The summer of 1995. I was STILL trying to finish college.
Clay and I were right up front for this show. It was an outdoor concert on the World's Fair grounds in Knoxville. My apartment was literally within the distance of a stone throw, and this was my back yard, basically, a strange little park between campus and the downtown district.
Later, Clay would read an interview with the band, in the local newspaper, out loud to me. He wanted to make sure that I knew that the band was not happy with the violence of Knoxville and wasn't coming back. They wanted to preach a kinder message.
This was a great song to really break the crowd in right. A perfect, sorta ethereal build up, and a fantastic, short, frenzied release. It was one of my favorite shows ever. Tons and tons of energy!!
So...uh...there I was. Trippin' balls. I had this thing about being really intense with it, so I took a lot. My energy kept climbing and climbing in leaps and bounds and I was about to become unhinged. What a great song for it!
Clay grew a lot of mushrooms! But that's a story for a different day. The short of it was that he went to prison for 15 years for growing pretty mushrooms (like, he was busted within the year), and he was the sort of soft little fella that scooped up ants in his apartment and took them outside, rather than killing them. Kind kind kind...
Clay was paranoid about the cops at this venue. He thought they were everywhere. I laughed at him, but he made a pretty good case. He pointed out several guys that didn't look like they belonged. All of them were wearing sweat pants and running shoes. Again, I was tripping, but no where close to being at the peak yet. I really wanted to smoke some herb.
People began to really crowd us in and it was getting tighter and tighter. We hit a bowl.
Some kid caught us, and he began asking to smoke with us. Clay wanted no part of it, and I had no idea where my weed was at this point. Finally, Clay gave the kid a bud to get him to leave us alone, but that didn't work. He started pestering us for something to smoke it out of.
I was really about to come out of my skin by this point, and it's coming on so hard and fast... The crowd got so tight...and was swaying.
Clay tells the kid to fuck off - that there are cops everywhere - but it was like talking to a puppy. That's about the time I saw a soda can laying on the ground, so I fashioned him a bowl and reminded him of the cops. He seemed so grateful.
He took a big, obvious hit right in front of a red headed man in sweat pants. Then the kid smiled at me...like gleeful and shit...and went back to watching this band as this song played out. He put the can behind his back, like he was hiding it, and I watched the bud just fall to the ground as the can tilted. The kid was oblivious. That redheaded man was pushing through the crowd to get to him. Prying people out of his way.
Two minutes and forty-three seconds into the song. The man put his hand on the kid. The song hit its climax. And I exploded like a fucking star right into both of them.
It was one of the most cathartic emotional releases I have ever experienced. The mosh pit that resulted was insane, and lasted forever it seemed. The kid didn't get into any trouble. And whoever that redheaded man was...I'm sure he remembers this experience as well as I do. Just differently.
