Awash in a Sea of Ecstasy

[I am aware of the fact that my gig posts tend to be the least viewed of all my posts, for some odd reason.  Perhaps there is a bit of a disconnection between most of my blog readers and my passion for live music.  However, I do have a few serious questions (at the bottom of this post) for those of you who would tend to overlook this type of post, so feel free to skip to the end (I promise I won't be offended).  And, for this particular gig post, I am focusing much more on how it made me feel, rather than just on the music, itself.  Perhaps that may prove to be a better balance for this blog.]

So, the first thing I should mention is that the sold-out Two Door Cinema Club (TDCC) gig that T and I attended on Saturday night seemed to attract all the coolest (and cutest) indie boys (and a fair number of girls) in the area.  Of course, the fact that it was a Saturday night and an all-ages gig helped, obviously.  But, if I were to be honest, out in the stage floor it was, distinctly, quite underage (if the average age was even 17, I'd be rather surprised).  It was like an overly-crowded high school party, with the best music playlist and with only the coolest kids invited.  And this fact made the gig so much more fun, because not only does a much younger audience like this one get as excited as I do, but they also understand how to dance properly at a gig (mostly vertical, and not overly horizontal, and seemingly non-stop), they know the lyrics, and they even know enough to properly appreciate the more obscure songs.  So, I was definitely amongst my kind of people! =]


What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club (Live in Seattle)

Our show was TDCC's last American gig for the year and they didn't hold anything back, either.  They even played some of my favourite non-album and EP-only songs, and the best bit was that everyone seemed to know these songs as well as I do.  So, when they played Costume Party, it felt like we were all connected by our shared enthusiasm for this song, and we all jumped and moved together as one, amongst an unruly sea of ecstatic boys (and girls).  This is one of the few times that I can think of when it's acceptable to grab onto a total stranger and use them to launch yourself ever-higher skyward.  As it turns out, T and I got separated for most of the gig and we both ended up dancing with random cute boys independently, some of whom we hung out with for a bit after the show (only one of which was gay, apparently).  It's easy to make friends with those (gay or straight) with whom you have just shared and released such energy and passion with.  It's like something that binds you to someone without having to talk about it due to its rather intimate and very physical experience.

Anyway, the venue got so hot and stuffy from so much expelled body heat that some of the guys began losing their shirts towards the end.  So, the last few TDCC songs included some random dancing and bumping into sweaty, bare chests and backs, which was a bit unusual, but hardly unwelcome.  It probably sounds much gayer than it really was.  It's actually closer to proper heterosexual male bonding (indie kid style) than anything else.  We all shared several hours together without any self-conciousness or pretence, just the pure joy of being young and expressing our shared love for the same music.

T and I talked about this feeling and he said he finally felt what I have been talking about for months.  This feeling of feeding on others' energy and excitement whilst sharing your own with everyone around you.  It almost feels tangible at times.  And, even though we weren't together throughout most of the TDCC set, he said he could still almost feel my familiar presence around him.

It's a rather odd phenomenon to explain, but perhaps being immersed in a sea of such pure ecstasy, with such positive feelings for the same thing, may indeed connect its participants together, even for only a few hours or so.  Whatever the reason, when a gig works out as well as this one did, I find it to be simply a magical experience indeed. =]

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So my questions for those of you who perhaps don't feel music as intensely about it as I do, or perhaps don't feel as passionately for music anymore (or perhaps, ever?) are:

1. Are these deep feelings toward music something that you simply begin to lose touch with at some along the way point when you have 'become an adult'?
2. Do you still listen to the music you grew up with, and if you do, does it make you feel nostalgic for your youth, or does that music bring back the same feelings you had when you listened to it back then?
3. Do you think that the emergence of new musical genres that you didn't like may explain the reason for your disenchantment for newer music?
4. Do you 'use' music to help you deal with emotional situations in your life (i.e., to help you express sadness, anger, joy, etc.) or is this something that one tends to outgrow after youth?
5. I understand that a passion for music may get crowded out of one's life as more responsibilities enter the picture, but is it by choice (as in, you choose to grow out of it) or is it that one just simply forgets what that passion feels like as an adult?