Iron Underground

The first concert I went to was in July of last year, my parents and I went up to Red Rocks to see an artist I grew up listening to, Norah Jones. One of her songs is actually used in the interval section of the all-state preparation packet that we use in class sometimes, so I think that’s a cool connection. We got these tickets as a birthday present for my mom. We surprised her with them when they went live and let her pick her seats. My mom absolutely loves jazzy music and has been playing Norah’s music for as long as I can remember. She was so excited, and it made me super happy that I got to surprise her with an experience I knew she would love. I’ve gone to a few symphony concerts before, but it’d never actually been to see a music artist live that isn’t in that setting before, and it was honestly an awesome experience that I’m so excited to have been able to go to. Norah Jones has super calming, bluesy music, but this concert was mainly for her newest album, which has more of a jazzy tone than her older music that I was used to hearing. Red Rocks was a super cool venue, I’d heard about from friends and family who have attended concerts there before, but I had never actually looked it up or seen photos or videos of performances there, so I had no idea what I was going to see when I got there. The first thing I realized was that there were a lot of stairs at the venue, and my mom and I were both laughing about just how slow we were walking the whole time. Our seats ended up being like directly in the center of the seating, and it was an amazing experience. It was like the sound was bouncing off all the walls and coming back at us, especially since we were so close to the center. It kind of reminded me of how it sounds when we sing in the airlock or in the stairwell at school with the reverb and echo. It also really fit her style of music super well, and it added another level of depth the the sound. The second event I attended last year wasn’t a concert, but funny enough, it was also a birthday present, this time it was for my birthday. For my birthday, one of the things my parents got me was tickets for all of us to go see Wicked at the Buelle, because my parents know I’m a musical theatre nerd and they love me. This is actually the second time they’ve given me theatre tickets as a gift, the first time I got to see the Lion King at the Buelle for Christmas, but that one got pushed off a couple of years for COVID, but it was my first time seeing a Broadway production. Seeing Wicked was amazing, it was my second Broadway show, and my mom went all out with our seats, we were only about a handful of rows back from the stage, at it was crazy, I was giddy the entire time. Seeing The Lion King live was one thing, but seeing Wicked, a show I had listened to and idolized for years, was on another level entirely. I practically cried when I saw Defying Gravity live. My mom had been talking it up to me for years, she got to see it live the last time that it came through Denver, and has always told me how amazing it was seeing it and how her cloak took up the entire stage when she started flying. I’ve listened to the soundtrack to this show for a while, like any good theatre nerd would and I’ve cried my eyes out to the song Mr. Smith uses for the cast before the show enough times that I know a lot of them by heart, and heard them enough that I thought I wouldn’t be caught of guard by anything. I was so, so wrong. Everything about listening to the music live was surreal, and I will say for the rest of my life that if you like the music, you need to see the show live to have a true appreciation for how the music is supposed to be heard. Everything is louder, deeper, and richer when being heard live. I went to my next concert the first week of school, I got to go see one of my favorite bands at Washington's on that Friday. This show was by the Crane Wives. They’re a folk rock band, and I’ve loved their music for such a long time. I’ve been listening to their songs since before I even actually knew who the band was, which I found funny when I purposely went to add their music to my playlist. They had an opener, whose name I can’t remember, but his music was really good, it was kind of like chill, calming country music. The kind of stuff you want to listen to when it’s raining outside. My dad immediately added his songs to his playlist, and it was really cool because the band came out to sing a couple of songs with him during his set, and from what they were saying, they were all friends, and he had actually performed at a lot of their shows. I had never been to Washington’s before, my parents still called it the wash bar, and told me all about how sketchy it used to be, and horror stories of concerts they had attended there before, but it was actually really nice when we got there. There was a really pretty stained glass window and you could see the exposed brick of the original building, which I thought made for a nice touch. This concert was mostly standing room only, but we ended up on the upper level where we could lean against the ballistraid, so it ended up fine. It was so cool being in a room full of people who had the same taste in music as me; we were all super close to each other, but I honestly didn’t mind, and that surprised me. It was surreal hearing their music live, it really added to the folk element of their music, it sounded like I should have been sitting under a tree in medieval times, escaping my chores or the plague. And the band was super interactive with the audience, and that was super fun, and it made all of us feel even more involved with the concert. The most recent thing I attended was the How to Train Your Dragon symphony that we all went to see with the entire music department. It was such a cool experience, I’ve done this kind of thing before, but it was still so fun because I was doing it with my friends, and it’s a movie that we all love, and is full of childhood nostalgia. I know I probably shouldn’t enjoy the fact that we were late, but honestly, it just added to the charm of the entire night. Laughing as a swarm of teenagers sprint for the theatre while Karen is absolutely dragging me across the sidewalk to get there as quickly as possible is probably one of my favorite memories from the night. Realistically, I know that it was a school trip, but honestly, it just felt more like a fun night in Denver with my friends. We were all laughing and joking around on the bus, playing games and just messing around to keep ourselves entertained. Once we got to the theatre, like I said, it was oddly memorable getting there late, even it it was really awkward going into the actual show late and having to walk past people who were already sitting down. When test flight played for the first time, you could hear the entire theatre gasp, half of us ended up with tears in our eyes, and I basically sat with my hand over my mouth for the entirety of that song. That movie had such a profound impact on me as a kid, and I know it was the same for so many other people as well. This movie has always been a symbol of hope, and overcoming prejudice for working together and figuring out differences with people (or dragons) we don't get along with. There was something magical about seeing it with a live orchestra, and getting to experience it with my friends, and more so people who I know understand music and it’s impact just as much as I do just added to how memorable the entire experience was, as a kid who gre up with the movie, and a music student.