An Ode To Tom Odell And The First Concert I Ever Attended

It was an evening in mid-May—still quite chilly in San Francisco. The wood floor of the old theatre was sticky and smelled strongly of beer. The crowd was small, but slowly growing.  I was 19, at my first real concert. I’d gone to hear plenty of symphonies and piano concerts because I was a band geek and classical music purist in high school, but never a concert where people stood instead of sat quietly. A concert where people sang along and cheered to every song instead of waiting through pauses in between movements until the end of a piece to clap. An environment where people drank from the bar at the back instead of getting asked to leave by an usher in black because of unauthorized food or drink in the concert hall. 

While I was definitely snobby about my music taste and liked to pretend that I listened exclusively to Rachmaninoff and Chopin, I also enjoyed listening to regular musicians who had not lived almost 100 years before me. One of those musicians was Tom Odell. I found his song “Another Love” on YouTube, and since I didn’t have a phone until my senior year of high school, I’d listen to it over and over on my iPod (Technically, it was my mom’s iPod. I used it more so I like to say it was mine). The lyrics described being hung up on an old love, while in a new relationship. I’d never had a boyfriend or had my heart broken, so I have no idea why I loved “Another Love” as deeply as I did. All I knew was that I had to see Tom Odell live in concert. So, when I found out he’d be going on tour and coming to the U.S., I bought tickets well in advance. 

Going to a concert to see one of my favorite musicians from high school felt a little bit like a rite of passage, like I was the main character in a coming-of-age movie and this was the ending, after I’d learned a few life lessons and grown a bit wiser. I was revisiting a theme. Tom Odell was a motif representative of my youth, and this concert was a reprise. I stood in that dark theatre, watching the stage lights flash and Tom play the piano, and knew that I’d never get any younger. 

As he played through his set, I waited eagerly for my favorite—“Another Love.” Even though I’d listened to it at least a thousand times over the past few years, I was excited to hear it live. Listening to a song through your headphones in the school hallway at 8 a.m. is one thing—being at a concert and feeling the energy of a live performance is another. He played songs from his newest album at the time, then a few older ones. I sang along to the ones I knew well enough, holding my phone far enough away and singing softly enough that I wouldn’t end up catching my mediocrity in the background of the tons of videos I took that night. Finally, at the very end of the night, he announced that he’d be playing his last song. He sat down in front of the grand piano and the stage lights dimmed. The crowd was full of hushed anticipation. The first few notes of “Another Love” sounded from the piano and the crowd erupted into cheers. I realized that the rest of the crowd had been waiting for the same song I’d been eagerly expecting. It was a nice moment—everyone loving one song together at once. 

It’s been a couple of years since that concert, and the details blur now. I remember some moments better than others: the girl who got pulled on stage to sing with Tom, the smell of alcohol filling the theatre, the cute guitar player. Firsts are always pretty memorable. I think what made this first concert so enjoyable was that it was a first, and it was an artist I’d been devoted to for a while. I didn’t go with friends, and probably looked pretty awkward standing alone in the crowd. Despite that, I felt like I was a part of something. Everyone there shared something with me for the hours we spent in the concert. I will never see any of them again, but we all were there together for a few moments. I haven’t gone to any more concerts since that Tom Odell one in San Francisco. As venues open back up and artists announce tours for 2022, I’ve been keeping an eye out for concerts I’d like to go to in the future. They really are such a unique experience, and I hope I can attend more Tom Odell concerts and share more moments filled with crowds and lights and the smell of beer in the air.