What Makes a Concert?

Concerts. We all frequent them and swear on our lives that they’re the greatest thing you could ever experience. But what really makes a good concert?

Written by Celeste Wen

Imagine this: you’re at a venue waiting for a concert to start, feeling squashed in the pit, claustrophobic and anxious, and hoping those two sodas you chugged earlier won’t make themselves known until the end of the show. Suddenly the lights go out, there’s a murmur, a hush, and all hell breaks loose as the headliner takes the stage. It’s all energy and adrenaline culminating into a hectic, yet beautiful experience.

Now, imagine this: you’re standing leisurely in the GA area, chatting with other friendly strangers before the show starts about how you got there or your favorite song on the setlist. When the artist takes the stage, they crack some joke that loosens up the atmosphere, and everyone enjoys a night filled with good music and relaxing vibes.

Two very different scenarios, but equally as inviting, if you ask the right people. With a limitless amount of possibilities, is anything a “must” to a concert scene? Is there such thing as a perfect concert if we combine the right elements together? And what do people really think of when you ask them what makes a concert great? I took to canvassing local UT students to find out, posing the following questions:

“What kinds of concerts do you prefer? And what do you think is essential to a good concert, and why?”

I first got an answer from someone who prefers larger, energetic shows. “I think that big shows are better for people like me, because you connect with the people there and they’re there for the same reason you are. And of course, when a large crowd starts to sing the same song it’s the best feeling ever. And the one thing that’s essential for concerts is stage presence. Dancing, fireworks, and light shows are amazing but if the singer or band can’t connect with the crowd, or are just lazily standing around and singing the song, it’s just not really a good concert,” third-year biology student Simge Imran* says.

Next, I asked second-year urban studies major Jessica Gingt, who preferred smaller shows, but quickly divulged that it involved more than just venue size: “I’ve been to both large stadium and small venue concerts and in my opinion, smaller shows are better. [They’re] less crowded and you’re closer to the artist on stage. And performance from the artist is a big factor for it being a good concert. The energy of the singer should be high and they should interact with their fans,” she says.

She even had something to say about the setlist, noting that it had to match the crowd’s energy: “A good setlist that is well put together results in a great concert. There should be peaks and it should flow nicely with the audience’s mood,” Gingt says.

Most importantly? “The ideal show should have a majority of the fans being super-fans, singing and dancing along with high-energy. I’ve been to concerts where people weren’t really fans of the artist which really killed the mood,” Gingt says.

Nehal Kamel, a second-year English major and another advocate for small concerts, says, “I like small concerts because they’re more intimate, and you can really feel the connection between the artist and fans. Everyone knows them and is part of the same community so it’s nice.”

So, what is our final takeaway?

Whether big or small, you come to notice a common theme: the connection between the artist and the fans, and the overall atmosphere that creates. We go to concerts because we love the artist and the music, and we stay because they reciprocate that same love and energy.

In order for a concert to be most impactful, it’s not enough to simply have the experience; you need to feel like you’re a part of said experience.

This sense of belonging is what keeps us coming back time and time again.

*Name has been changed for privacy purposes.