The List Girl: The Surprise That Was the 8th Concert of My Life

I went to the most bangin' concert last night!! It was Modest Mouse at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City, for free-ninety-free as part of their Summer Twilight Concert Series. While I only know 3 of their songs, I had a bunch of friends that wanted to go, so I tagged along as well. We made a day out of going to tea, hanging at the gateway, and then partying it up at the concert.

Little did I know Modest Mouse fans were so crazy!!! I would have to legitimately say this is one of the most insane experiences I have had in my life. I expected it to be a chill night of sitting on the lawn with a cool breeze in my dainty summer sweater while listening to some cool music, but boy, was I wrong. After sitting and waiting in the hot sun for an hour, the concert started and everyone stood up. People crowded in as I knew they would, but things got much worse after the opening band left and Modest Mouse came on. Everyone was either drunk or high, or just freaking hyper and out of their minds! I don't quite know how to explain the progression from regular concert crowd to 7 people touching me at once and getting pushed in every direction. Good thing I held onto my friends' hands as we made our way closer to the front, or else we would've gotten lost from each other and that would not be cool. True, our group did split up, but at no point was any girl left by herself in the midst of all the hoopla.

As my facebook status said,

"Shannon *Last Name* has never been that intimate with so many people in one night. Perspiration definitely occured."

I am seriously surprised at how quickly I became used to bodies all around me and liquid germs creating a second skin. I would not be exaggerating if I estimated that I had 500 people's sweat on me at the end of the night. You know when you go to a concert and you usually stick around the same familiar faces, but just shift a little around them? Well for the last hour every time I looked at the people around me, I saw new faces because people were constantly moving! We passed along about 10 crowd surfers and frighteningly found ourselves on the outskirts of many mosh pits. Don't ask why we continued to get closer, it was just one of those things like "how far can we make it before we die?"

Another thing I was surprised at was how everybody stayed standing, despite how many times people got pushed over. We were literally never NOT touching anybody, so once you got shoved, that meant that you shoved 5 other people behind you. How did we not create a human domino chain reaction? I kept expecting the entire crowd to just fall down in one large wave, but it never happened.

I think the thing that surprised me most was just the level of intensity at a show for such a non-crazy music genre. I would expect this type of behavior from fans of Disturbed or Metallica (12 people actually died at one of their Russian concerts), but definitely not Modest Mouse. Maybe it's just the combination of free music, beer, and a whole bunch of college kids? I don't know. But it was insane, even more so than Shinedown last year at the Saltair. The awesome part was that since we were moving so much, I didn't feel sore or tired from standing in one place the whole time! I know I'm pretty lucky that I didn't get hurt, and I should be careful and stay in the calmer areas of the crowds since I'm so small, but I quite loved what I experienced last night. I hope it happens again, but next time I'll be sure to not wear my cleanest and whitest shoes.