It's 9:28 p.m. and this time last night, I was impatiently sitting in my seat and waiting for the Cure to come onstage. I had been waiting two years and four months to see Robert Smith and those last five minutes were the worst in my life. I know - I'm a sad, sad person.
I did something I had never done in my life yesterday. I went to a music festival alone. I got there before it started and stayed the entire time. I learned, with plenty of preparation and some some self insulating techniques, it is perfectly possible for an introvert to properly enjoy herself amongst the Wild Ones (otherwise known as the ruling majority of the world: extroverts.) The fact the crowd was positivily miniscle for much of the day helped a lot. Of course, I still came home and passed out from near complete exhaustion.
It was also brought home to me during the festival that sound indeed can affect a person. I've gone to quite a few concerts in my time but I've never had these same effects afterward. During a few of the acts on the second stage, Auf Der Maur and the Muse especially, some of the harmonics left me with the energetic equivilent of a car wreck. It wasn't the volume at all - it was all harmonic frequency. Auf Der Maur only hit them a few times but the Muse liked to stay in that range. Ugh. It literally felt as if I had bashed my head on the windshield and I wasn't wearing a seat belt.
Otherwise, it was a great show and I was surprised there were very few goth chillun in attendence. I thought there would be more. There were people of all kinds there though, even one very brave - or crazy, depending on how you look at it - soul who showed up wearing a Morrissey shirt. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that, especially since all the little catty remarks Robert's made about him over the years have been pretty well reported.
There were even a few times where I playfully wondered if there were some Faery folk in the crowd. During Mogwai's set, an absolutely huge insect (it looked as if it was a relative of the dragonfly family) sat on the back of a seat six rows ahead of me. It landed during the first song and left during the last one. A dragonfly flew over the front of the crowd during one of Auf Der Maur's songs, almost as if it was dancing along. It danced a few minutes and zoomed off in the direction of the main stage.
What can I say about the Cure? Oh my lord. Robert Smith walked on stage after everyone else had picked up their instruments and I had all this emotion welling up - you'd think he was serenading me and only me. I caught myself wishing I could sneak him out of the building and bring him home (considering the fact I only had an extra t-shirt with me was no problem - I'd just conjure up the MacGyver in me to pull it off. He wouldn't even have to worry about me stealing his eyeliner and lipstick since I don't wear the stuff.) When it was over, I had a strange vision of myself down on the ground like a character in a Greek tradegy, hands up to the sky yelling, "NOOOOooooooooooo!!!! Robert!! Don't leave - I beg of you! OH! CRUEL WORLD!!! Why???? WHY???!!!"
Okay...so I'm a little passionate about Robert Smith.
There was one other strange incident. Another woman came over and sat beside me for the Cure since she couldn't see anything from her own seat. There was this guy behind her (who knows who he was) who was pretty drunk. He would lean down and start screaming the lyrics in her ear. All I know is when I turned around, she had turned completely around and was gently tapping the sides of his head with her hands, as if she were scolding a misbehaving child. She was about 5"4' and he was nearly six feet and the whole time she was yelling, "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?! YOU ARE ANNOYING ME!" On top of it all, when we were talking about it after the show, she said, "Yes, I was starting to feel violent right about then!"
If that was violent, I'd hate to see her in a passionate rage.
I ended up trading places with her so the guy wouldn't bother her. He didn't scream at me, all he wanted was me to hold my hand so he could "give me five!" and he tugged at my (I originally wrote 'me,' as if I had suddenly become Irish) hair. I couldn't believe it when he did that. All I could think was, "Did he just do what I think he did? What is he - ten?"
Okay y'all - I'm going to stop here. I'm still exhausted. I'll see you later.
Ciao.
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