Graham Colton concert review

The Graham Colton concert at New Earth in Athens last night was reminiscent of a rising college town band trying to make it in the big world. His Tuesday night concert amassed about 20 devoted fans on an otherwise quiet downtown evening. The hit in numbers could be probably be attributed to its timing, as Tuesday trailed Georgia vs. Florida, the university’s biggest party weekend, and Halloween. Nevertheless, Colton gave a strong performance and other than a few comments encouraging the crowd to “act and sound like a group of 400,” he never indicated disappointment. Colton admittedly started the show without a specific set list and mixed up the concert with songs from all three albums. Loyal followers heard some of his classics, including “Cigarette” and “Best Days of Our Lives.” Songs from his new album fall into the similar indie/alternative genre and catch the same audience. Although his voice has clearly matured through the years it remains pure in that it-sounds-like-I’m-serenading-you way. He kept the crowd engaged with questions and conversation between each song, and kept referring to the group as being “one with the band.” For those who have always yearned to witness a great band’s casual jam session, last night was as close as they may ever get.

"Everyone gets a chance in the spotlight; you can have it when I'm done!" - anonymous

There’s a phrase in Psychology termed the spotlight effect. Someone experiences this effect when they feel like everyone in the room is staring at them. Newsflash: no one really cares about you (in a good way). Back when I was younger and under a lot of pressure to mold myself into the perfect middle school prototype, I used to think people were constantly analyzing my actions. I thought that, without a doubt, people were critiquing me behind my back and preying on my weaknesses. I can recall a specific incident when I was at the gym trying to stretch before a workout and couldn’t get all the way down into the splits. “This is embarrassing,” I thought to myself. “I can’t fail, I can’t do a half split it’s not good enough.” The thoughts kept coming. Even though I can look back and acknowledge how childish and insecure I was at such a vulnerable age, I can still remember that hot cheeks flushed feeling. I don’t know why some people feel the spotlight effect more than others, but for most of my life it highly affected me. It may have been an inflated ego (people want to watch me) or none at all (people want to stare at me), but I’m slowly emerging out of it into a much healthier adulthood. It’s not healthy to nitpick others for their actions and to feel ashamed or embarrassed for your own doings. The world tells you to be who you want to be, to follow your dreams and do what YOU want. There will always be the few who try and act as a roadblock on your path to success, but you can’t let them be the ones who keep you down. It’s not so much that no one cares, but they don’t notice your mistakes or your failures. People notice success. So the next time you’re at the gym and you can’t, let’s just hypothetically say, do the splits…remember that you’re trying and no one’s watching you fail. They’re just thinking that you’re a better person for pushing yourself to succeed.