Personal Narrative: Entourage

Sitting in the dark movie theatre with our popcorn and drinks, Emma Keider, 12 and I watched the commercials go by. As the film Entourage came on, a rock song with a moderate paced beat started playing. “This is the band I’m going to go see in September,” Keider said. “I like it. What’s the band’s name?” I said. “Royal Blood. Do you want to come see them with me?” Keider said. “Yeah, definitely,” I said. Several months passed and it was September 28 -- concert time. We left school early and headed to the Marquee Theatre in Tempe. We waited in line for what seemed like hours, but was really a half hour. As we were standing in line, we noticed that there were not many people our age, they were all older, but we also knew we were all there for the same reason -- Royal Blood. Once we got inside the venue, we waited for an hour and a half for the opening band, Bass Drum of Death, an American garage rock band that started in 2008, to come out on stage. There were people packing into the area. You could smell beer being absorbed into the atmosphere, see sweat trickle down people’s faces and feel the excitement in the air. Finally, smoke from the fog machines started growing thicker and Bass Drum of Death picked up their instruments and performed their songs.

Mike Kerr, the lead singer and bassist, would strum his bass guitar with distortion pedals and make the whole building vibrate with his thrilling chords. Ben Thatcher, the drummer, would shimmer and pound at his bouncing percussion instrument. Once they started playing their first song, “Figure It Out,” everyone already knew the beat and started cheering the lyrics. Drunk people started mosh pits, heads were banging to the beat and ears would become