Another Concert

On Tuesday my sisters told me that my posts of late have been boring, I say sisters because there are several. (No one probably will get that joke) Anyway, yesterday I sat staring at the computer screen and I never really had anything to post about. This seems to happen a lot on Wednesdays, it is like somehow the whole day my brain is just off somewhere. So sorry for no post yesterday. :p

On Monday I once again embarked on a journey to the state fair for a concert, this time though it was not a Christian concert. It was a country music concert. I will let those words sink in a bit..... :p Yes I listen to country music, I can almost hear the collective groans from readers as I type. I think I have said this before, but I love music and that love is not just restricted to one genre of music, I like to listen to everything under the sun, well to a point. Anyway on Monday some friends and I had tickets to see Josh Turner, a country musician.

While I do listen to country, there are only a few artists who I really would go out and buy a cd of. Josh Turner happens to be one of these, so I was rather looking forward to see how he would be live. The arena's lights went down and the band came out and started strumming, everyone around me seemed to to think this was the coolest thing in the world and were on their feet cheering. Then Josh Turner comes out and the sheer volume of the crowd was actually hard on the ears! I have been to country music concerts before so I pretty much expected this, but the whole thing suddenly just seemed wrong to me.

The Mercy Me concert on Friday was probably one of the best concerts I have been to, the whole atmosphere, the spirit of the crowd, was one of worship. Not for the band up on the stage but rather to the Lord. The Josh Turner concert on the other hand was such a stark contrast to that, that I actually considered leaving the concert. The actions of the crowd just really made me wonder about the people there. Throughout the whole concert, you had women screaming "Josh" or just screaming for no clear reason. Several rows in front of us there were these girls, I have no idea of their ages since all I saw was the back of their heads, but for almost the entire concert they were on their feet screaming and waving every time Josh turned their way.

I know this will sound harsh and I don't mean to judge people I don't even know, but one thought in my head during the concert was how disgusting those peoples actions were. I like Josh Turner's music and I clapped after some of his songs that I really like, but a lot of the crowd seemed to just worship him. After the song it was not like they were screaming/cheering for a well played song, rather they were screaming/cheering for the singer himself. The performance of the music did not matter, rather it was all about the artist.

I have been to country music concerts as well as other "secular" concerts and going in you know the crowd is going to be different but this is the first one where the crowd atmosphere was just sickening to me. About a month ago I wrote a post on music, secular and Christian, how we as Christians should listen to it and how the lines between each are blurred. I never published it, but writing it really has made me change how I view music and listen to it. So maybe the country and rock concerts I have been to in the past have always had this atmosphere and I just have not been as in tuned with the Holy Spirit and what is edifying as I am now, I don't know. One thing I am sure of is, I will not be going to a Josh Turner concert again.