This past Friday, I went to my second Hail the Sun concert ever and it was everything I needed, wanted, and hoped for; I had a fucking blast. For those who don’t know, HTS is my favorite band of all time. Of course, because I’m me because I’m boypuppy, I will link a few of their songs in this post.
I’ve been listening to them since 2018 at least or that’s when they first appear in one of my old playlists. I was 15 or 16 at the time and of course, I found it in a 5-hour long edgy playlist titled “everything is worse”. What a fucking edge-lord I was lo. Other honorable mentions stuck in the playlist were: Pannuci’s Pizza; Hot Mulligan; dandelion hands; salvia palth; and Worst Party Ever. Worst Party Ever was me in peak emo/mid-west emo/whiny-bitch-boy music. I have no regrets though, I still listen to them sometimes. I lied, my only regret is not listening to more girl-music during that time in my life. I don’t believe listening to midwest emo is bad, but listening to ONLY midwest emo is pretty bad for the developing mind of a teenager.
But I lost my topic, Hail the Sun, yes. The first song I heard from them was Relax/Divide (which they played at the concert, but I’ll get there). I’ll link it and when you listen to it know that I think this song shaped my attachment style…. unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a beautiful song and I’ll always love it.
Granted I took some time to truly get into them. I’ve always been more of a song listener than an album/artist listener. I hear a song and be like “man, that was really good” and move on about my day. It’s not typically until the 4th or 5th time that I’ve seen that artist pop up by chance that I really start listening to them. But once I was hooked, I was hooked.
This tour was the 10-year anniversary of their album ‘Wake’, which is the album that ‘Relax/Divide’ is on so I was hype af for this ever since they had announced it at the last show. Which, not to brag, but Donovan likes playing in ATL so much that at the first show that I went to he told the audience about the tour before officially announcing it. We get down in ATL, he loves us. Anyway, I was excited because that was the first album I had ever heard by them. I know all the songs, all the lyrics, the order the songs play in, the whole nine. That is my jammy jam.
I didn’t end up buying VIP tickets… just cause I guess. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t, I had the money at the time. But I digress, I still only played $40 and ended up near the stage so I definitely don’t regret getting general admission. However, my concert bestie (a fellow fan I met at my first concert) also went to the concert with me and they were VIP. They are literally one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. They were gracious enough to let me have their signed poster they got from the band, I’ll always remember them for that. And you know what’s literally insane? They drive almost 4 hours everytime HTS plays in ATL because that’s the closest show to them and I thought my lil 2-hour drive was a lot. Long story short, their amazing and I love them and we’re both die-hards for this band.
Ok, the concert. So I went with my friend and met up with my concert besties there. And all the whole drive there and days before I kept quoting that infamous white girl on tiktok (ik there’s a lot) saying, “I finna be in the pit”. And I was, all *** pounds of me. Im surprised I was able to hold my own in there’s honestly, there were some big dudes in there. But as always, Hail the Sun fans have really good concert/moshpit etiquette so I was straight most of the night. There was one moment where I got knocked in my fucking jaw by some girl’s skull. It was awesome. I only came out the pit with a single bruise but a very tired body so I say that’s a W.
Oh, also… I crowd-surfed HEHEHEHEHE. I would put the video in here but it has my face in it. Trying to keep some form of anonymity of this blog, though most of you know who I am and have probably already seen the video. Anyways, that shit was awesome. It was first time and I can’t believe I even did that, sober too. I originally went up to these two punks in the pit and asked if they would lift me but a slow song came on right after I asked and then one of them left to go mosh when the next song came on. I tried to find a second person to help lift me but the only other person near me that wasn’t moshing was a guy smaller than me who politely declined to help so. Instead, I started scanning the crowd and my eyes landed on the HUGE fucking guys that were towering over the crowd. So, I pushed my way through the crown to them, tapped on one of their shoulders, and literally had to break my neck to the sky to speak to them. Anyway, they very happily said yes and lifted my tiny ass up to the heavens. I felt like I was being served up to god by a sea of angels, it was really euphoric. I recommend everyone to crowd surf at least once in their life. I almost got dropped though, I was never scared though, the crowd did their thing and kept me from getting a faceful of ground. I did get flipped around like a pancake though.
Actually, a few people did end up getting dropped. I’m just glad I wasn’t one of them. Hope they’re ok though, that’s a long fall. I just can’t believe some people don’t surf others, especially knowing the environment that they’re in. I just think it’s everyone’s job to keep each other safe at high-energy shows, you know.
I also ended up meeting another really cool fan at the concert and we all formed a group, the 4 of us. It was just a really great night overall. I met so many cool people and had such a great time with the person I came with. I have so many words but not the brain power to organize them all into readable format. It was like a high I’ll be seeking out for the rest of my life.
My favorite moment of the concert though is this video. The chorus of voices singing along to the instrumental of the first Hail the Sun song I ever heard. It was honestly just so beautiful, not to be a huge fucking nerd or whatever. But that’s the last I’ll say about the concert for now and let yall watch the video for yourselves. I’ll link some of their music down below starting with the song playing in this video.
thanks for reading, boypuppy. <33