hedonism for the culturally impaired - a short essay on raving

[Cyn]

After a brief skip back in time, we find ourselves looking at me, circa 1999. I'm in grade 11, and through the miracles of modern techno-ology I've been drafted to go to my first rave, Inception. The name is appropriate for the beginning of my rave career. I'm going alone, but this is hardly a stumbling block. After 10 years of public education as an antisocial nerd, I've grown to enjoy solitude in a crowd.

I'm going to gloss over my tight khaki jeans, parted hair, and the fact that I got a ride to and from the party with my dad, and skip right the point. The point is, Inception rocked. I found myself completely lost in Ill-esha's throbbing drum and bass, dancing like a lunatic and just not caring. I didn't hear the phrase until afterwards, but, "Dance like noone's watching," was an apt summarization of the evening. And so it began.

I didn't know it at the time, but Inception marked a real turning point in my personality and interests. For the first time in my life I was seeing counter culture in action. I didn't see '2 Teens Die of Ecstasy Overdose' or 'Man Shot Outside Vancouver Nightclub' or 'Hell's Angels in Nanaimo Drug Trade'. Instead, I saw a crowd of 300 shiny happy people pushing social stigmas out the window and replacing them with absolute hedonism. What's more, I felt like I was part of it. Even though I hardly spoke a word that night, I didn't feel like an outsider. PLUR hugged me and I hugged back.

The next 8 months were filled with 31 flavours of ridiculous. Parties almost every weekend, meeting dozens of drug addled youths, learning to love computerized dance noises and seeing hundreds of glowstick lightshows... The penultimate moment came when I dyed my hair fireapple red, it subsequently faded to pink, and I thought to myself, "Whatever, as long as it's still brightly coloured." Over this period I was learning a hundred different lessons, from why you should never touch the walls at an indoor show to how sometimes all it takes is a sip of water to make you someone's best friend in the world. Most of all though the rave scene was illustrating the quintessential axiom from Human Traffic - we're all fucked up in our own way, but at least we're doing it together.

Fast forward to two nights ago - Island Classics. It's been about 4 years, and I'm still going to shows for the same reason - to rock the dancefloor and trip the light fantastic. I've got corollary goals at parties, including getting stoned out of my gourd, meeting new people, and flailing with glowsticks, but what keeps drawing me back is that every once in a while I need a DJ to save my life. Hands windmilling, feet nordic tracking, strobe lights playing across a wall of ear to ear grins - it's times like that when you don't just feel the bass, you feel the bass.

And it feels goooooood.

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reposted from my blog - http://www.livejournal.com/users/captainalias

[MissBehavior]

:y:

Really great post. Makes me think back to why I started partying again, and why I'm still involved in the scene.

Good on ya. Check your Karma. :)

[ebbomega]

Rave on.

[crookedking]

out of those hundred lessons you learnt how to get laid right?