Fan-Girl Chronicles II: My Digital Druglord Tour Experience

So it’s been about two weeks since I went to see Blackbear in New Orleans for his Digital Druglord Tour. Even though it wasn’t as eventful as the last concert I went to and I didn’t get to meet anyone, I still had fun. Getting a chance to go to New Orleans with my best friend to see one of my favorite artists is always an awesome experience. Also, getting to be a fan-girl for a few hours is also fun LOL 🙂

Getting There…

For some reason, the traffic from my hometown to New Orleans does not like me. I know it can be crazy but this was ridiculous. In my mind, it’s a Saturday and we left at a decent enough time to make sure we would get there with a little free time before the show to chill or whatever. But, boy was I wrong.

After driving for almost 45 minutes to an hour we had to turn around and take an entirely different route to New Orleans due to road work and one lane being closed on one of the busiest highways to travel on. But I still thought we’d be okay. Wrong again! We still got stuck in traffic in Baton Rouge but mainly New Orleans. There was another concert happening that night but traffic was seriously at a standstill.

Parking was also pretty interesting but we made it work. We then walked to House of Blues and were a little pressed for time but we still had to eat. After staring at the long a$$ line and a little awkwardness, we decided to just go and eat at the restaurant in the House of Blues. It set us back a little bit but the food was so good. Also, by the time we were done eating, there was pretty much no more line.

The Show…

Now, before everything, let me just say how disappointed I was that ELHAE was not at this show. I had noticed that his name was not on the list of acts when we got to the venue. I seriously wanted to cry but I WILL see him live one day. We also missed Lil Aaron who I was curious to see but it’s all good.

Once me and Rachel finally got inside and were brought to our seats (that were awesome by the way) it was 24Hrs’ set. I was a little unsure about him when I first heard his music but watching him perform and interact was dope. He was fun to watch. My girl was even getting into him a little bit.

After 24 and before Bear came out, the DJ, Jerry Good, came to hype up the crowd. He was super fun and entertaining. He played the most random songs but the crowd was singing word for word. I recorded a lot of it because it was so awesome.

Then it was time for Blackbear to come out. I started freaking out a little because I was so excited to see him. He came out and sang a song from his new album “Hell is Where I Dreamt of You and Woke Up Alone”. I was surprised but extremely happy that he started his set with that.

He pretty much performed all of my favorite songs, including the acoustic versions of some of them. He played the guitar and the piano. His set was probably about 2 hours which I was very impressed with. The stage setup and lighting was amazing. I truly loved everything about it.

And to make things a bit better, towards the end of the show, some people came into our area and stood right in our view of the stage. The security for our section had said that if the people in the row in front of us didn’t show up then we could sit there. Guess what? They didn’t show up! So my friend persuaded me to go and when I did, I lost it. My view was great before but after I moved, it was even better.

* I am working on a YouTube video with all of my concert footage. I will update this post as soon as I edit and upload the video to my page. *

Would I Have Done Anything Differently?

There are normally a lot of things I wish I could change or do differently but not so much this time. I guess it would’ve been good to leave a couple of hours earlier than we did but we couldn’t have predicted that traffic. The second thing is that I wish I would’ve dressed a bit more casual and with less makeup. Lastly, I wish we would’ve waited outside of the venue to see if Bear would’ve come out by the buses, which he did. I saw him with fans on his Instagram story a little while after we had left.

Final Thoughts…

Even with all of those words typed above it still doesn’t do Blackbear or the overall show experience justice. Initially when I told my friend about this concert and about Blackbear, she didn’t know what to think LOL. But when it comes to music, she trusts me and once again, I didn’t let her down. Things like that make me love being such a fan of music.

There are a few things I want to say about the crowd and others’ reactions, though. Now, first of all, it was an all ages’ show but I was not expecting all of those teenagers. It’s not a bad thing, I just wasn’t expecting it. That, though, is also why I am very glad that I had exchanged my general admission floor seats for better balcony seats.

Now, with all of that in mind, so many people were reacting negatively to the show. While we were in the restaurant eating, we could hear the music being played and the waitress made the comment that they were playing that kind of music because it was a “kid’s show”. Then during the show, some people were passing though from another show and when they looked at Bear and the crowd, they shook their head and scowled. That kind of pissed me off.

I just feel that the negative reaction wasn’t necessary. Yes I felt a bit out of place at first because of the young crowd but that wasn’t first or last time I will be at that kind of show. I don’t see age, I see talent. I do like younger artists and some of the older artists I like have younger fans. But at the end of the day, most of us are there for the same reason. We are there to enjoy some music and escape reality for a few hours.

I am dedicating this to the victims of the tragedy in Manchester. It’s awesome to see so many people and music artists coming together for this. All these kids wanted was to see their favorite artist and escape from the stress of the real world for a few hours. No one expects this kind of tragedy to happen. So I am sending my love and prayers to everyone affected…