my first gig post covid

Finally after 2 years i got my life back with a concert, in fact now two. Money and a limited amount of bands I want to see usually mean around 10 concerts a year. So I was either building up to a concert or recovering after. The shut down meant a concert I was going to at the start of march 2020 and that was it.

My taste is mainly heavy metal and thrash. Unfortunately as at first I had to avoid mosh pits as I was getting old, now I have long covid. So I had to look forward to gigs watched at a safe distance. So pre covid I was enjoying the music but the experience was less then before. My last front and centre gig was Soulfly. Even then I had to retreat part way through as the stamina drained from me.

This is from someone who has been at the front for bands like Slayer, Pantera and Slipknot. Soulfly was just after my 50th birthday so I decided this was it. My next few concerts were hard, being at a distance left me twitching to dive in. At least there were gigs, then there wasn't.

2022 was a year I had decided I needed any gigs I could find and afford. I started with 10 plus taking my fiancé to see Lion King. Guess the first one that went ahead, yep Disney time.

Three concerts postponed or cancelled totally, then finally one still went ahead. I was counting down day by day, waiting for it to be cancelled. Finally the day arrived and I went . Ironically the band was called Therapy?.

They are a band I have been following for 30 plus years. In fact this was going to be a 30th anniversary tour in 2020 but didn't happen. I approached the venue with some trepidation, not sure to be masked or not. Not sure how the crowd would treat each other, very careful or totally care free. In the end it was pretty much as normal. Expensive drinks, a half decent support band and then the headliners.

Therapy? are one of the finest punk/pop/rock bands about and have outlived virtually all their contemporises. For a fan it was pretty much all the hits in 100 minutes, not bad when there were so many to choose from. Although watching from the back was still weird I still managed to sing myself hoarse. Feeling old when realised how old some of the songs were and how I knew every word. A great night and relatively gentle return to live music.

I say gentle because the next gig was polish death metal gods Decapitated. The venue is a converted boat and is set over a few floors. I manged to find my way to a corner with a decent view that wasn't the back but safely away from the mayhem at the front.

The crowd were fairly wild in front of the stage and at times I was glad I was safely ensconced in the corner. Though there were a couple of times I nearly went in out of sheer habit. At the start of the pandemic I had decided when concerts restarted I might come out of retirement but long covid ended that plan. At present i can barely stand for 2 hours let alone join a fevered mosh pit.

I went to the first aid after throwing up blood at a slipknot concert I was told "aren't you a bit old for this". "Probably" I said and only 15 years later I decided they might be right. The joys, or not, of getting old I suppose.

While I write this I have loud music on my headphones and memories of wild gigs. Maybe I will get to enjoy then again properly one day.