I went and saw a concert with my girlfriend last week, and yes it was my idea.
I was listening to Pandora while working out at Planet Fitness a little over a month back, and this song came on. Totally hooked me, motivated me at the same time. Had never heard of Lindsey Stirling before, but the song was good enough where it made me check out more of her music. Now I've listened to basically everything she has done.
In concert... holy shit. One of the most real/energetic performances I have ever seen. In between songs (After playing a few) she would talk to the audience. Turns out she recovered from depression and anorexia, she had it bad as a teen and young adult. She also stated "I know that the depression is always inside of me and can come out at any time, but I fight it off with positive thoughts, I have a routine now". Which, I found to be great advice, as well as admired her for her brutal honestly about her own condition past and current. She also talked about losing her friend (Only 32) and her father to cancer recently, and she has a song dedicated to both those losses. Most of her music has some meaning behind it, and you can tell when she performs. When she was addressing the audience about her friend/father, and her depression/anoriexia, she actually shed real tears. I was in the 4th row (Literally right in front of the stage) it was unreal...
She looks like she can't be taller than 5'3", and weigh no more than 120 lbs. But her energy on stage, and just the performance overall, is something that I have never seen the like of before. So much respect for her. I learned after that she worked really hard and got a shot on American Idol, in which she got kicked off of and told that there wasn't a space in the music industry for a female violinist. She also was insulted by Piers Morgan, in which she used as fuel to her fire. Her second song on stage, she had tombstone props with Morgans name on it, and someone else who told her she wouldn't amount to anything. After her music gained traction (To the tune of 200 million views on one video, no joke) she ended up on dancing with the stars. So a lot of people know her from that.
I never in my life thought that I would choose to go see a woman violinist, especially with my background growing up listening to mostly rock/hard rock/heavy metal. But, I don't regret it. Out of the three concerts I have seen this summer, she was easily the best. The diverse crowd was another excellent part of the show. You had people from all ages/backgrounds/races, and people just overall being in awe of what was happening on stage. I've never seen so much appreciation from a crowd.
Anyway. Here is the song I heard at the gym that blew me away. It's called "The Arena". The show I saw was at the Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine (Seats 1900)