Music Union : Live Your Music

May 9th, 2009

by Sejal Saraiya

AUDIOTISTIC FESTIVAL: NOS Events Center, San Bernardino

Groundwork:

We found out that tickets for the Audiotistic Festival were less expensive at outlets than online, so we looked to find a close-by outlet to save the ten-dollar service charge. It was 8 p.m. and almost sundown, but the 85 degree air hounded us as soon as we got off the car. We entered the air conditioned (thank god for it) shop, L’Allure, on Hollywood Blvd. A girl with pink hair, and jazzy hoops stood before the counter at L’Allure. “I’m here for Audiotistic tickets,” she said to the owner—a petite Japanese girl called Maki.
So I got my first feel of the concert—pink hair and netted stockings and beads and all. I walked around the shop animated, looking for something ‘crazy’ for myself. The shop had a foreign, hippy feel, a vintage feel, and the owner had handpicked everything herself from Tokyo. I picked up three beaded bangles for ten dollars, defeating my purpose of coming all the way to save those ten dollars on the online tickets.
If anyone feels the urge to buy those vintage Fast-and-the-Furious clothes/accessories, or Japanese earrings and headbands you know where to go: L’Allure on Hollywood and La Cahuenga.

D-Day:

8 p.m. came soon on Saturday evening and we ordered for a huge quantity of food to stuff ourselves with—partly insecure that we were leaving L.A. for barren-land San Bernardino and what if we got hungry there. By 11 p.m. we hit the road. The moon didn’t leave our side even once as we zoomed on the 10 freeway to catch the 60 through the predictably annoying L.A. traffic, and after facing swears and middle fingers from equally annoyed Los Angeles drivers, we managed to make through. We listened to Above & Beyond’s new album OceanLab, all the way, to set the mood, and made many stops on the way—for fuel, for water, soda, ear plugs. And before we even made it to San Bernardino, I was fast asleep in the backseat of the car. Totally unexpected. I was two glasses of Vodka-RedBull down, a combination my friends promised would keep me up all night. It had done just the opposite.

The Ambiance

My friends woke me up when they had parked the car (twenty bucks! This state runs on money made off parking lots and on parking tickets, doesn’t it, and taxes of course). We walked towards the ground, and I hate to admit, I was sleepy as hell. As we got closer, the bass pumping from the trance section pumped me up more than two glasses of RedBull-Vodka had. The place was so organized—unlike any of the raves I have been to in L.A., and we semi-jogged through the aisles to get inside before Thrillseekers would start performing. I was at my camera already—policemen on horses, girls hiding cigarettes in their bras, and cross-dressed guys—in hot shorts and platform boots.  There was a ‘Santa Claus’ too! We stopped at a stall to drink some more Vodka-Redbull and our ID’s weren’t even checked. There are very few places where I don’t get carded, and I love those places, they spare me of the embarrassment of looking like a kid among my mature-looking, hot friends.
The hip hop section was in the open, and the rappers rapped boisterously. I have nothing against hip hop, I love Snoop Dog, but the performance here was so bad, the songs were so old I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to hang around there. We speared ourselves of the torture and walked right into the trance section. Thrillseekers had just started off with a bang—their visuals tantalizing to the brain. It wasn’t as packed as Vanguard (in L.A.) always is. The number of people present here at the San Bernardino rave was….perfect.

Above & Beyond commenced their performance with an orgasmic start, pumping the bass gradually until everyone in the arena had drowned (in music).  As time passed, I was in the zone, sans pills or warmers, or nets. I stood by the railing, below the stage and every now and then, some random guy with LED gloves did the light show, effortlessly putting a spell on me, which my boyfriend, equally effortlessly, broke me out of, in his possessively jealous state. He had clearly never been to a rave before had he? I feel like trance parties are like meditation routines at various cult-ashrams in India, for example the cult of Rajneesh—The exotic Osho Ashram, in which euphoric-trance is played every morning for the commune (in maroon Osho robes)to set their souls free. And for that purpose, you have to be alone. No one can be a part of you then. And every time I shared a (music) moment, or a momentary bond with anyone, I felt my boyfriend’s hands slip over my waist, pulling me behind, into his arms. His presence was ruining the purpose of my presence at the rave. I didn’t feel free.

Soothed

As time passed, Above & Beyond started playing euphoric-trance and soon, Zoe Johnston, the ‘surprise’ vocalist came on stage. She settled the tripping crowd with her captivating vocals. She was so good, my boyfriend finally forgot about me. He was entranced by her alluring, soothing voice. My legs hurt, although I would’ve never accepted it in my friends’ presence. I felt safe to slip out of the huddled crowd without them noticing. I sat down on the ground.

The End

It was 3:56 a.m. four minutes to the end and I waited patiently for Satellite—the song I had waited so anxiously for. It would be the perfect end. But they didn’t play it. And before I realized, the lights were on, one after the other, and someone had started clearing the stage, and hordes of people had started walking out. Almost everyone was disappointed with the feeling incompleteness that their abrupt end had brought. But that was it. It was over. The epic night had come to an end. I was still living the aftermath. It was almost daybreak and we had another two hours to go before we would get home.