OneRepublic at Wolf Trap

On August 5, 2013, OneRepublic performed at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts and while it was not the borderline religious experience that I had with The Antlers concert earlier this year, I can honestly say that of all the hours I've lived through during my short 19 years of existence, this concert was, without a doubt, one of the best one and a half hours I've ever had the fortune of experiencing in my life. The concert was that good.

Serena Ryder began the night with some soulful, gritty ballads. Mayor Hawthorne, the second opening act, had a more retro, 80s synthetic pop feel. Sometimes you hear a song so upbeat that you can't help but dance a little, and Mayor Hawthorne had that kind of infectious energy--head-bobbing was evident throughout the audience still trickling into the venue.

OneRepublic started off the concert with a spectacular display of flickering silhouettes while playing behind a fabric screen in a performance befitting the title of the song performed, "Light It Up". Previously my least favorite song on the Native album, I now have a newfound appreciation for the song after such an unforgettable live performance. Rest assured, I no longer skip the track when listening through the album.

I walked into Wolf Trap with the expectation that the concert would predominantly consist of songs found only on their most recent album, only to be pleasantly surprised by the good mix of newly released songs and older classics on the set list. "Light It Up" led directly to "Secrets", followed by "All the Right Moves", which was aptly set against the backdrop of a masquerade ball projected onto the screen onstage. There was no shortage of Native songs either; songs like "What You Wanted", "Preacher", "Can't Stop, "I Lived", and of course, my favorite off the album, "Counting Stars" were performed and performed well, with a vocal finesse that's hard to believe unless seen live with your own eyes.

OneRepublic took us further down memory lane with performances of "Stop and Stare", "Apologize" (preluded with a clip from E.T.) and "Come Home", all songs I never thought I'd ever see live. Ryan Tedder's vocal range is insane and his talent is made all the more obvious when only the notes from a lone piano and cello serve as his accompaniment. Listening to those same tracks at home is just not the same--the dimensionality of a great live performance, the total immersion within the music that you get in a concert hall just cannot be replicated with a pair of measly MacBook speakers. That's how you differentiate between a great musician and good one--when a raw live performance by a great performer, while maybe not quite as polished, is infinitely better than an edited recording.

A good portion of the concert was spent performing not OneRepublic songs, but covers of "Gold Digger", "Stand By Me", "Seven Nation Army", and "SexyBack" instead and the crowd loved it. Ryan Tedder is undoubtedly a great performer and the chemistry he had with the audience was undeniable. When someone screamed "I LOVE YOU!!!", Tedder responded, almost as if without a second thought, with a "I love you too. If we both had profiles on match.com, our dating profiles would be the perfect match". When the audience got enthusiastic to the point where it was almost borderline fanatical, Tedder, while in the midst of performing a song, walked smoothly down the aisle and straight into the audience, even as avid fans crowded around him to give him high fives and to take valuable once-in-a-lifetime snapshots.

OneRepublic concluded the concert with a wicked mashup of M83's "Midnight City" and "Good Life" and finally, "If I Lose Myself". And if I'm being completely honest with myself, I did kind of lose myself towards the end.

Post-concert withdrawal symptoms were particularly severe. Even three days later, I am still watching the videos I took of the concert obsessively so that I can continue to live in denial of the permanence of its ending and relive the experience over and over again. This was most probably the best $45 I've ever spent.