Midnight Memories

Yesterday, I attended the One Direction concert here in Cleveland and I learned many things.

First, let's rewind to last September when tickets first went on sale.

Actually, let's go back even further to summer of 2012 when 'What Makes You Beautiful' was one of the biggest songs.  At first, I was annoyed with the song.  It was always on the radio, people were always singing it in public, and it was just in my face EVERYWHERE.  I was sick of it and would piss and moan every time I heard it.  Then, one of my best friends and I would hear it while heading to or home from the beach that summer and ironically I would sing along.  LeakyCon Chicago came around near the end of that summer and the song was still in full force.  People were jamming to it around the hotel and of course it was played at the Ester Earl Charity Ball where hundreds of us were jamming.  I had started to grow an appreciation for the song.

Time went by and I never paid the band much attention.  I did like 'One Thing' but that was about as far as I got.  Now, back to last September.  One of my other best friends had NEVER been to a concert before and she really enjoyed 1D's music and stated that she would love to see them in concert.  So when she found out they were coming to Cleveland on their tour next year I knew we would go so tickets were purchased.

The year leading up to the concert I again didn't pay them much mind.  I was going for a friend and I was okay with that.  Most of our time in the car consisted on listening to at least one of their CD's and while I caught on to a few of the songs, I never exclusive sought time to listen to their music.

Yesterday, the day came.  I was going to a concert where thousands of screaming girls,  most likely at least a few years younger than myself, would go absolutely bonkers for these guys on stage.  Oh joy.  However, the way the boys were on stage impressed me.  They were very thankful of their fans and you can tell that they know they wouldn't be where they are now if it weren't for the fans.  They were constantly thanking everyone and showing such an appreciative-ness that I have never seen at any of the several concerts I've been to.  In fact they even solidified that the lead singer of Papa Roach is an asshole because instead of thanking everyone he just called everyone fuckers.  The boys were also very mature but also had tasteful fun on stage.  They weren't trying to get with any girls and instead spoke to an older couple that were celebrating their anniversary.

In summary, these are the things I learned:

1. These thousands of screaming girls have passion and it's contagious.  They care so much for these gentlemen it's really quite astonishing.  Not all of them just want to bang them, they care about their life and are supportive through everything the band has been through this year.  It's really great to see something so positive in such a negative world.  I was given hearts and glow sticks by some of the fans that I didn't even know to hold up during certain songs to show support.

2. The UK raise their men right and the US has a looooong way to go to catch up.

3. The Rapid is full of thirsty dudes.  To the point of being ridiculous.

4. Take a chance on things.  You may learn something. ;)