As a teenager I had once gone to a rave, a bunch of friends and I had decided to see what it was all about, I obviously was too young or to superficial at the time to realize what that dark smokey warehouse had to offer and left after a few hours dissapointed. Since then I was pretty much into the mainstream club scene and all my life grew up thinking that this was the epitamy of what danceclub life was about. I'd go to clubs at least three to four times a week and was having an absolutely incredible time, and grew up completely content that I had experienced all there was to experience as far as nightlife entertainment was concerned. Well time went on highschool turned to college, college to work, work built my foundation for marriage and a child. And every chance I get I still would go to Dance Clubs w/ my wife or friends...then it happened.
A friend from work a few years younger than myself and a veteran to the rave scene invited me to a rave. I had no idea that it would change me so drastically. Oct 26th/96 is a night i won't soon forget, I picked up my friend Les and his two friends CJ and Jules total strangers to me until that night. With them they carried napsacks, like cubscouts prepared for a camping trip, they had brought Vicks vaporub and inhaler, oranges and bananas, bottles of water, a camera, extra clothes, and other rave parafanalia. All I brought w/ me was my ID and 80 bucks thank God they were prepared or I would have never made it past the first few hours. I parked my 83 honda civic a few blocks away from a warehouse that seemed to be the last place on earth anyone would want to have any sort of social event other than a demolition derby, but even from here I could already hear the deep rhythmic base.
As we turned the corner a line of people scaled one side of the wall along the building it didn't seem any different from any other club I had been to, except for the similar apparel these people had in common, knapsacks, girls w/ clips in their hair, and i mean the type my two year old daughter wears, and even some w/ pacifiers which even my two year old daughter has grown out of. All were w/ oversized pants and low cut running shoes. As we walked in it seemed to be that exact same smoky, dark, abandoned warehouse I had discarded 10 years ago that had led me to the mainstream neon lights of your regular night club. But a few steps into this warehouse quickly made me realize that these weren't a bunch of strangers that had coincidently came to this place. These people seemed to be here for a common reason, I would find this reason later that night.
As I followed my three companions through the warehouse, I realized they were not just walking around they were looking for that spot that would remain our "spot" for lack a better term for that night. We had stationed ourselves by a pole somewhere in the middle of one of the three rooms this warehouse offered, the other two were what I discovered to be the Jungle room and the Chillout room. Already I felt a different feeling than at other clubs, these people weren't here to get drunk, why they never even sold alcohol here, they weren't here to pickup girls or vice versa, these people were here to Dance, to have fun, to unite, to embrace life, in one of the most moving ways I know how...through Music, through friends and through each other. Already I had talked and shared water and snacks w/ complete strangers and even though security was scarce to none, and even though it was dark except for the flashing lights above the DJ, I felt more safe and serene there than I've ever felt at any night club.
Les had left our post and come back w/ four pills of Ecstacy "E", now i had tried weed, coc', 'cids, you name it, but whatever was in this little pill proved its namesake 100 percent. It didn't take long for this drug to hit and at the climax of my "trance" so i've heard it called I closed my eyes. I felt the base vibrate my body, the heat or it might even be the aura of the crowd around me caressed me, engulfed me, the lights danced through my eyelids, suddenly i felt raindrops across my head, my shoulders and chest felt as if they were waterfalls cascding to the floor, i swayed slowly back and forth, my skin felt like silly putty, my body was no longer under my control and as i opened my eyes for a brief moment i realized it was CJ and Les both giving me a body massage playing my body w/ their fingers as if I was a musical instrumetnt. CJ trickled her fingers gentle up and down my face rubbing my ears and my neck, touching my eyes and my lips, it was like the feathers of an angel playing w/ not only my body but my soul, and even though i had just met her that night I was easily seduced by the combination of Music, atmosphere, (E)cstacy, and the incredible closeness I felt to her. Les at the same time was rubbing my back, more forcefully than CJ but equally captivating. I have known Les for some time, and CJ I had just met, but after an experience like that it can build ties stronger than time itself.
It was then that I realized what the common destiny was that had brought all these people here that night. The reason why the Rave has lasted so long and will always be. The common tie that binds young, old, race, creed, religion...I even found out it has a name throughout Ravers far and wide it is P.L.U.R... PEACE, LOVE, UNITY, RESPECT. and my life has changed because of it , my only regret, it took my 26 years to get this far.........
The night went on, dancing and more massages, I even massaged Les,CJ,and Jules, infact I got so into it that night I even got two lightsticks and wasn't doing too bad w/ them either. I never wanted it to end...and you know what.. it never will.... next Saturday theres another Rave, and I'm bringing my wife too...........(hope she gives as good a massage as CJ)
"...and wonderfully, amazing things will begin to happen and you will never be miserable again in your entire life." (by: Roald Dahl, 'James and the Giant Peach' )
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