say it loud and clear.

by the time i hit my freshman year of college i had already gone to my fair share of shows, had more autographs than you could shake a stick at, and my dorm walls were covered with band posters. one of the most memorable shows, however, happened at my school. every year the school brought in a band that was a "national" band but they were the up and comers, the ones who had one album out, played any show they could get their hands on and wore rumpled clothes that smelled like 15-passenger van. that year the band of choice was sanctus real.
i had the only sanctus real cd out at the time (say it loud) and made sure i knew every song by heart before they came. concerts are so much more fun when you can sing along! so i was pretty pumped to see their show and made sure i was front and center (which wasn't too difficult since i don't think majority of the student population even showed up). matt hammit is a bang on singer, in person he sounds just like he does on the cd. the concert was fun and the crowd was really getting into it. then he decided to throw in a little crowd participation, he started dragging people up on stage. first up was a guy named mike who had been going nuts the entire show. his "job" was to get onstage and dance. next matt asked for a guitarist, my sister raised her hand and up she went. she was handed a guitar and told what chord to strum. he scanned the crowd, our eyes locked, he pointed at me and said, "you. you've been singing along all night, get up here."
my stomach leapt into my throat as i was handed a mic. we launched into the chorus of the title track, the mic was on!! my voice along with his filled the gym, i thought i was going to throw up on the spot. but i held it together and finished the song. he thanked all of us and we went back to our places in the crowd, i don't remember anything about the rest of the show. afterwards matt signed my cd jacket and told me i did a "wonderful job".
i didn't stop smiling for a week.
xo