When I hear that a concert I want to attend is being held at Gexa, I crush the desire to see that artist in a matter of seconds. Gexa Energy Pavilion is a popular venue in Dallas that many teens love to flock to for a good time. Even if concerts are meant to be enjoyed, the people at Gexa never seem very interested in the show, engaging in the performance and music being played.

Although people buy tickets to see a certain artist at Gexa, the event always seems to merely be a social gathering with live background music to accent the wild and unpredictable night. The minority that attend to solely see an artist they adore will most likely be enraged by the large quantities of people who clutter the walls, engaging in social games full of selfies and white High-Top Converse. Going to Gexa for a concert means going to a show where a majority of the crowd is disengaged and not there to appreciate the music they paid to see.

At other smaller and indoor venues such as South Side Ballroom or House of Blues, the crowds are primarily focused on the music and the social aspect of attending happens to be an additional reason to go. The combination of an involved artist and responsive audience is what makes concerts so special and different from just watching their music video on Vevo. The real life interaction at shows is personal and allows anyone who attends to see how their favorite artist acts and sings without cameras or autotune. The feeling of being at a concert and being immersed in the performance is an experience that Gexa rarely provides.

Although Gexa can be a good venue for certain performances that are complemented by the outdoors and tailgating, such as country music star Kenny Chesney, the size of the pavilion distracts from most artist’s performances.

Along with being an overall grimey scene at concerts, Gexa had an incident this past spring that ruined a lot of people’s Saturday nights. The cancelling of Lana Del Rey’s concert in May resulted in many enraged fans who adore the artist so much that they even started calling her “mom” as a term of endearment. Cancelling a show that had the potential to have an engaged audience, instead of one that constantly takes pictures and searches for filters was not only disappointing for those fans, but also for those of us who wanted to know if the Gexa stage could actually be watched for an entire set.

This seemingly unnecessary and extremely last minute cancellation is further proof that Gexa is not only being abused by plan-hungry teens, but also does not consider that a ticket refund will never include that 60 dollar to and from trip courtesy of Uber.

Having an outdoor arena-like platform for concerts is a great idea, but Gexa unfortunately has gotten its deserving reputation for being generally vile and not an optimal place to go if you like your concerts focused on the music.