The Night I Went to a Rave

Okay, okay, so it wasn't a REAL rave. In southeast Idaho the closest you can get to a rave is glow sticks, a goal to break a Guinness World Record, music with bass that vibrates you down to your bones, and black lights. Sure, there were some rowdy partygoers, but there was no alcohol on the premises and a DJ in tune enough to realize when he needed to calm down the crowd.

It was the hubby's turn to plan our date night, and he thought the chance to participate in a world record breaking challenge would be fun. Unfortunately, we showed up right when the doors opened - and we've been out of the singles scene long enough to forget that NOBODY arrives to a party on time. 

The venue did have a pretty cool vibe, though - a gigantic warehouse that doubles as a crossfit center during the day. You had to yell to be heard at the entrance, and that was with the speakers at least half a football field length away. There was a long line to get in, with sponsored booths promoting their services while you waited, and plastic tarps blocking the view of the rest of the facility, to keep an air of mystery to the club-like setting. Our hands were marked, our wrists were banded, and then we were admitted.

One side of the building had a dedicated bike run, with a stunt team doing flips and tricks on their bikes, and there was a photo booth set up on the other side. The bass was so loud I could feel the loose material on my pant legs vibrating freely, and I had never before felt a song pulse in my chest that way.  There were the typical flashy, colored lights and fog machine, plus a large net of balloons hanging over the main dance floor for later in the evening. 

During the party, the event coordinators threw out dozens and dozens of glow sticks. We collected enough to make several necklaces and bracelets. Soon people were busting them open and splattering themselves and others with the glowstick juices, fallen sticks crunching beneath our shoes. They also tossed out balloons that were four times larger than beach balls, for the crowd to bat around, as well as the skinny balloon-animal balloons. Some rectangular tissue paper confetti soon followed.

It was hard to differentiate between most of the songs - the bass was up so loud it completely overwhelmed any melody, unless the DJ happened to turn it down momentarily for the intro of a more popular or classic song. Other than the couple songs I recognized, I didn't like the music. But it was all part of the experience, so I stayed and swayed.

Being in a crowd is an interesting experience. You can't walk on to a dance floor like that and not expect to be jostled around. The more open you are to the experience, the more you realize everyone else is there to do exactly what you're doing - dance with some friends and do something fun - the better the time you'll have overall. There was shoving, there was typical bumping and pushing as other partygoers tried to reach other parts of the dance floor, and there was also the less expected thrusting of the more aggressive guests. If you risk entering the middle of the crush, you will be squished at times (events like these are not for the claustrophobic), and at best you'll be rhythmically bumping hips, butts and stomachs with complete strangers.

Still, as far as parties go, this was tame. The DJ even stopped the music a couple times to tell people to calm down (there was probably some hard shoving that he saw) and to "feel the love" instead. Really, though, the worst part was the body odor emanating from some of the male guests, the smell of pot, and when someone stepped on/scraped my ankle during a "jump" song. (I remembered smelling some farts, too - I guess all that dancing around got some people's systems going...)  Oh, and there was some crowd surfing, too. Every time the girls saw someone headed towards them, they would duck their heads down and scurry in the opposite direction. I'm guessing they didn't want anyone to fall on them.

I felt completely safe in that crowd (despite the occasional threat of falling men); I even sent the hubby off to get me one of the free promotional shirts while I stayed and danced by myself. Sometimes I made eye contact with others, and they looked the same way I probably did - just watching what everyone else was doing and enjoying being a part of something bigger than themselves. 

We did end up leaving early, since dances like that really aren't our thing. We had brought our own silly string, so we used up the cans on each other, took a picture, and left. The music was so loud that our ears were ringing and our voices sounded like we were underwater when we went back outside. I'm glad we went, though. It's good to try new things, even those things we think we wouldn't normally enjoy.