Concerts Quotes

“My friends joke that I’m dead until I get onstage. I’m dead right now as you’re speaking to me.”
― Lady Gaga

“Music doesn't get in. Music is already in. Music simply uncovers what is there, makes you feel emotions that you didn't necessarily know you had inside you, and runs around waking them all up. A rebirth of sorts.”
― Matt Haig, How to Stop Time

“When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“You can take and nail two sticks together like they've never been nailed together before and some fool will buy it.”
― George Carlin, Watch My Language

“Our eyes met and locked as the song came to a halt, followed by a screaming conclusion from the crowd, girls around us pressing me into the stage, forcing all the air out of my lungs, but I’d forgotten about doing anything so basic as breathing.”
― Emme Rollins, Dear Rockstar

“The bravest thing David Bowie ever did was to go on stage after Queen at Live Aid.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Raw, alive and honest to the point of disgusting it's listener, Placebo set out to inspire mystery and confusion. Admitting to relishing groups who could make their audience vomit with the sheer intensity of their musical vibrations, Brian clearly knew how to make an impact. Discussing sonic overload with unsettling enthusiasm, he claimed "Some frequencies can make you physically ill or make your bowels loose. The Swans used to do it. By the end of gigs people would vomit because the frequencies were so nasty.”
― Chloe Govan, Misunderstood: The Brian Molko Story

“She had forgotten about this, the narcotic of the crowd. This is why you came to hear music. To stop being yourself, to let that thing that you supposedly were go, and just be part of a mob, synchronized by the heavy beat, mesmerized by a singer with big smeary red lips, her spooky chant.”
― Janet Fitch, Paint it Black

“Liberace was certainly master and commander of the ivories ~ he is the only pianist I can watch or listen to without suffering a case of 'Stagefright Sympathy Sickness'.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

“We sometimes take photos (or record a video) so that we can later see what was happening while we were busy taking photos (or recording a video).”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“No one forgot how to play their instrument halfway through. No one ran amok in the audience. Nothing caught fire. Music played and I was so bored that my hair was bored.”
― Will Wiles, Care of Wooden Floors

“Now I know what happens at a gig, I will be ready for it, next time--I will come in just a T-shirt and shorts and books, and fight my way to the front, like a quietly determined soldier, and then let the band take my head off. I want to walk into rooms like that every night, with a sense of something happening.”
― Caitlin Moran

“A cough is the basic sign of inattention. Musicians never, in my experience, cough when playing in public.”
― Charles Rosen, Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist

“I'm afraid concerts spoil people for everyday life.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“It is morning, John Mayer Concert Tee. I have a series of problems that cannot be solved.”
― Amelia Gray, AM/PM

“U2 makes music for guys who have ears and can hear. But U2 makes concert imagery for guys who need visual stimulation to help push kidney stones through their urethras.”
― Jarod Kintz, Powdered Saxophone Music

“The Jackson 5 shook off the last song and readied for another sortie. The smallest Jackson movement, every tremble, elicited another wave of squeals from the Garden.

"I'd like to talk to y'all tonight," Michael said, "about the blues."

Carney chuckled--the kid was ten.

"The blues?" Marlon or maybe Jermaine asked.

"Yeah, the blues. Don't nobody have the blues like me. I may be young, but I know what it's all about."

The boys bit into "Who's Lovin' You" and the building rattled. The girls screamed. There were rumors about guys the mob had rubbed out and buried in the concrete foundation below. The noise would've woken them up. Carney shouldn't have laughed. What ten-year-old black child didn't know the blues?”
― Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto

“You betcha. If I get to punch a manic, lanky jerk in the face, my night will be complete.” I gave her a fierce grin, still riding off the energy of the crowd.”
― Alexandra Martin, Siren's Call

“Is the phrase 'pay' or 'play the piper'
I inquire, why
'Cause I admire a desire to flip the switch
Yeah make a way to face the music like
Life savings for a mosh pit riot
Listen to a mix
Rock the tickets, higher volume
Velocity which shakes a cockpit's pilot”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“In a live environment, the more bodies you put in a room, the more energy there will be. That's a real big payoff. That's really important, the live show, it's a big cycle of energy. If the audience is boring, it's tough to get excited about it.”
― Jay Reatard

“Music needs to be felt to be heard.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Music lets my fingers talk with a voice of their very own.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“So Many Concerts after Covid . . . so little time”
― Kevin Kolenda

“it was as if the ghosts of their youth had risen from their graves, strutting and preening in skintight leather and overly teased hair.”
― River L. Davis, Gnarly Little Thrill