performer who gave the fans an entertaining setlist. We heard some of his classic songs from his latest album ‘Stick Season’, which included, ‘All My Love’, ‘Everywhere, Everything’, and of course, ‘Stick Season’. Along with these classic songs, we got to hear some of his even newer songs that came out on his ‘Stick Season Deluxe’ album, most notably, ‘Dial Drunk’. Each song Kahan performed was entertaining for the entire crowd, especially when Kahan brought out his brother, Simon Kahan, to sing in ‘New Perspective’. The only reason that Kahan’s show didn’t top Tomlinson’s for me was because I enjoy Louis Tomlinson’s music more. Overall, Kahan had a spectacular show in Cleveland but couldn’t beat Louis.
The next concert I attended, and definitely the most life-changing of them all, was Taylor Swift’s, ‘The Eras Tour’. This was the show, among all of my other concerts this summer, that required the most energy. I attended Swift’s Cincinnati Night Two show at Paycor Stadium with two of my friends, my mom, and two other parents. Considering the time it would take to drive to Cincinnati, get ready for the concert, get merchandise before the concert began, and many other contributing factors, we opted to drive down to Cincinnati the day before the show to avoid starting our ‘Eras Tour’ endeavors at four in the morning. Despite our efforts to ensure a smooth day, it still managed to turn a little sideways when Swift tweeted that the show was moved up an hour due to possible thunderstorms. While this didn’t affect our timing in getting to the stadium on time, it was still sad because one of Swift’s openers, Gracie Abrams, was cut from the opening acts. This, however, turned out to be one of the greatest things imaginable during Swift’s acoustic set. Instead of the typical two surprise songs, Cincinnati night two received three. Our first surprise song was ‘Ivy’, featuring Aaron Dessner, which happened to be one of my top Taylor songs. ‘Ivy’, was followed by ‘I miss you, I’m sorry’, a duo performance between Swift and Abrams, all performed acoustically. And as if two surprise songs weren’t enough, Swift closed the acoustic set with ‘Call It What You Want’ on piano. ‘The Eras Tour’ was a surreal three-and-a-half-hour experience for me that I will never forget.
I closed out my summer concerts with The Backseat Lovers ‘Waiting to Spill’ tour. While The Backseat Lovers concert was my second most anticipated show this summer, I was severely let down by the eventual outcome of this show. My five friends and I started our concert evening by driving down to Columbus for the show at KEMBA Live! Throughout the drive, we realized the weather wasn’t up to outdoor concert standards, and sure enough, before the openers even began, we got an announcement to evacuate the area due to thunderstorms.
My friends and I, along with every other concert attendee, ran to the closest parking garage to wait out the storms and obtain more information regarding the show. We waited for hours to hear any sort of information but received nothing until 10:30 pm, when they announced that the openers would start playing, and everyone was allowed back into the venue. While this was great in theory, it turned out to be a wimpy concert in comparison to their others. We only heard a fraction of the songs other shows on the tour got and I missed out on my favorite Backseat Lovers song of all time, ‘Out of Tune’. It was nice that we were able to get better seats in the venue because of the vast majority of viewers that left, but it did not make up for the fact that we wasted hours of our lives in Columbus waiting for some kind of information regarding the show, and were left with a pathetic concert in return. The Backseat Lovers had the potential of getting the number two spot on my concert rankings from this summer but unfortunately fell into the last slot.
Ranking the concerts in the order of my enjoyment was a no-brainer; Taylor Swift took the number one spot, Louis Tomlinson took the second, followed by Noah Kahan in third, and The Backseat Lovers in fourth. Through it all, I had an absolute blast this summer at each of the concerts I attended and will forever be grateful for the opportunity I got to hear all of these songs live.