Exit – FIRST CONCERT EVER

In this First Concert Ever segment, Andrew Manning of the pop rock band, Exit, talks about his first concert ever. You can check out the feature, after the break.

The first concert I ever went to was Van Halen back in 2007 for their reunion tour with David Lee Roth. As a kid, I was obsessed with classic rock. It was the genre that made me want to start playing guitar, and after trying (and failing) for a couple years to play Eddie Van Halen guitar solos, my dad got me tickets to this show at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

I remember strangely being a little bit nervous. I didn’t really know what the atmosphere was going to be like or how I was supposed to act. I was also surrounded by mostly people between the ages of 40-60, so I felt a bit out of place. Of course, all of those thoughts faded once the show began.

I was pretty immediately overwhelmed by the spectacle of live rock music. This was a HUGE first concert. Not just because of the size of the venue and the audience, but because I was seeing such a legendary band, decades after they became a sensation. There’s a feeling of timelessness that you get when you see a band that started so long ago, and yet still see and hear so much passion from them and their audience. They were unbelievable musicians, and it was incredible to see the amount of energy they brought. It was amazing to be in a room with so many people who shared the same love and passion for something, and that’s a feeling that I still get at concerts today.

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