Not So Silent Night is a winter concert event hosted by the California Bay Area radio station, LIVE 105. This year, it was held at Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA on December 8-9, 2017.
The artists & bands that performed on Night 1 were Welshly Arms, Manchester Orchestra, Vance Joy, Portugal the Man, and The Lumineers. The artists & bands that performed on Night 2 were Alice Merton, WALK THE MOON, Foster the People, Weezer, and The Killers. I only went to Night 2, so this review is only on that portion of the event.
Price $$$
Ticket prices varied depended where you wanted to be for the show. There were multiple levels, with the cheapest seats being at the upper level (where I was) for around $60. If you wanted to be on the floor in the standing area, tickets were selling for somewhere in the $100 range. I think this is a decent price for 5 well known bands. There was also a discounted price if you wanted to attend both nights. However, one complaint that I have is about the high prices of water. There was no free tap water available, so if somebody wanted water they would need to pay $7 for a bottle. Despite this, I knew that most larger concert venues and sports stadiums such as this one upsell food/water, so I wasn’t exactly surprised.
Venue 5/10
I’ve been to Oracle Arena one time before. The venue is quite large, since it also hosts sporting events, and has a capacity of nearly 20,000 people. There was standing room on the floor and two floors of seating surrounding the stage. I had tickets in the upper seating level on the far right side of the stage, and even though I was pretty far away, the view wasn’t horrible. The last time I was there, I was on the first floor of seating, but since I was close to being centered to the stage, I was actually much farther away and couldn’t really see what was happening onstage. One drawback about the venue was that it was confusing to navigate. Oracle Arena is circular, which meant that it was hard to find our seats and getting lost was pretty easy since many parts of the building looked the same. Another thing that was annoying about this venue were the water prices, but as aforementioned, that is to be expected at large venues.
Crowd 6/10
As far as I could see, the crowd was very enthusiastic. Everybody around us was singing along with the bands, especially towards the end during Weezer and The Killers. Personally, I prefer to be in the standing area when I’m at concerts, but I was not for this show so obviously I wasn’t engaged in a pit. That being said, from where I was, I had a good overhead view of the people in the standing area. Although there were no defined pits going, I did see the occasional crowdsurfer, which was pretty cool. At one point, we looked down and saw somebody in the crowd waving their crutch around, which was pretty funny. However, it was quite concerning to see that a few people in the standing area had fainted during the show and medics had to be sent in to make sure that they were okay.
Lineup 9/10
I was debating on going to this event because I didn’t know if I would like the lineup, but as soon as I learned The Killers were headlining Night 2, I knew I had to go. This year’s lineup was full of bands that I really liked, which made for a very fun show all the way to the end. All of the artists & bands that performed at NSSN 2017 had a really good energy and kept the crowd engaged. Sometimes, events like this lead to people only attending for a particular band that they like, and not really knowing the rest of the lineup. Although I’m sure that not everybody knew every song from every band, all the bands (even the earlier ones) had at least one or two pretty popular songs that excited the audience and had everybody singing or dancing.
Events like Not So Silent Night are great because they bring together a group of great bands all in one fun show. If you find an event like this one with a lineup that excites you, I highly recommend that you go. If you haven’t heard of these artists/bands, check them out! Their Spotify pages will be linked below.
See you at the next show!
Review by Emma Fong
Instagram: @emmafong_
The Killers:
Weezer:
Foster the People:
WALK THE MOON:
Alice Merton: