When was the last time I’ve been to a concert? A very long time ago. When I saw that Forrest Frank was having a concert at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, I thought, sure, why not? I listen to his music when it comes up on Spotify, and I hear it all the time on other people’s stories. The venue seemed cool too. The concert was at 7:00pm, and we wanted to get there earlier for parking.
Traffic was horrible. There were so many cars lined up trying to get into a parking structure, and it was over $50 for a spot! We had purchased a cheaper parking spot in another location, so all we had to do was find where that was. When we got to the address, it turned out that it was just a house address that had a lot of dirt. There were quite a few cars parked in the lot already, and a lady was collecting information and telling cars where to park. When she finally got to us, she told us she didn’t have space for us! Apparently there were people selling fake spots online – it sounded so ridiculous. We had no choice but to leave and were left spotless.
We drove out of the lot and started looking up other parking options. There was another one a few blocks down that was a parking structure and only $7 more than the dirt lot! It looked promising. When we got there, it was a smooth process. We showed our ticket and got to drive right in. It was a bit of a further walk, but much better than the dirt lot.
Once parked, we started walking. A lot of other attendees parked in the same structure, so we just had to follow the crowd. There was basically only one route from the parking structure though, and the sidewalk was pretty narrow, with cars trying to turn into businesses too. At one point, everyone was stuck standing and waiting, and a line started forming in front of all the businesses. We decided to check out what this line led to. One of us stayed back in line while the other walked to the front – good thing we split up. This line led to the entrance, but there’s actually six lines at the front that people were not breaking off to. We stepped out of the line and into the blocked off road to make our way to the very front.
The signs were not very clear. Some people walked through the metal detectors, some didn’t. Some people had their water bottles checked, but the security wasn’t really looking to see if you had water inside. Some people with bags had their bags checked, some didn’t. It was quite disorganized. There were a lot of staff waiting to scan your ticket to let you enter the stadium though – I’m surprised they didn’t reshuffle the staff to have more staff helping at the entrance of the stadium rather than the ticket scan which there was basically no line for.
After getting our tickets scanned, we saw boxes with wristbands that light up for the concert! We grabbed one and put it on. There was a long escalator, and the view was pretty nice as you went up! You can also refill your water bottle at one of the water stations.
We went to find our seats. There weren’t really any staff around to guide you, but the sections were labeled pretty clearly. However, once we stepped inside the section area, it was hard to see which row was which. I definitely walked right past our row and had to take a few steps back. Our seats were pretty high up, but the venue had big screens to look off of. The air conditioning was decent.
Tori Kelly performed in the beginning – she has such a great voice! She also walked down from the stage to meet the attendees on the floor level.
After Tori Kelly’s opener, there was a long talk of how the donations and contributions of attendees have helped sponsor so many children. At around 8:15pm, it was finally Forrest Frank’s turn! They played a video showing what was happening backstage before Forrest and his band appeared, starting with his song “The Jesus Generation”.
His voice sounded just like his recordings. He also played the guitar while singing too. When he got to the song “No Longer Bound” he played the piano and showed us how he put the song together which was pretty cool! I do wonder if that was done live or if he clicked play on a video.
I was expecting to be sitting in my seat for the concert, but when the row in front of me stood up for some of the songs, that meant I had to stand up too or else I wouldn’t be able to see. The attendees in the room had so much energy to be standing and dancing to the music.
My favorite part of the concert was actually probably Cory Asbury – I loved his voice and the songs he sang! He did a lot of classic praise and worship songs, and also sang (and wrote) “Reckless Love”. I didn’t even realize he would be there, so this was definitely a nice surprise.
The Figs had a segment where they were talking to the audience and getting them excited for Forrest to sing another song: “Lemonade”. The Figs were pretty interesting. At first I was a bit confused at why they kept walking around in circles on the stage, but maybe it was just some delay in schedule so they had to keep thinking of things to say.
Towards the end of the concert, everyone sang “Amazing Grace” together – a cappella. It actually sounded really good! To wrap it all up, Forrest ended with “Never Get Used To This”.
Exiting the venue took some time. The were too many people trying to take the escalator down, but luckily, there are stairs on the side that you can take. There were so many people lining up to purchase (expensive) merchandise. The walk back to the packing structure was pretty quick.
It was pretty cool to attend one of Forrest Frank’s sold out concerts. It made me think of a praise & worship session…except you had to pay for it. I probably would have enjoyed it more if the seats were a bit closer and if everyone stayed seated. The three hours (7pm-10pm) was pretty long though, although the hour before 8pm was mostly talking and there was one intermission in the middle. I do hope the venue makes some improvements to the security and traffic flow before the Olympics in 2028!
Would I go to another Forrest Frank concert? I think I’ll just listen to his music on Spotify.