The lights dim and the concert hall goes almost completely dark. A guitar can be heard playing a rhythm. The lights get a little brighter and Cristina Scabbia looks around at the crowd.

“Are you all ready to be Spellbound?!” she asks rhetorically.

As soon as she says that, the crowd erupts. The guitar comes in louder and then the drums. A heavy bass line is felt and Andrea Ferro sings the opening lines of the song. The crowd goes wild and sings along.

Cristina sings her first line and collective hairs on backs of necks stick up. Smiles and cheers go up, as well as singing along. Cristina struts along the stage, working us into a wild frenzy. We all sing along with her and the chorus kicks in.

Andrea points to us and we sing louder, along with him. We feed off of each other. Cristina once again sings and then the solo breaks out.

“Come on, jump!” Cristina tells us.

We all jump and whoop and mosh. She sings the chorus once again, singing her heart out, she gives it her all. We give it our all as well. The energy is infectious.

Those three and a half minutes were short, but ones that I will never forget. It’s fair to say that I was totally and utterly Spellbound. It may be just about four months since that gig, but it is still fresh in my memory. I still get excited thinking about it.