I’ve been on the hunt for live music ever since my first live concert experience last summer, but as much as I enjoy live music, I’m also a very practical person. I’m not about to follow my favourite band around on their world tour or anything, but I have been keeping an eye out for artists in Philly.

When I heard the line-up for the Bryn Mawr Concert Series (BMCS) Fall 2015 Concert, I was so excited that I recognized 2/3 of the acts. Our resources are limited as a small liberal arts college, but when we do get someone, it is because of our small size that the experience is so intimate.

In fact, the second floor balcony of the Campus Center (the concert venue) was blocked off so that everyone would be standing close to each other and create a dense buzz of energy. Which is all well and good unless you’re short like me and this kind of thing only leads to a dense canopy of tall people.

At times like these, I like to exploit my reputation as a photographer. With my handy dandy fancy schmancy camera in hand, I ask my BMCS connections if I can go up to the balcony, surreptitiously bouncing the camera in my hand all the while, hinting that I’d be taking pictures, giving them the idea that they could possibly use my pictures (more like planting the idea (inception)), but without explicitly committing to it. Everyone loves having pictures, so of course they say yes 😉

(Just to clarify, I did end up giving BMCS photos to post, because I’m a person of integrity and not of half-truths. hire me plz)

I can’t believe that this guy is a senior at NYU. His new (“new” since Sept. 25, 2015 according to his Twitter (why doesn’t this guy have a Wikipedia page? It took me so long to figure out that his name is Ari)) EP Lost in the Light only has five songs, so you should go listen to them all. I’ll definitely be following along and looking out for new songs! The song that first got me into his music is The Other.

I’m so proud of my Instagram caption* for this photo. It’s a play on the lyrics of Reforget. Also, Lauv was the fifth person to like my Instagram photo. Yes, exactly the fifth, and yes, I screenshotted it. I proceeded to check out other photos he’d been tagged in on Instagram and saw that he likes most pictures he’s tagged in, so it’s like nbd. Audrey, keep your chill.

*Edit: Photo removed from Instagram because I’m anal about my feed. Caption read: blurry *photo* but you’re on my mind.

Gallant is also an NYU alum. You’ve probably heard his song Weight in Gold. My favourite of his is Manhattan, and his cover of Foo Fighter’s Learn to Fly is… transformative. But I’ve gotta say, Gallant is one of those people you need to see live. His performance is electric. Studio recordings and photographs don’t come even close. And not just because of the fact that he’s always in motion and making my photos blurry because I’m an amateaur. Toward the end of his set, he even jumped off stage and danced in the crowd as the band carried on playing.

I tried to capture some of the night on Snapchat @auderoylin, and I uploaded it to YouTube so you can check that out below. If you click through the video and see the YouTube description, I’ve included time stamps for the three different artists if there’s a particular one you want to skip to.

The guy you hear screaming at 0:34? That’s Lauv rockin’ out to Gallant from right next to me.

I feel like I didn’t make enough of this moment. I was up in the balcony taking pictures, and after their set, after posing for pictures with people downstairs, they came up to the balcony to watch the rest of the concert, and the balcony upstairs isn’t even that big so they were basically right next to me. I could have reached out and touched him. In fact, before I left the concert, I poked him and said good job and left. I mean, we were right next to each other so I wasn’t exactly in his field of vision and I didn’t know what to call him because I didn’t know his name, and even if I did, I feel like it’d be oddly personal to be on a first-name basis with someone I hadn’t even really ever met.

I’m definitely overthinking this. I mean, he’s just a person. A hugely musically talented person, yes, but still a person. The banister will give way when he leans on it as he vigorously bobs his head to live music; it will steady itself when he lifts his weight as he stretches up to give a big whoop when Gallant hits those incredible notes. He’s just a person. So I ask myself how I’d react seeing my friend after he’d just finished performing. I’d just poke him and say good job and carry on my merry way, right?

That night I created a new list in my notebook titled, “What to ask famous people.”

tl;dr– Gallant performed at Bryn Mawr College with opening acts Javelin and Lauv. Being a photographer is a great all-access pass, but I’m incapable of interacting with famous people.

PS: George Ezra