Music Concerts: To Go Or Not To Go?

U2 had rescheduled after their original concert was canceled after the Paris attacks. Later, Bono had said, “The least important voices tonight were the ones onstage, because more than any other night, what mattered wasn’t the melody, it was the harmony.” How can there be that harmony without an audience?

- Priya Das

But mommy, it’s Taylor Swift! and Ed Sheeran! and Dua Lipa!,” my 10 year old daughter protested. My mind was paralyzed as soon as she had announced that she really wanted to attend the Poptopia concert at the SAP Center in San Jose. News stories of the Mandalay Bay shooting were still coming in; not enough time had passed, I was still reeling from it all.

My first instinct was to say “No.” That was the parent in me talking. My second instinct was to buy more tickets (though I finally did not act upon it) As a good citizen, I believe that I am part of the everyday line of defense against terrorism. Would I be teaching my daughter to stand up to terrorism if we went to the concert? Or would I be a foolhardy parent if I did? Must I not protect her? Was I overreacting thinking that disaster could happen to me and mine too? The third voice in me, the artist, who by definition is rebellious, courageous, and expressive also chimed in: It is a true rite of passage to go to a concert. At school, my daughter had dressed up as Taylor Swift on the day that they had to talk about their icons/heroes/famous people. Hers was not a run-of-the-mill music-lover passion for Swift. How can that which is independent in her thrive, if I taught her to cower?