Riley Biederer – FIRST CONCERT EVER

In this First Concert Ever segment, the singer-songwriter, Riley Biederer, talks about the story of her first experience with live music. You can check out the story, after the break.

I’m sure there was a show or two I went to as a child, filling amphitheaters with music my parents loved that I can’t remember, but the very first concert I consciously went to was Taylor Swift. Talk about starting at the top! I secured the tickets through my management at the time and excited out of our 16-year-old minds, my best friend and I (and both our moms) made our way to downtown Atlanta for the Speak Now Tour held at what is now the State Farm Arena. We rented two hotel rooms to make an entire girls night out of it. After taking some extremely cringe hotel lobby photos in our cowgirl boots and dresses, side bangs and all, we made our way in for the show. Let me tell you, nobody, and I mean NOBODY puts on a concert like Taylor Swift. The props, the costumes, the mid-song banter, and transitions, it’s absolutely enchanting (no pun intended). Somewhere in between opening with Sparks Fly and encoring with Love Story, the songstress parted her way through the crowd, heading to the other side of the arena to a smaller stage for an acoustic set, but not before grabbing both my friend and i’s hands mid-walk. It lasted for about 2 seconds but was enough to trigger the uncontrollable scream in your idols face moment. I don’t know if I’ll ever forget that. I’m 26 now and have been to 2 more Taylor tours since then, each one is more captivating than the last. As a songwriter in this generation, Taylor is the pinnacle when it comes to the craft, and watching it come to life time and time again on stage only confirms how much of a force of nature she is. Experiencing that as a 16-year-old aspiring singer/songwriter was absolutely a core memory and undeniably changed me and inspired me to keep pursuing music.

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