Aca-Mazing!

This week, I went to my first concert at the Brandon Amphitheatre. First of all, SHAME ON ME for waiting so long to attend an event here. It's been open for more than a year, and I had yet to make it by for a concert. (In my defense, I'm not a huge live concert person. Plus, the amphitheater is open-air, meaning that in Mississippi, there's a good chunk of the year when you're taking a gamble planning to be outside for any significant length of time. Summer heat can be brutal here.)

BUT my bestie Melanie had heard that acapella sensation Pentatonix would be there in concert, and she'd gotten us two really great tickets! (We were in center orchestra on the third row!) Mel and I forged our friendship, in part, during years of cutting up during choir, honor choir and sextet rehearsals. What can I say? Once a choir nerd, always a choir nerd.

I arrived early. Rachel Platten (whose "Fight Song" you've undoubtedly heard on the radio) was opening for them at 7:15 p.m., so I planned to be there at around 6:30/6:45. If you've never been, the amphitheater is easy to get to, with plenty of staff and officers directing traffic on event nights. There's lots of surrounding parking, so finding a spot is easy. (Be aware, the closest parking spots are typically reserved for special/VIP admission, so you'll likely have to park in a spot a little further away.)

A quick breeze through security and a flash of your tickets gets you inside. They have plenty of concessions and clean restrooms, and I hardly waited in a line the whole time I was there, despite the amphitheater being pretty full for this event. I found our seats, chatted with other concert-goers, and welcomed Mel when she arrived.

When Platten took the stage, she was adorable! I hadn't heard much of her other songs, and they were really good. She was so obviously thrilled to be there (or if not, she put on an excellent show of it), and she was so optimistic and positive, both in her music and in the comments she addressed to the crowd. (During her set, I also noticed the nice production/technical equipment they have in this facility. It was impressive. No audio troubles, no light snafus. Really well outfitted and run.)

Then, after a short break, it was time for Pentatonix! They sounded amazing and were extremely well-rehearsed. The sound is so rich and full that it's hard to believe that you're only hearing the voices of five people. They did several fun covers as well as some of their original music, and one member had a really cool song with a loop and a cello that the crowd went nuts for.

Maybe the most touching thing to me - a bunch of members of a local school choir had come to see this show together. They had tickets to stand in the "mosh pit," and it nearly made me cry a couple of times to see how excited they were to be at this show with each other. Melanie and I exchanged knowing looks and remembered for a second what it felt like to be that young.

We lucked out with the weather, too. Because it had been rainy that day, it was still cloudy and cooler that evening. That spared us oppressive heat during the performance. There was even a little bit of a breeze! Such a blessing.

All of that to say, I thought this was a fabulous venue, and I'm very much looking forward to attending shows here in the future! It's a great size for our market (big enough, but not too big - There are no seats that are too far from the action.), it's shiny and new, and it's well staffed and run. A+!