i miss raves

I miss the pounding, pulsing rhythms that you can’t ignore. The drums that move your body without any effort on your part, and when you do put some effort into it, it moves you that much more and in ways that you never imagined. I miss the feeling you get as the sounds that no earthly instrument can make, the sounds that echo around the room and come back with friends to enter your brain, cause your body to melt from within. I miss the driving bass lines that have no business being in your chest, but are there nonetheless, moving your feet whether you want them to or not. And then, just when it’s getting really good… it all stops, if only for a moment, and the whole room feels it, and waits in anticipation for the release which always comes and brings all of it back and then some.

I miss the comradery, the feeling that everyone is there with you, and yet, you are alone on the dance floor with nothing but your feelings and the music that moves your soul. The feeling that nobody cares what you are doing, but everybody cares how you are feeling. I miss the friends, the friends I only saw at raves, but were always there, smiling and feeling the music alongside me.

I miss the lights. The lights that people carried, starting off as innocent glowsticks and then transforming before your eyes into blobs of light that move to the rhythm. Evolving further into the blinky, crazy poi balls and string-worked lightshows that, if done properly, make you wonder just how many arms that photon magician has.

I miss the lasers. The lasers that, at first, were man powered little sticks of “what the… ? do that again…”, and then evolved into the green super-powered music-reactive room that permeated the smoke in such a way that you felt the only people in the world were you and anybody else that was lucky enough to be inside, with that music…

I miss not caring. I’ve grown to be to set in what I like and if it isn’t what I like, it’s not quite good enough. I miss being able to dance all night without needing the music or false energy to push me along, having nothing but the beats in my head long after the party is over. I miss being able to go all night long, and feeling that the night wasn’t even close to over when the DJ hits the power button and the music slows to a crawl and stops. And just then realizing that the sun is rising, and it’s a new day.

I love my life, wouldn’t change it for the world. I love my wife and my daughter, more than either of them will ever know. But I miss raves.

plur