Collective Soul
Ok, I'm going to be like a school girl now. Bear with it...I love music. Unfortunately, I'm not musically inclined or anything. My dad is though. I grew up with him playing in a bluegrass band, and you can still find him jamming in his living room at night. My husband was in a band as well, and I got to live vicariously through him a bit when we dated.
So, I got the music bug naturally. In the past I've gotten over the fact that I can't create music by being obsessed with going to concerts and watching the creation of music. However, I haven't been going to concerts for a while now due to the fact of living overseas, a couple of kids, etc.
I got my music fix last night. ::watch out for falling school girls::
My friend and I found out that Collective Soul was in town for Riverfest, and I couldn't believe it. She and I had seen them in Memphis back in 1999, and they had played in Little Rock at Riverfest that year, so I caught that show as well. Apart from CS being just that cool, we could go for old time sake.
I mean, I am just about to turn 26. I can handle watching a band in an average adult manner. I was giddy though. We got there early (due to previous night's experience at Al Green where I was afraid I would be the only white girl in the vicinity), so the local band was still playing. We moseyed along toward the stage. I'm not a "stage" kind of person. I've never had opportunity to be. I sit and I watch musicians and everything else disappears except for me and the song. I forget to yell or clap due to complete mesmerization. So, I'm not the most flamboyant fan.
Ok, that band finishes their set, and people begin to mill around. We start to edge forward. I'm getting that stomach pit squeezing feeling as I'm looking around because there are five people between me and the stage. There is the mic like right there in front of me. And, all of the sudden I think, "Man, I know how sexy Ed Roland is, and I hope he flicks his hair back and beads of sweat splash on my face." What? Who was that talking? I certainly don't think thoughts like that!
Oh, who cares, I'm starting to get caught up in the nervous pre-show anticipation energy. There is the mic like right there in front of me. Body heat is an awe inspiring thing though. We are outside, it is a decent temperature, and it's 9:30 at night. You'd think you wouldn't suffocate in those conditions. Wrong. I feel sorry for sardines now. The body heat. Intense. Hmm, I don't like to feel other people's sweat. I think I'd been oblivious to reality in my initial feelings of grandeur at being right at the stage.
I've never been that close to people before. As in, not a part of me wasn't being touched by another person. People are hairy too. And they smell. I thought to myself more than once that I wasn't quite sure I was still in the mix of human beings anymore. These creatures emitted strange noises, constantly groped each other, and threw their waste (i.e. empty beer cans) at each other. We sure can be a nasty, barbaric life form. What ever happened to a little personal hygiene?
Is there such a thing as a contact high? Oh, I think there is.
I can handle this. Yeah. Then the guy next to me turns to the tiny girl behind him and says, "You better get on somebody's shoulders because you will be crushed." With her deer in headlights look, "What do you mean?". Greasy haired guy says, "Have you ever been to a real concert before?". Cute out-of-place looking blonde says, "No, why?" Sweaty, beer-filled pores guy says, "Heh, you are in for one hell of a ride, little girl."
Um. Ok, I know I can be naive. I know what happens in front of the stage of a concert, but do I really understand what happens in front of the stage of a concert? I turn to Lisa, "Look to your right. That's our escape route if need be, k?"
Ed Roland.....Dean Roland....oh my god...there they are...in front of me...as in...I can see...eye color... and stuff.
MOSH PIT
Shoe to the head. Girl on guy's shoulders above me. Top off. Tits for free. Shoe to the head. Body surfers. Ok, hands up over head, grab the guys ass (or have it smack my face) and help heft him over to the next group of outstretched arms. Third time's the charm. "Lisa, go to the right." "Slam into them, damnit."
We pushed right and forward. Somehow. We grabbed the stage rail right under Dean Roland and the right side speaker. Freakin' A. We are the two luckiest girls on the face of the planet. The school girl rears her unbeknownst to me head. I start to scream. I start to jump up and down. I start to dance around. Without my control, my hands make the universal symbols for "I love you" and "You rock!" up above my head.
Also, when you are that close to the speakers, your body moves uncontrollably with the pulse of the beat. I kept thinking, "If I peed myself, I wouldn't even know it. I'm so sweaty, and I can't feel anything about my body except the vibration of the speakers." It's an experience like none other.
Smart girl has digital camera beside me. She is taking sexy pictures of the guys. I'm so not shy at this point that I turn to her and grab her and yell into her ear. "Do you have email?" She tells me she does. "Would there be any way I could get you to email me a couple of those pictures?" She tells me that she'd be happy to. I happen to have a pen and a scrap of paper (festival advertisement) on me. I scribble out my email address for her, and she smiles and pockets it. Stellar. Good timing because she turns to leave at this point.
Who gets to see Collective Soul and an episode each of Cops and Girls Gone Wild all at the same time? As the right corner of the stage was a foot from us, we got to view security land. We got to see cops come over the rail, into the mosh pit and drag half clothed beings over to security land. It was surreal to see boys being thrown to the ground and three cops wrestling cuffs onto their wrists. My eyes were assaulted by three pairs of skanky boobs, one penis, and two pairs of man cheeks. Yes, a man stood up (I said stood) on the shoulders of another man in front of us, unbelted and unzipped his pants, and commenced to pull them down while the guy below rotated 360 degrees for all to see penis.
Ed Roland is quite eloquent. His motivational speech went a little something like this: "What you may not know is that my little brother, Dean, and I were raised preacher's kids. We still are preacher's kids. Our dad believes in what he does, man. He feels it. One thing I learned from my dad is that if you believe in something you go for it, man. My shining memories of watching my dad preach is how the people reacted. The people feel it, man. They stand up, man. They raise their hands in the air! They remain standing and they never lower their hands as they get into it and really feel it. Tonight, YOU are my congregation!" (hysterical screaming) "Tonight, I am your preacher! You WILL stand! You WILL put your hands in the air! And you won't stop until I am finished with you!"
Amen.
He points to the grassy hill on the left. "That is my hill! Your asses WILL be up off the ground before you leave tonight!" (Well, this is true. They have to get up to leave.) "If the person next to you is not standing, start hitting them." Ahh, rockers are cool.
In the end, I didn't get to catch Dean Roland's guitar pick he threw out into the crowd. He waved at us though. He waved down at us! By the end of the encore, we were about the only two chicks standing in our particular space. We were right below him, and as he stepped to the edge of the stage, we went nuts. Embarrassingly nuts. (grin) So, he waved down at us. For a moment in time, my thoughts connected with Kate Hudson's character in Almost Famous. Wow, an empathetic glimpse into the minds of girls who become "band-aids". It was fleeting though. That's not the real world.
Dean Roland waved at us. (giggle)
Ahh, to be 16 again. It was fun for a night.
Oh yeah, I'm not sorry I experienced a mosh pit once in my life.
