MockTurtle
Bluelighter
**warning** this is a fairly long story
the concert I was at can be read about here:
http://www.jambase.com/headsup.asp?storyID=6286
and downloaded here:
http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=22613
As a fan of jam music who has recently gotten more into the scene, hearing that moe. was playing in Chicago on a Saturday was very exciting and I decided on the spot that it was a concert I needed to attend. A friend from school and two friends from home met me on the Friday night and we headed off from Iowa to Chicago. The plan was to get in town and figure out everything else from there. On the drive we smoked numerous bowls of mistys (very fine nug) and I sat in the front seat with my friend M. The other two quickly fell asleep from the darkness and the bud so we drank three coffees and had a fantastic time driving the rest of the way listening to a wonderful and chilling "Dark Star" by the Grateful Dead from the '72 Europe tour.
As we got closer to the city, it was realized that we didn't have a place to crash and it was getting close to 3 AM. After a quick stop downtown, we called a Motel 6 and proceeded to forget the directions quickly. We repeated this cycle at least 5 times. After getting directions from a gas station and then a police officer, M and I got out of the car and asked a woman standing nearby where the O'hare airport area was. She took us to her "driver," who was obviously a pimp and he directed us in the way we were supposed to head. I couldn't tell if he was drunk, but he quizzed me several times on the directions until he was sure I had them. After another hour of driving we got on the expressway around 4:20 and smoked a few bowls. J and C, the other two in the car, stayed asleep this entire time, but after another hour of being lost and stoned in the city, driving to the airport, and eventually using a computer at a fancy hotel to get directions, we arrived at the Motel 6. A quick room for one was purchased and the group made the move to the room. The vibe at this point was less than stellar, but M and I were exhaused and just happy to settle down. A few drinks and bowls later and I was asleep.
The next morning I woke up not entirely refreshed, took a shower, and smoked a bowl while listening to Keller Williams with C. Now C and I have known each other the longest of anyone there, but he had borrowed money from me before and had a very bad habit of not paying it back. When he showed up in town the night before he said he had no money and would need to borrow some. This was really getting in the way of enjoying things, and the mood of the trip was suffering for it. The entire thing seemed a bit like a failure.
When the other two finally woke up, we got a quick bite to eat and drove to Evanston (where Northwestern is located) to meet J's friend A, who was nice enough to let us stay at her massive apartment. She worked at a coffee shop, so we said hello, then left to bide our time until her shift was over. The afternoon was moving slowly, so we drove to the beach and stared out at Lake Michigan. The sight was the first truely good thing to happen on the trip, and I felt clensed by it. My phone rang during this period and a friend who had eaten some mushrooms I had given him told me about the first major trip he had ever experienced and how enlightened he felt. I got off the phone with him and smiled, but the lack of sleep the night before was starting to take its wear on me. After an hour of being lost, we made it to A's apartment just as it got dark outside. We quickly smoked some bowls while her roommate watched Sex in the City. As the concert time quickly neared, I pulled out the bag that had recently been pressing on my mind. We split the doses between 4 of us (1.75g each for A and C, 2.75 for me and .75 for J) and ate them with a slice of bread and peanut butter. Time was creeping by and in a hurry we packed outselves into the car and drove to the venue. On the way there the mushrooms slowly began to take effect and the car got very quiet.
When we got to the Aragon Ballroom we drove past looking for a parking spot and I happened to get a view of a security guard giving a patdown to an attendee. As I was coming up at the time, I left my stash in the car and hopped out to avoid worrying about getting in marijuana. We walked towards the building we noticed a line that stretched around the building for what seemed like miles. Hoping that this was the line to buy tickets, we strolled past before being informed that it wasn't and we needed to go to the back of the line. We began the trek in the cold and were offered everything under the sun as we went. The scene was beginning to become overwhelming, with drugs being used in public, lots of tripping individuals and the obvious purchasing of substances. What can best be described as a large group of crackheads hung around the area, and there was a feeling of sketchiness everywhere.
This was where my trip picked up. I was soaring and made small talk to C and M. A was offered fake tickets, but luckily was able to purchase actual ones at the door. As things got wierder, it was impossible to differentiate between those who were selling/using drugs and those who were there to stop them. In the confusion I could have easily been tricked into something. After 45 minutes we got to the door and I was picked out to have a hardcore patdown. Whether this was my huge pupils, long hair or my massively tye-dyed Grateful Dead shirt that gave me away is beyond me. One girl watched them pat me down with horror as they searched me in every imaginable place, and had I not stashed my bud, they would have found it and my night would have ended a little early tripping in jail. Things were so tight that wallet and cigarette box searches were common, as were shoe ones and feeling in front of/behind the crotch. The security didn't care about the concert, and had no idea if the band had started yet. A bit shaken up, I met my friends and we headed inside.
What we entered into was like a labyrinth with corridors heading each way and a band playing faintly in the distance. At this point I ran into a coatroom and then quickly ran back out upon discovering that it wasn't the way to the stage and I had just lost my friends. I found M, and we walked up some grand stairs into what was obviously the actual venue. The Aragon isn't your typical venue, so I was blown away with its uniqueness. The band had a fantastic and powerful light show, there were fake stars in the ceiling and the venue felt like a Spanish ballroom from centuries past. M and I walked into the middle of the crowd and watched some people dance next to us as the band played. Tripping at a concert is always a wild experience, and my concept of time was gone. During the first set, one guitarist used a voice synth and the otherworldly effect scared me a bit. The band played "Crab Eyes" and M couldn't have been more thrilled. I was off in my own world, and knew the song was playing, but was absolutely floored. M pointed up towards the ceiling and the stars and I grinned a huge grin. "It's wonderful, but it's so overwhelming, there is so much to take in." I exclaimed and asked him to hold my coat. It was too hot to leave it on and I hated holding it. He held it for the first set which finally ended years later.
It was at this point that I noticed just how strange the vibe was in this place. I wondered if seeing the Dead or Phish would have been like it, and I decided that it was a circus. It only seemed right, and what a circus it was. The band was its conductor and guide. The room was packed, hot and heavy with the smell of marijuana. A girl walked up and we became "new friends" until she walked off. That was it! I realized what it was. Almost everyone around me was tripping and no one cared how they acted. That and the fact that nobody knew what to do with themselves with the lights on and no music playing. The feeling of love was everywhere and at this point in the trip, my view completely changed and I was thrilled, honestly, truely, as happy as is possible at any given time. This was the largest group of trippers I had ever been a part of and it partially shocked me. Even kids who looked fairly straight were dosed out of their mind asking "when did the band get off...what's going on" etc. C, A and J walked past us and C and I sat down. After a few moments I got up to get some water and waited in line while talking to some other trippers and discussing how confusing it all was. A man walked by with a microphone on his head and upon being questioned, pointed to a sticker that said "I'm on the bus." I understood the reference to The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and told him I was too.
When I got back, C had met some new friends from Wisconsin who had some fantasic bud but no pipe. C, being very high, had somehow smuggled a piece in. It was probably so obvious that it wasn't to the guard. The lights quickly went off, M disappeared and C and i were treated to fantastic cannabis for the rest of the show. This increased my trip a lot, and I was already high in the clouds. When the band came back on, they played fantastic and I was having a wonderful time. After the second song of the set, I thought the show was over, but how wrong I was. My coat was becoming a huge pain for me because I love to dance at shows and holding a coat got completely in the way of doing so. The band began to play a middle-eastern groove and the room was completely red. I felt extremely hot and several people around me began to take off their coats. Another friend from school called me to meet up, but I could barely tell which way was up. I threw my coat on the floor, decided no one was going to steal it, and forgot about it for the next hour and a half. A nice circle quickly formed around me to let me dance and I was in heaven. I can not explain the bliss of the moment, only that it was truely and purely perfect. "I had no idea this was possible," I told C as the room spun, twisted, and floated away. The music, combined with a crowd of open-minded and like-minded people was just too much. The band played, time stopped, and the room exploded in an aural orgasm.
As moe. finally left the stage, a grin was left on my face that didn't leave for over 24 hours. I kept dancing with C, who also couldn't have been happier. All around me were smiles and happiness. Security began to push people out, but before they could a drum circle began and the dancing started back up. Half an hour later, we walked out of the building, and I couldn't contain my enthusiasm. Somewhere at the start of the second set all of the bad vibes that had ever been experienced by anyone there lifted up and moved to another state. I danced in the street while a few others joined me and it immediately began to snow as if our collective energy inspired it....
perfect, absolutely perfect
the concert I was at can be read about here:
http://www.jambase.com/headsup.asp?storyID=6286
and downloaded here:
http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=22613
As a fan of jam music who has recently gotten more into the scene, hearing that moe. was playing in Chicago on a Saturday was very exciting and I decided on the spot that it was a concert I needed to attend. A friend from school and two friends from home met me on the Friday night and we headed off from Iowa to Chicago. The plan was to get in town and figure out everything else from there. On the drive we smoked numerous bowls of mistys (very fine nug) and I sat in the front seat with my friend M. The other two quickly fell asleep from the darkness and the bud so we drank three coffees and had a fantastic time driving the rest of the way listening to a wonderful and chilling "Dark Star" by the Grateful Dead from the '72 Europe tour.
As we got closer to the city, it was realized that we didn't have a place to crash and it was getting close to 3 AM. After a quick stop downtown, we called a Motel 6 and proceeded to forget the directions quickly. We repeated this cycle at least 5 times. After getting directions from a gas station and then a police officer, M and I got out of the car and asked a woman standing nearby where the O'hare airport area was. She took us to her "driver," who was obviously a pimp and he directed us in the way we were supposed to head. I couldn't tell if he was drunk, but he quizzed me several times on the directions until he was sure I had them. After another hour of driving we got on the expressway around 4:20 and smoked a few bowls. J and C, the other two in the car, stayed asleep this entire time, but after another hour of being lost and stoned in the city, driving to the airport, and eventually using a computer at a fancy hotel to get directions, we arrived at the Motel 6. A quick room for one was purchased and the group made the move to the room. The vibe at this point was less than stellar, but M and I were exhaused and just happy to settle down. A few drinks and bowls later and I was asleep.
The next morning I woke up not entirely refreshed, took a shower, and smoked a bowl while listening to Keller Williams with C. Now C and I have known each other the longest of anyone there, but he had borrowed money from me before and had a very bad habit of not paying it back. When he showed up in town the night before he said he had no money and would need to borrow some. This was really getting in the way of enjoying things, and the mood of the trip was suffering for it. The entire thing seemed a bit like a failure.
When the other two finally woke up, we got a quick bite to eat and drove to Evanston (where Northwestern is located) to meet J's friend A, who was nice enough to let us stay at her massive apartment. She worked at a coffee shop, so we said hello, then left to bide our time until her shift was over. The afternoon was moving slowly, so we drove to the beach and stared out at Lake Michigan. The sight was the first truely good thing to happen on the trip, and I felt clensed by it. My phone rang during this period and a friend who had eaten some mushrooms I had given him told me about the first major trip he had ever experienced and how enlightened he felt. I got off the phone with him and smiled, but the lack of sleep the night before was starting to take its wear on me. After an hour of being lost, we made it to A's apartment just as it got dark outside. We quickly smoked some bowls while her roommate watched Sex in the City. As the concert time quickly neared, I pulled out the bag that had recently been pressing on my mind. We split the doses between 4 of us (1.75g each for A and C, 2.75 for me and .75 for J) and ate them with a slice of bread and peanut butter. Time was creeping by and in a hurry we packed outselves into the car and drove to the venue. On the way there the mushrooms slowly began to take effect and the car got very quiet.
When we got to the Aragon Ballroom we drove past looking for a parking spot and I happened to get a view of a security guard giving a patdown to an attendee. As I was coming up at the time, I left my stash in the car and hopped out to avoid worrying about getting in marijuana. We walked towards the building we noticed a line that stretched around the building for what seemed like miles. Hoping that this was the line to buy tickets, we strolled past before being informed that it wasn't and we needed to go to the back of the line. We began the trek in the cold and were offered everything under the sun as we went. The scene was beginning to become overwhelming, with drugs being used in public, lots of tripping individuals and the obvious purchasing of substances. What can best be described as a large group of crackheads hung around the area, and there was a feeling of sketchiness everywhere.
This was where my trip picked up. I was soaring and made small talk to C and M. A was offered fake tickets, but luckily was able to purchase actual ones at the door. As things got wierder, it was impossible to differentiate between those who were selling/using drugs and those who were there to stop them. In the confusion I could have easily been tricked into something. After 45 minutes we got to the door and I was picked out to have a hardcore patdown. Whether this was my huge pupils, long hair or my massively tye-dyed Grateful Dead shirt that gave me away is beyond me. One girl watched them pat me down with horror as they searched me in every imaginable place, and had I not stashed my bud, they would have found it and my night would have ended a little early tripping in jail. Things were so tight that wallet and cigarette box searches were common, as were shoe ones and feeling in front of/behind the crotch. The security didn't care about the concert, and had no idea if the band had started yet. A bit shaken up, I met my friends and we headed inside.
What we entered into was like a labyrinth with corridors heading each way and a band playing faintly in the distance. At this point I ran into a coatroom and then quickly ran back out upon discovering that it wasn't the way to the stage and I had just lost my friends. I found M, and we walked up some grand stairs into what was obviously the actual venue. The Aragon isn't your typical venue, so I was blown away with its uniqueness. The band had a fantastic and powerful light show, there were fake stars in the ceiling and the venue felt like a Spanish ballroom from centuries past. M and I walked into the middle of the crowd and watched some people dance next to us as the band played. Tripping at a concert is always a wild experience, and my concept of time was gone. During the first set, one guitarist used a voice synth and the otherworldly effect scared me a bit. The band played "Crab Eyes" and M couldn't have been more thrilled. I was off in my own world, and knew the song was playing, but was absolutely floored. M pointed up towards the ceiling and the stars and I grinned a huge grin. "It's wonderful, but it's so overwhelming, there is so much to take in." I exclaimed and asked him to hold my coat. It was too hot to leave it on and I hated holding it. He held it for the first set which finally ended years later.
It was at this point that I noticed just how strange the vibe was in this place. I wondered if seeing the Dead or Phish would have been like it, and I decided that it was a circus. It only seemed right, and what a circus it was. The band was its conductor and guide. The room was packed, hot and heavy with the smell of marijuana. A girl walked up and we became "new friends" until she walked off. That was it! I realized what it was. Almost everyone around me was tripping and no one cared how they acted. That and the fact that nobody knew what to do with themselves with the lights on and no music playing. The feeling of love was everywhere and at this point in the trip, my view completely changed and I was thrilled, honestly, truely, as happy as is possible at any given time. This was the largest group of trippers I had ever been a part of and it partially shocked me. Even kids who looked fairly straight were dosed out of their mind asking "when did the band get off...what's going on" etc. C, A and J walked past us and C and I sat down. After a few moments I got up to get some water and waited in line while talking to some other trippers and discussing how confusing it all was. A man walked by with a microphone on his head and upon being questioned, pointed to a sticker that said "I'm on the bus." I understood the reference to The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and told him I was too.
When I got back, C had met some new friends from Wisconsin who had some fantasic bud but no pipe. C, being very high, had somehow smuggled a piece in. It was probably so obvious that it wasn't to the guard. The lights quickly went off, M disappeared and C and i were treated to fantastic cannabis for the rest of the show. This increased my trip a lot, and I was already high in the clouds. When the band came back on, they played fantastic and I was having a wonderful time. After the second song of the set, I thought the show was over, but how wrong I was. My coat was becoming a huge pain for me because I love to dance at shows and holding a coat got completely in the way of doing so. The band began to play a middle-eastern groove and the room was completely red. I felt extremely hot and several people around me began to take off their coats. Another friend from school called me to meet up, but I could barely tell which way was up. I threw my coat on the floor, decided no one was going to steal it, and forgot about it for the next hour and a half. A nice circle quickly formed around me to let me dance and I was in heaven. I can not explain the bliss of the moment, only that it was truely and purely perfect. "I had no idea this was possible," I told C as the room spun, twisted, and floated away. The music, combined with a crowd of open-minded and like-minded people was just too much. The band played, time stopped, and the room exploded in an aural orgasm.
As moe. finally left the stage, a grin was left on my face that didn't leave for over 24 hours. I kept dancing with C, who also couldn't have been happier. All around me were smiles and happiness. Security began to push people out, but before they could a drum circle began and the dancing started back up. Half an hour later, we walked out of the building, and I couldn't contain my enthusiasm. Somewhere at the start of the second set all of the bad vibes that had ever been experienced by anyone there lifted up and moved to another state. I danced in the street while a few others joined me and it immediately began to snow as if our collective energy inspired it....
perfect, absolutely perfect
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sounds awesome, reminds me of the feeling i had at my first rave.
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