I saw Sleeping With Sirens for free

Today Sleeping With Sirens played a free show in my city as a part of the "Downtown Rocks Summer Concert Series" It was so much fun but also some interesting things happened so I feel the need to recount it:

Since it was a free show for a popular band, my friends and I arrived almost 3 hours early to secure good spots. Originally, as we walked towards where the stage would be we couldn't see anyone else who looked like they were there for the concert, and became foolishly confident that we were going to get a good spot. However, as we got to the stage we quickly realized that those 3 hours had not been enough and that there was already several rows between us and the barricade. Though, it being a free concert and all, I could hardly be upset. 

The more important concern was that, because we live in the dessert and its summer, it was very hot. It was supposedly around 109 degrees and we still had 3 hours of standing before the band even came on. About an hour and a half in, my friend (Who had not eaten anything all day) started to become faint and told me that her vision was starting to go in and out. Luckily, since we had come in a group of 4, I was able to take my friend out of the sweltering and oppressively humid crowd to go get some water and food. After a few minutes of fresh, unsteamy air, we made our way back to our friends with probably over 50 "sorry"s and "excuse me"s. Very quickly after we returned to our spot, the girl next to me suddenly collapsed onto to the ground and by the time I had turned my head to look she was awake again, looking around dazed and confused. I ended up giving her some of my water and holding her and her friend's spots so they could go through the same motions I had just done with my friend. 

For another hour and a half, we waited and waited, listening to the dj and singing to songs like "Misery Business", "Paralyzer"and "Bring me to Life" by Evanescence. Eventually, the band came on and while I don't have much to say because everything I could say would bei an understatement to how fun and amazing the band was I had never previously heard/watched any of Sleeping With Sirens live performances so the moment Quinn began to sing I was so amazed by the clarity and strength of his voice. Even while moving around his vocal stayed so clean that he sounded like a studio recording. 

During one of the first few songs, one after another people began to crowd surf towards the front of the barricade. As the crowdsurfing came our way I got increasingly nervous watching as the crowd behind us was already struggling to keep them up. One of the crowdsurfers came our way and there must've been only a few people actually holding this girl up because, despite her small size, it felt like I was holding her up entirely by myself and had to continously adjust to try and keep her from falling. Because I have noodle arms, I quickly began to buckle under the weight of this already very small girl and was struggling to lift her. Because I was more so focused on not letting her drop, my glasses (I hate having to wear glasses at concerts) would get knocked off my face and I would be desperately pinching them inbetween my jaw and shoulder trying to stop them from falling to the ground and getting smashed to bits. Immediately after the first girl passed us another crowdsurfer came. Sporadically her head would make a drop towards the floor and people would rush to stop her from just barely splitting her cranium open. Similar to the first girl, I felt like I was carrying her all by myself and was really struggling to keep her up this time. While I was holding her up by her back she had no one supporting her head and dipped onto the floor. The girl crowdsurfing before her, who had somehow made no distance, ended up falling ontop of her as she fell onto the floor. I think they both ended up being okay as they got up and danced it off but I seriously felt like I was personally to blame for the second crowdsurfer basically being dropped onto her head (AND IF YOU ARE READING THIS IM SORRY). As every crowdsurfer reached the front of the barricade I watched as security would grab them and take them off somewhere. I'm still unsure where the security guard brought them but one of the girls eventually made her way back beside us and I (think) I heard the words "Arrested" being muttered to her friend. 

Sometime during the set a mosh pit started except it was so packed that when people moved to make room for the pit everyone got pushed forward and packed in like sardines. For a few minutes I was completely squished inbetween two people and I couldn't even move my arms. My face was so close to the people infront of me that all I could smell was their hair. The lack of room and humidity made the air so thick that I was struggling to breathe and would periodically look up or to the side to get some clean air. 

Towards the end of the concert, as the humidity and heat started to become unbearable I saw multiple people by us start to crouch onto the ground, looking unwell and usually with a fan in hand (Most of which were random paper flyers being violently flapped ), and hair so sweaty it was glued to the side of their face. One of these people crouching was my friend and the incredibly sweet people next to her immediately asked if she was okay and began to fan her with whatever they had. At the same time, a person behind us started to try and crowdsurf again but because there was a gap in the crowd (and people were no longer in the mood for crowdsurfing) he fell onto my friend. After getting up he began trying to crowdsurf again and grabbed onto my shoulder trying to hoist himself up (Which I moved away from to save myself from almost being crushed a third time)  

I ended the night drenched in sweat with aching feet but I had so much fun and am partly writing to this cope with my post-concert depression. 

(The Used also plays a free show here in October and I will definently be going and taking full advantage of the lack of heat) 

Also enjoy these shitty pictures I took on my digicam: