Loud music and cheers from the crowd fill the room. Multicolor lights flash, illuminating the mass of people packed close together, dancing up and down. The energy radiates from the performers onstage, who pour their hearts and souls into their performance. This experience of being at a live music event, while unfamiliar to some South students and faculty, consumes the lives of others.

For freshman Adair McMahon, music has always been a passion. She says her music taste is  largely influenced by her mom.

“[My mom] loves 80s alternative bands] like Talk Talk and Simple Minds,” McMahon said. 

The alternative and indie style she grew up listening to carried over into McMahon’s current music taste. Senior Alana Swaringen also listens to indie and alternative, with her all time favorite band being Imagine Dragons.

“I’ve known [Imagine Dragons] since they were a smaller band, and they’ve always been very interactive with their fan base, so I’ve gotten to know them really personally,” Swaringen said. “[…] They all follow me on Twitter, and I’m friends with them on Facebook.”

Because she was such a big fan, the band actually recognized her in the audience and brought her onstage, according to Swaringen.

“I was so overwhelmed,”Swaringen said. “I felt like I was floating.”

Senior Meghan Hopkins had a similar experience at a Twenty One Pilots concert when, according to Hopkins, the lead singer Tyler came into the crowd while performing “Holding on to You” and held her hand.

“He reached out for my hand, and I just stopped breathing,” Hopkins said.

According to Hopkins, she prefers smaller concert venues to larger arenas because of the communal feeling shared amongst the audience.

“We’re all super close together, and we’re all singing the songs together, and you just feel like a family,” Hopkins said.

Like Hopkins, English teacher Scott Glass says he also prefers the smaller club feel to a sold out arena. At one University of Illinois concert, Glass met his wife.

“I just went to see this band by myself, and she happened to be there seeing this band too, by herself,” Glass said. “[…] It was the first night we really hung out and talked a lot and shared this great moment.”

In contrast to Hopkins and Glass, Junior Alejandro Alvarado says he loves the electric feel of a sold out show.

“The energy in big arena shows is euphoric,” Alvarado said. “Everyone forgets the outside world for two hours just to have fun.”

According to Alvarado, he loves pop music, his favorite artist being Miley Cyrus.

“My favorite concert was the Miley Cyrus concert in 2009 because I was seeing my idol for the first time,” Alvarado said. “I was crying because it was so amazing.”

According to Swaringen, music is not the only thing that attracts her to live shows, as she enjoys taking photos  as well.

“Most concerts I go to now, even when they are bands I want to see, I also bring my camera,” Swaringen said.

According to Swaringen, photography has brought her lots of opportunities. Her favorite opportunity was when the band The Arkells spotted her in the front row at Firefly Music Festival and asked her to come onstage.

“They wanted me to take a picture of them with the crowd in the background,” Swaringen said. “I was about to walk off stage after that happened, and then the leader singer, said ‘No you can stay and take pictures onstage.’ It was the coolest thing.”

Live music means many things for many different people. For Glass, it’s the idea of art being made in the moment.

“There is no real equivalent in […] art forms,” Glass said. “You don’t go to a studio with 100 or 200 other people and watch a painter paint on a canvas. It’s this moment where you are in the midst of something being made. Even if this band is playing stuff that they have already written and even released on a CD or album, there’s still that ‘in the moment,’ that spontaneity.”