Electricity by Charli-Jane Holden
Do you ever think about why you go to gigs? Is it because you need to? want to? What is it that really draws you in?
I feel like it’s pretty fair to say, “everyone loves gigs”, most of us enjoy them right? There’s a feeling of universal happiness experienced by all, in some way at a gig. Yeah, some people go because they want to fit in, like sheep under the spell of the band-wagon horn Triple J frequently honks. Maybe they just enjoy getting pissed with their mates, flogging around to the music they play covers of in the garage. Some people, like me, go for another reason. We go because gigs bring out something else in life, some kind of next level, indescribable euphoria. See, for me live music is everything, my escape from a harsh reality: a dream-like adventure, but it’s real. I get to live, presently, wholeheartedly as my unearthed self. Gigs allow me to be whoever I want, no questions asked. Something I am (very quickly) realising I can’t live without.
When I’m at a gig, I just feel this electricity and I know I’m not the only one. There’s a few of us throughout the crowd, infected, secretly isolated, drowning in the next level glory of live music. Whether we’re thrashing to Mum Stole My Darts, grooving to Sunflower Sutra or bleeding our lungs out, sobbing to Fuck Off, it’s all the same. It electrifies you, a wave of emotion, fulfilment, freedom and absolute exhilaration crash over you. I notice it most when I go to gigs alone. It can be intimidating, a well of anxiety might form within, but trust me when I say it is impossible to actually feel alone at a gig. Look around and you’ll notice a stranger, make eye contact, and realise they feel it too- the electricity, that is. For us, music is our outlet – listening, writing, performing, moshing – it gives us sweet release. We get to let everything go, for an hour or two and just focus on the words burning into our minds and the sweat dripping down our backs.
Discovering a song that moves you is one thing, but feeling that live, in the flesh, is otherworldly. Picture yourself where you prefer to be at a gig; are you sitting and swaying, cruisin’ at the back with your mates, smushed up against the barricade, circling in the mayhem of the pit or maybe holding hands with your crush? Wherever you are, that dreamlike feeling flows through you, keeps you ticking. The artist takes you on their journey, each band bringing their own thrill. The crowd lapping up every ounce of energy given off... You become fully engulfed in whatever world your mind takes you to, get to move however YOU want to move and feel what YOU want to feel. You get to live.
Once you realise the band feel the electricity too, we all begin to radiate off of each other. A spark grows into a fire that rages within, connecting those in the crowd truly taken over by the electricity; mesmerised, satisfying the craving. For a coupla hours, everything is nothing and nothing is everything. That’s all we need to keep us going. Nothing compares, I have searched. I’m still searching for that feeling somewhere beyond the dark glow of a gig, so I can feel it all the time. I want to bask in the blissfulness forever, but I don’t think it works that way.
These bands and artists change my life every day, for that I am eternally thankful.
In a time where live music is scarce, it feels like my world has been flipped upside down. I never considered a life without it – never a doubt in my mind that it would be taken from me. Now that it’s here, my worst nightmare, I am reconsidering everything. I’ve realised that I truly do not think I can sacrifice the freedom, the outlet, the electricity I can only seem to find at gigs. I know I am not the only punter who thinks about it every day. Our time is now, for gigs, for mates, to live and celebrate growing up – we all gotta do it someday, surely. For those of you who feel this too, don’t let your electricity fade, when the time comes, we’re gonna cause an explosion.
words by: Charli-Jane Holden
images by: Charli-Jane Holden & Tom Wilkinson