this side up

as a kid that was such a huge fan of the local music scene, i've always wanted to go to this certain university's fair. it came and went every year, and i've been losing interest in live performances in general. i liked them, yeah, but i found that a lot of the concerts i've been in were mostly forgettable messes. i've gone to concerts of both local and foreign bands. i've gone to concerts with family, friends, a romantic partner, and alone even. but somehow none of them ever really struck me as memories worth keeping, and i've mostly given up.

all that changed until recently.

somehow i got dragged into going to the said fair i've been meaning to go to as a kid, and somehow i had a memorable experience.

i had finally seen my favorite bands perform. i used to think that listening to their albums was much better because it sounded cleaner than what you hear from stage speakers, but i've grown to appreciate the live experience as a means to feel connected with the actual band, by releasing your inhibitions and just be one with the music. unfortunately, the generation gap was more apparent for having known the bands' older songs that the young crowd barely knew the lyrics to, but i guess that's what you get from music festivals kind of set up.

the fair was unique in that it had activist groups that went up on stage to advocate for whatever they stood up for. i used to want to be part of their lot, perhaps in an alternate timeline, it would have been the case, but as it stands, i'm on the opposite end of the fence. but really my favorite part of the whole activism schtick was at one point, when everyone else were chanting along and being enthralled, i had my phone out researching the specific government order that the activist group was rallying against to actively discern what they were fighting for and the intention of the opposing side. it never occurred to me that i would ever do something remotely related to work during a music festival, weird how life turns out.

and unexpected is, i believe, the whole theme of this.

i perhaps wouldn't have had this particularly pleasant experience if not for the company i had at the time. i was with a new found constant whom i seem to have been growing, in my estimation, the best relationship i'm having so far in this new chapter of my life. perhaps since day one, my experience with having known her can easily be summed up as "fortuitous" - i had never expected her to be interesting, i had never expected us to jive well enough, i had never expected to have enjoyable times together - and somehow i had never expected to actually have a memorable concert experience in this lifetime.