My heart beats with anticipation as I walk down the aisle in the dim theater. I take my seat in the front row just as Doug Martsch of Built to Spill starts tuning his guitar. After sitting through the opening acts its finally time for the reason everyone is packed into the theater. Doug plays a few chords, the drums shake my body, and the crowd erupts in cheers. Doug gives an always apathetic shrug and the night is underway.

As the first melancholy song starts the crowd moves to the beat. Three or four songs in to the set, as if on cue, people start standing from their seats to rush up to the front. Being in the front row I am jammed into the very front of this mass of people. Now the concert has really started. We all move to the beat as the band rips through more songs.

As the band play late into the night the epic tunes keep rolling out. Built to Spill's three guitar attack pounds my eardrums with their jams. The lights dim further, and the band starts playing their deeper tunes after warming up the crowd. The layered guitars, pounding bass, and driving drums seem to make the theater come alive. Someone yells in the crowd but I cant hear a word over Doug's soulful vocals. I'm put into a trance by the movement of the crowd, the lights, and the sweet music. Just as I decide I want to listen to this band all night they announce that they will play two or three more songs!

A sigh of disappointment passes through the crowd as the words sink in. What are we supposed to do after the show? No one wants to go home but the show can't go on forever. At the conclusion of the last song the crowd will not stop cheering. The chant, “WE WANT MORE!” is echoed by all the concert goers. My voice blends with the others, and finally to our relief Doug and the band step from back stage for an encore. Doug downs the dregs of his beer amidst shouts and cheering and a overdriven guitar answers the calls of the people.

As the concert finally comes to a close the lights turn on and someone yells, “I guess we gotta go home now. Lets get drunk!” We all file out of the theater after a great concert dog tired into the city at midnight. I look out at the lights of downtown felling great.