My First Punk Concert

Whenever I used to hear heavy metal, I used to get people to turn it off because I couldn't stand it. But after hanging out with Kevin, a friend who lives and breathes punk music, I've been gradually tolerating it. I went to my first punk concert yesterday although Kevin chose to ease me into the scene by choosing screamy emo pop punk music rather than starting me off with hardcore punk. Punk music is really fast, has about 3 guitars playing, drums and the singer doesn't quite sing the song but yells throatily like the sound you make when you go, "RAHH!" to someone so its quite hard to listen to the lyrics of the song.

I was worried about fitting in and didn't want to be the 'princess' there dressed uncool, in heels and looking all wrong so I wore lots of black, put a quiff in my hair, and put on some jewellery that I guessed might look punkish. When I got there, the line was huge to this sold out show to see Silverstein, a Canadian emo-rock punk band. The girls had cool hairstyles and the majority wore black and there were lots of piercings and tattoos. It wasn't the scary, gothic sort of look but more of a funky, punkish look. Like the dance scene, there are doorlists and bouncers and lines but luckily Kevin had us on the door so saved us $$$.

I was kind of nervous because I was worried someone might say to me, "You're a fake! You're not a punk chick!". I was also worried about my bright orange ear plugs that were factory-made ones that flare out of my ears like alien antennas and panicked when I forgot to buy clear ones so resolved the issue by cutting the orange ear plugs so they didn't stick out as much. If you ever go to a punk concert, you absolutely need to wear ear plugs, it's sooo damaging to your ears!

When the band, I killed the Prom Queen came on, all of a sudden this circle formed in the mosh pit, it was amazing how quick a wide circle was formed by guys doing a pushy sort of dance. And guys dance by thrashing their arms round and round like wheels of a bike and doing karate kicks in the air and other short bursts of quick moves that hurl them around the circle. No girls dance in the circle because they'd surely get knocked out. Last week, Kevin saw a guy got 4 teeth knocked out. It's really interesting to watch- the mosh pit would suddenly open up and I've never seen people dance that way before! (I wasn't standing in the mosh pit but on an elevated area watching everything). And the guitarists and singers thrash around the stage, doing karate-like kicks when playing the guitar, throwing their heads round and round with their long hair swaying about (not the gothic gross cuts but stylish long hairstyles), and even throw themselves onto the mosh pits with their instruments!

I'm not sure if I will enjoy a hardcore punk show but I enjoyed Silverstein and Getaway Plan which had a bit more melody to it which was why there were quite a few girls there (I Killed the Prom Queen was more metalcore). For anyone who wants to have a listen, download 'Giving Up' by Silverstein which is a really good song! It's soft- punk so isn't so hardcore and easier to listen to.

Silverstein