my summer with molly (word)

8/13/2019 My Summer With Molly (Word)

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My Summer with MollyA Ravers Best Friend

1. I first wanted to get into the rave scene when i was only 12 years old. welearned about club drugs in health class. one of the scenes in the video we watched

was of a rave. they showed this guy rolling dancing like crazy having the time of hislife. this is when i knew ecstasy was the drug for me. Only being 12 years old i had noidea where raves were taking place or how to find them. and for most raves you needed

to be 18. but i knew what electronic music was. i called it techno at the time. i would gohome and try and find electronic dance music online. not knowing what it was actually

called i would search google; DJ, or techno. trying to get into the scene. i was only ableto find old school happy hardcore songs. the only DJ i was able to come across was

Tiesto. Tiesto happened to be the number 1 DJ in the world. i downloaded some of hissongs. but honestly at the time i wasnt really digging them. but i listened to them

anyway hoping they would grow on me, because i wanted to get into the scene. they

never did. so i continued listening to mainstream radio. but techno was always in theback of my mind.

A few years later still trying to get into the scene. i would youtube DJ still trying

to find names of DJs and where they would be playing. i came across a youtube mixcalled DJ ravines happy hardcore mixes. This was a start. i now know of 2 DJs and agenre called happy hardcore. happy hardcore is a very fast paced form of dance music.when you think of techno youre probably thinking of happy hardcore. so i would listen to

this guys mixes. they were sweet. i actually liked techno now. so were making progress.unfortunately this guy was from australia. so i never saw him.

after watching DJ ravines mixes on youtube i wanted to start mixing. i looked intobuying turntables knowing absolutely nothing about them, except the ones i was looking

at were around $1,000. being 14 at the time, these were out of the question.throughout highschool i still wanted to get into the scene. i knew all about the

scene, the whole PLUR peace, love, unity, respect thing. the coming together ofoutsiders and how everyone was accepted. eveyone just wanted to dance and enjoy the

music. nothing but positive vibes. this was right up my alley as i was an outsider inhighschool. i was the kid everyone knew but no one really talked to. i think i had maybe

6 or 7 actual friends in highschool. one of them being my best friend Drake. he was theone that introduced me to all of my other 6 or 7 friends. high school was rough for me.having little friends and going though a lot psychologically i was very withdrawn and kept

to myself. i never really got bullied, but in class kids would throw pencils and erasers at

me. it didnt really bother me but whatever just get me out of this class. this was most ofmy highschool career.

Finally senior year 2011, my 6 or 7 friends went to a music festival calledbonaroo. they asked if i wanted to go, but i didnt feel like driving 14 hours (from michigan

to tennesee) to see a few bands or artists. i stayed home. they came back and had ablast. they were telling me all about it. i was like okay i probably should have gone, fuck.

They loved the music festival and wanted to go to another one immediately. well electric


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forest was coming up. it was only 3 hours away and in 2 weeks. they asked if i wanted togo. i looked at the lineup. who did i see? Tiesto. i had to go. i was so down.

2. Electric forest finally comes. we (Drake, Sam, and I) pack all our stuff and

were off to a four day party in the woods. i had no idea what to expect. All i knew wasthat there was electronic music and this was my first experience with the scene. so impumped. we get there and set up our camp site. i didnt help at all. i cant build a box with

4 pieces of wood. so setting up a tent and canopy was out of the question. so i was incharge of handing them them the poles to hold up our tent. we set up camp and had a

few hours to kill before the festival gates opened. so were smokin mad doobies justchillin. there was a joint or blunt in rotation at all times. they asked me if i wanted to try

molly i was like whats molly? Molly is the purest form of ecstasy, MDMA. yes, yes iwant to try molly. so i have no idea how much i bought but i bought enough. it was in a

powder in a bag. they told me to take dips basically get some on your finger and eat it.

ok easy enough.The festival gates finally open. Were high as fuck just wandering around the

festival. it was amazing. we came across a booth called Spirithoods. which are these

really cool hats with a scarf and pockets. i tried one on and i had to have it. i bought thepanda one. high as fuck i dropped $150 of my $200 that i brought with me for theweekend. Im now out of money on the first day. 100% worth it.

Everyone loved my new hat. people were coming up and petting me. it was

amazing. im accepted here. random strangers are coming up and starting conversationwith me. this feels great as no one really talked to me in high school. im in love. this is

the scene for me. i met so many amazing people it was ridiculous.this was all during the day. the music didnt start until 12am. i was planning on

seeing excision and kaskade that night. Around 10pm clouds start rolling in. im gettinnervous. At the time i was terrified of thunderstorms. it ended up storming like crazy,

tornado sirens were going off, with hail the size of golf balls. i book it back to the tent.however there were probably 10s of thousands of tents. im lost as fuck, scared out of my

mind.This girl came up to me sensing i was not having a good time. she helped me

look for my tent. im about to cry and every where i look all i see are tents. everythinglooked the exact same and to help us out it was pitch black. the thunder and lightningare coming down like crazy. the hail is coming down in buckets luckily i had my hat on

so it didnt really hurt to much. finally i see a flag in the air. wait a minute i recognize that

flag! over here its somewhere in this general area. i told the girl. she was like ok fuckyeah. so i find my tent and she goes to find hers. thank you stranger.

im in the tent still scared out of my mind. i hear someone on a walkie talkiewalking by say that there are tornadoes and everyone needs to take cover. i about shit

my pants. at this point i decided im going to go to sleep. if i wake up its over. if i die, i diein my sleep and have no idea it happened. My friends come back to the camp site


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around 5am. They wake me up and we smoke a blunt in the tent. This was my first dayof electric forest.

Day 2, Friday, here we go. smokin blunts all day, the usual routine. my friendswere talking about how crazy last night was, but they felt really bad about my firstexperience. i told them not to worry about it i still had a blast.

i was wearing my hat and some sunglasses during the day and Sam told me ilooked boss as fuck. after this statement plus all the random petting the day before, thishat was not leaving my head. during the day we wander around the festival some more

and went into the forest. holy shit. this forest was crazy all decorated with differentpieces of art. hammocks everywhere you could just lay in. we found 3 hammocks next

to each other and chilled most of the day. well while we were in the hammocks i droppedmy bag of molly. fuck. it was funny though. were high as fuck so whatever. my friends

end up giving me some of theirs.Finally night rolls around and Tiesto is up first. 12am. i start taking mad dips out

of my bag of molly. it tasted awful. it just tasted like you were eating chemicals. im

listening to tiesto. and i feel sober. i didnt feel like i was rolling at all. i just couldnt stopdancing. at the time i was not the dancing type. so i knew i was feeling it. Im having thetime of my life. im dancing like there is no tomorrow. im whipping out dance moves i

could have never imagine i would be whipping out. i was dancing so hard i decided ineeded some more room to bust out all my new moves. so i head more to the back ofthe crowd where i could dance more freely. the back is where i still hang out until thisday. So im by myself dancing the night away. everyone around me is dancing, this is

great. were all having the time of our lives.This was home for me. i finally found where i belonged. Once tiesto ended i came

down from my roll. Once you come down youre done. the night is over. for me at least.so I'm freezing cold now, one of the side effects of MDMA. so i head back to my tent. i

remembered where it was this time thanks to the flag and went to bed. i got all snug inmy blankets. I'm at pure bliss right now. i slept like a baby.

So tiesto was my first electronic experience. I couldn't have asked for a better firstexperience.

Day 3, Saturday, we wake up early around 7am or 8am. so we didnt get muchsleep but when your tent is around 100 degrees fahrenheit you arent sleeping much

longer. Daily routine, we spark a joint. today is an exciting day, our other friends showedup; Amy, Ian and Dawn. they couldnt make it for the whole four days because they hadshit to do. So they just got a 2 day pass. so they showed up and were talking to them

about how crazy its been for the past 2 days. we start talking about the previous night,

and how they lost me. i told them no guys its straight i needed more room to dance so imoved more towards the back and that i had a blast and met so many amazing people.

Ian, Dawn, and Amy are pumped after hearing all our amazing stories. Honestly i dontremember them right now, just that they were amazing.

So during the day were showing Ian, Dawn, and Amy around the festival andtheyre reactions were great because we experienced what they were experiencing 2

nights ago. theyre in love. were chilling in the grass just relaxing cause Drake, Sam and


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I are dead tired. Were about to roll up a blunt and Ian asks you wanna put some bubbahash in there? yes, yes we do so we roll up a fatty and thats just what we needed. I

pass out almost immediately. Im out for like 4 or 5 hours. It was completely acceptabletoo. just taking a nap in the grass at main stage, listening to some String CheeseIncident.

I wake up and have no idea what time it is or where my friends are. Whatever illfind them later. Im refreshed and ready to party. so i just kinda wander around waitingfor 12am when the DJs start playing. Tonight we had bassnectar on the lineup. im

pumped. ive never listend to bassnectar but ive heard of him and a lot of people love hismusic.

bassnectar finally goes on. the lights are amazing people throwing glowsticks inthe air. Im having like a panic attack im so excited. I start taking mad dips out of my

molly. probably took 3 or 4 dips, not a lot but for a first timer it was a good amount. Imhaving a blast im jumpin up and down. i feel fuckin amazing. i feel euphoric. i didnt feel

the euphoric the night before cause i didnt know what to expect. im loving life. life is

amazing. but im seeing all the glow sticks being thrown in the air at every drop. Impissed, i dont have any glowsticks. i start wandering around the crowd staring at theground trying to find glowsticks. i ended up collecting about 20-25 glowsticks. I am

ecstatic. The drop comes and throw those glow sticks in the air like im trying to throwthem to the moon. talk about amazing. i start telling everyone dude i threw some glowsticks now everyone wants glow sticks. Im now on a mission; find more glowsticks so ican share the excitement with my fellow ravers. i wander around the crowd some more

for like 10 minutes trying to find more glow sticks. i have about 50 of them now. i go backto the group i just met with my glow sticks. theyre pumped as fuck i came back. We all

screamed in excitement waiting for the drop so we could throw our glow sticks. One ofthe girls got too excited and threw hers before the drop. When the drop comes we jump

high as we possibly can and throw those glowsticks like were pissed at the world. it wasamazing.

Im now partying with this new group of people i just met having a blast. i offerthem some molly. theyre all for it. theyre faces lit up like a candle in the dark. theyre

happy as can be. so now were all on the same level rolling balls, throwing glow sticks,dancing and partying like no tomorrow.

i start wandering through the crowd, ill catch you later guys! As im wanderingaround the crowd. who do i run into? My friends Ian, Dawn, and Amy. Holy shit. talkabout fucking magical. our faces light up, we didnt know what to do so we jump and

scream fuck yeah! i can promise you there is no better feeling in the world than when

youre at a festival rolling hard as fuck and you run into youre group of friends that youlost hours ago.

I chill with my friends for the rest of bassnectar. we had a blast. bassnectar endsand i come down from my roll. so im done for the night. back to the campsite i go. I

remember the flag, that one of the campsites had so finding the tent was much easierthan the first night. i got to bed freezing cold all snugged in my blankets.


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Day 4, Sunday, wake up with the usual routine 8am spark a blunt. we areexhausted. we just lay around camp all day. sleeping in the sun just relaxing. were sick

of sleeping on the ground. we just want a good night sleep in our own beds. and its onlya 3 hour drive. so we decided that before we went out to the festival we were going topack up all our stuff and drive home after pretty lights. bad idea. this day was mostly just

chilling in the grass smoking blunts and napping. but 12am DJs start playing and first upwas pretty lights. Ians pumped cause pretty lights is Ian's favorite. pretty lights is aboutto go on we all take the last of our molly. were feelin good. weve been sleeping all day

so were ready to party. pretty lights goes on and his visual light show was crazy he hadall these buildings set up on the stage like a city. it was really cool. a bunch of lasers

shooting out into the crowd. definitely the coolest light show of the weekend. so werepartying, dancing having a blast. even though our bodies were exhausted we had drugs,

our artificial energy. pretty lights ends and were still rollin, were feelin good. its 2 or 3 inthe morning after a 4 day weekend of little sleep and a lot of partying. Its a bad idea but

Sam tells us hes straight to drive home. he wasnt. were all dead tired and once we sat

down in the car the tiredness hit us. i didnt care though i wasnt driving, so getting homewas Sams problem. i was sleeping. once again, my mindset was; i wake up and werehome, or i die in my sleep. I passed out immediately. about 30 minutes later i hear a

loud rugged sound. i wake up like what the fuck was that? Sam fell asleep and almostwent off the road. we all wake up terrified. i didnt care i was alive and thats all thatmattered. Drake decides hes going to drive the rest of the way home. We stop at a gasstation, Drake fills up on some coffee and we drive home. We didnt get home until 5 or

6 in the morning. but we got home and thats all that matters.

3. The rest of the summer all we could talk about was electric forest and howcrazy it was. Talked about our favorite sets, all the cool people we met, our stories from

the storm. It was great. My favorite set was tiesto. He killed it, and it being my firstelectronic experience it absolutely crazy. Sam and Drake told us the story about how

they had share a porta potty to get out of the storm. They said it was rough and they gotsome weird looks when two guys walked out of a porta potty.

i needed to know when the next rave was though. im in the scene now and i dontwant out any time soon. The month of July went by and we didnt know of any raves

coming up, but we were still recuperating from the forest so that was ok. August rollsaround we find out about a rave with Flux Pavillion and Doctor P was that night. webought our tickets and about an hour later they sold out. lucky us. This show was crazy

one of the best shows ive been to this day. It was 16+ but whatever. My friend Drake

went to the bathroom and he heard these 2 parents talking (must have been theyre kidsfirst concert or something) he over hears them say its like a giant party in here that is

exactly what it is a giant fuckin party. Everyone just having a blast. we lost Sam early onin the show. About an hour later i see him flying over the crowd crowd surfing. One of

the camera men actually got a perfect picture of him flying through the crowd pointing atthe camera. The venue put it on their website. It was one of the coolest pictures ive

seen. i was sober for this show. i didnt know where to find molly. I still had a blast. This


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was good. i showed myself I could have fun without the drugs. i remember i was at thebar getting some water and i was talking to this guy about the artists that were playing

and he was like yeah i saw them back in May and it was crazy i thought that was thecoolest thing in the world, that hes seen them before. i wanted to be able to say yeah isaw them back in... so bad. this is when i decided i wanted to go crazy and go to just

about every show that came to town.

4. Identity fest was up next on our rave calendar. i was obviously going to wearmy hat. Identity fest was a one day festival i think it was 8 or 9 hours of nonstop music.

there were i think 3 stages. the main stage had seats which was really lame. but this iswhere i saw le castle vania, kaskade, and Steve aoki all for the first time. and those are

3 of my favorite DJs to this day. we got there around 2pm right when doors opened,there was no one there. it was dead. we were like fuck i hope it fills up, which it did.

Le castle vania was the first DJ we saw. he was on main stage with the seats.

there were maybe 50 - 60 people in the crowd. some people were sitting down. this iswhen i fell in love with le castle vania because he had so much energy and love for whathe was doing you would have thought he was playing in a stadium pack with thousands

of people. but there werent there were 50. Not only did he have a lot of energy his musichad a lot of energy and you couldnt help but dance. Even though the seats got in theway.

After le castle vania we just kinda wandered around. i didnt know of any of the

DJs cause i was still new to the scene. so we pretty much just went where our friendTrevor said would be bangin. we ended up at the rockstar stage which was in the

parking lot, for most of the day, no seats. This is where we saw Steve Aoki for the firsttime. i thought he killed it. he had an inflatable raft that he would put people in and they

were crowd surf in it. i thought this was the coolest thing in the world. i remember onegirl was in the raft having a blast, fist pumping and dancing in the raft, and i was a little

jealous. later during the set this girl comes up to me and was like that was me in theraft! i was like oh my god thats awesome! and gave her a hug. She petted my hat.

One of those amazing moment you have at a rave, with the cool people you meet.After Steve Aoki we saw kaskade, and honestly i dont remember a thing from

kaskade, and i was sober. weird. All i remember is there were seats and there wasn't alot of room to dance. Still had a lot of fun though.

5. Next show wasnt until september. Guess who it was. Tiesto! No one wanted to

go so i ended up buying Drakes ticket for him so he would go with me. We had molly forthis show. some really good molly. you measure molly in tenths of a gram like .1 or .2.

most caps have .1 in them. the average amount for one person is .2 or 2 caps/pills. weeach had 2 caps.

This show was a life changer. I wasnt going to wear my hat to this show becauseit was inside and i was worried about overheating. i brought it though. We got there and i

didnt wear it, the entire time we were in line Drake was telling me i should have worn the


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hat. So we went back to the car and got it. Then i decided no, no, ill get hot. back in linewe went. then i decided i wanted to wear it again. we made like 3 trips back to the car

before going in about wearing this hat. so we Drake some attention to ourselves whilehaving drugs on us. not a good idea. but i finally wore the hat.

we get through security, it was scary. but they didnt find our molly. We get in and

i pop mine immediately. I Go to the bathroom and get a water. right when i got my waterit hit me. Im rolling the second hardest i have ever rolled until this day. we sprint to thecrowd, there was dancing that needed to be done. We get down there porter robinson is

opening for tiesto and drops Daft punks Around the World. This is one Drakes favoritesongs. we had a blast.

i lost Drake early into the night. but were used to losing eachother by now and weknow well find each other later, and my hat is kind of hard to miss. Drake finally makes it

back to me. He made some friends; Kent and Greg. They were brothers and they werealso at electric forest. we hung with them the rest of the night. we became good friends.

i still talk to them to this day, 2 years later.

i was peaking when tiesto dropped the song Feel it in my Bones. i rememberstanding there like oh my god this song is amazing. So now everytime i hear that songi think about the bond me and Drake had after the show.

When youre rolling you tend to have heart to heart conversations with each otherand Drake being my best friend we had a heart to heart. We were still rolling after theshow so we went back to his place and just listened to music and talked about ourfriendship and how much fun we had that night. it was really magical.

This show was a game changer because i wore my hat and didnt over heat. sonow im wearing it to every show.

6. Our next show was in october. we had a back to back. deadmau5 was fridayand avicii was staurday. Honestly i didnt like deadmau5 before i saw him live. his music

is more melodic and technical and i heard a few of his songs and wasnt sure how youcould dance to it because there was no drop which i was used to. but i knew he wore a

giant mau5head on stage and i wanted to see that live, i thought it was the coolestthing in the world.

So were at deadmau5, Nate and 2 other girls joined us. i felt bad for Nate. hebought the wrong ticket so he got stuck by himself on the balcony. mistakes were made.But that was not about to effect our time. Were getting ready to leave the car making

sure everyone has theyre drugs hidden. going through security with drugs is so scary,

but once you make it through youre like Hell Yeah! We all get in safely everyone hastheir drugs. Nate has to go up stairs, it was kind of depressing. But he had molly so he

still had a good time. I pop my molly, 2 caps right when we get in. On the way to thedance floor i see this guy with a giant home made mau5head on. it lit up in different

colors and everything. honestly it was almost as cool as deadmau5s. i had to talk to thisguy and tell him how sick his mau5head was. it turns out this guy was known as

Detroitmau5. We go to the dance floor and funkagenda is playing. Never heard of this


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guy before, but once again still kinda new to the scene. he was doing alright, i wasrolling so was having a blast either way.

I lost Drake again. And guess who he comes back with. Greg and Kent! amazingabsolutely amazing. we chilled with them the rest of the night and formed a friendship.we kept in contact and talked about what other shows we were going to. this was great

we needed to know of some more shows.Deadmau5 comes on, hes behind this giant cube, with a giant mau5head on his

head (kind of looked like mickey mouse) and the eyes lit up. Okay im in love, this is the

coolest thing i have ever seen. I was able to dance to his music too which i didnt think iwas going to be able to do.

i was rolling but starting to come down. this is not good, he just went on. soabout 3/4 of the way through his set i was done i came down i wanted to go home.

i chilled at the bar the rest of the night and talked to this one guy about how crazydeadmau5s visuals were. We both agreed they were the best weve seen. We

compared them to pretty lights and agreed deadmau5s were better and that deadmau5

puts a lot of time and money into his stage production. we appreciate this.walking out of the venue i see this guy passing out cards. i was like whats this

so i took one. it said Detroitmau5 on it with a facebook link. i checked it out and it was

a fan page for the guy in the mau5head. this was the coolest thing ever. i actuallybecame friends with him and are still friends to this day. (you make a lot of friends in thisscene)

After the show were walking back to the car and this girl comes up to me Panda

Man! i was kinda confused i was like what? but she was like I saw you at Tiesto andrecognized youre hat! I was like oh hell yeah, whats up she was like nothin just

saying hi. That is what started my rave career as Detroit Panda ManAvicii. We saw avicii in a warehouse with like 2000 people. 6 months later he was

headlining Ultra, one of the biggest music festivals in the world. All because of onesong; Levels. Levels is the greatest dance song of all time. i dont care what anyone else

says. But it got over played and everyone hates it now. I still love it though.were at avicii, in this warehouse in a pretty shady area of Detroit. doors open at

8:00pm we get there around 9:00pm. were tired. we had deadmau5 the night before,were still kinda new to the scene, were tired. security was easy as fuck, it was a

warehouse that eventually got shut down. they didnt care about anything. This is thecoolest most underground venue i have ever been too. It was literally a warehouse witha stage and a bar. the bathrooms were porta potties outside. This is awesome.

I didnt take my molly when i first got in thank god. After coming down at

deadmau5 i decided im gonna take my molly right when the headliner comes on thatway i can roll through the entire set. He didnt end up going on until 1:30am. We got

there at 9:00pm so were just kinda walking around dead tired like lets go were trying toroll here.

I met this one girl, Kathy, were still friends to this day, actually shes Sam andIans Roommate at college. She taught me the handshake to trade kandi. kandi is

bracelets made of pony beads that a lot of ravers wear. It was the PLUR handshake,


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peace, love, unity, respect. The coolest thing ive ever seen. Im trading kandi witheveryone now. showing people the handshake.

Avicii finally goes on, we pop our molly, and were feelin great. Hes killin it and hedrops levels. holy shit i have never seen a crowd react the way they did when hedropped this song. there were no lyrics but people were singing along to the beat

jumping like crazy. It was amazing. im dancing hard as fuck, i dont give a fuck how tiredi am, the energy from his set along with my rolls, we are set!

During Aviciis set another girl comes up to me and calls me panda man. she saw

me at deadmau5 the night before. i was like hell yeah, i was totally there! we talked fora little bit, she was really cool. couldnt tell you her name but she was dope.

the night finally comes to an end and we go home at like 4 in the morning. weredead tired. i dont think we said a single word on the way home we were so tired. but

totally worth it. we had a great ass weekend.

7. Panda Man? dope people know me as panda man, this is awesome. i was like

what if someone made me a facebook page? how dope would that be? thatd be helladope. i was like no what if i make it myself. so i made myself a facebook page DetroitPanda Man. i used detroit because i assumed that everyone with a panda spirithood

got called panda man. i thought my facebook page was the coolest thing in the world.All my friends thought it was cool/funny. they nor i had any idea what it would turn into.So i have this facebook page and i got like 20 likes from all my friends, this isawesome.

so im trying to figure out how i can expand this panda man page. and i rememberthe card that Detroitmau5 gave me. i was like oh good idea, good idea So i made

business cards with my picture and my facebook link on them and i passed them out bythe doors at the end of shows. a lot of people looked at it like the fuck is this? a lot of

people dropped them on the ground. a few people kept them. one person asked me hewas like what is this? i told him its my facebook page. he was like thats stupid and

dropped the card.I noticed after each show i was gaining around 10-15 likes on my page. Im

ecstatic. i ran into my first fans at datsik. Jane and Nicole. This is when i had my firstpicture taken. it was a terrible picture, the flash didnt go off and barely all three of us fit

in the picture. but i still have that picture to this day. and im still friends with Jane andNicole to this day. i actually just saw them the other day.

8. Zeds Dead was up next. Zeds Dead was dope. the music was alright but i met

some cool people. the 16 year old. i like the 16 year old. im chillin dancing to zeds deadand this kid next to me looks young as fuck. i ask him dude, how fuckin old are you?

he goes 16 hell yeah dude 16 year old out at a rave on a school night how dope isthat. This kid loves electronic music. unfortunately hes to young for most shows. so he

can only go to the all ages and 16+ shows. but hes the highlight of my all ages shows isseeing him. hes dope as fuck. reminded me a bit of myself.


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In high school Drake and i would go to concerts during the school week andeveryone asked us the same question how old are you guys? so i like the 16 year old.

i also got to know one of the camera men that worked at the Middle Oak venue.he would always take my picture, and tell people dude this guy has his own facebookpage! i would just smile yeah, like what do you say to that, thanks? but he was cool. i

still see him at shows today and he always takes my picture.

9. Skream and Robga. This was the first show i went to that i didnt really enjoy. it

was all old school dubstep and im not a huge dubstep fan. but my friend Chris fromhigh school got really drunk and ended up having to go to the hospital. he was

incoherently drunk. he couldnt walk and his friends had to hold him up on the dancefloor. everyone was asking if he was ok. finally and luckily, they decided he was not okay

and that he needed to go to the hospital. that saved his life. they said if he hadnt goneto the hospital he probably would have died. i never found out if it was just alcohol or if

he was on other drugs.

10. Shazzzam was our next event, in november. Kent and Greg told us about it.This was the most underground event i have been to. It was at that shady warehouse

where we saw avicii back in october. Shazzzam wasnt a DJ it was a party, but therewere 8 or 9 DJs that played. This is where i saw mord fustang and dirty phonics for thefirst time. both names have gotten pretty big since seeing them in a wear house. Thisparty was dope. I didnt roll this night. i had molly but didnt take because it went til 5 and

i didnt want to come down early. still had a blast though.There were fire spinners, girls dancing in cages, there might have been maybe

one or 2 security guards, that was it. We went here with Drake, Rob, Robs BrotherAustin, and Donnie. Rob almost didnt get in because he didnt have any money and their

ATM wasnt working. We all got in and were waiting on Rob but weren't sure what wastaking so long, and Donnie was like cmon guys lets just go we were like no, fuck you

dude we have to wait for Rob. good thing we waited because we ended up having tothrow him money because the ATM was broken. But he got in and thats all that matters.

i ended up seeing my friend Stacy there. i have no idea how i know her. we werefriends in highschool but she didnt go to my school i met her through friends of friends,

but were actual friends now. she happened to be at identitiy fest. She asked me wereyou at ID fest? i was like yeah i was. i totally saw you there! i wasnt sure if it was youor not though. i was like ah dam! we chilled for a little bit it was awesome.

We ended up leaving around 3:45am and good thing cause the cops showed up

at 4:00am and shut it down. I dont remember why though. but we got lucky because ididnt take my molly so i would have had drugs on me. bad news bears that would have

been. They didnt have a shazzzam the next year because it got shut down. But theyrehaving another one this year. its at a different venue though. ive never been there

before. but i hope its dope.


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11. our next show was bassnectar at an arena. i went with Drake and Nate. it waspretty close to home so i was pumped. i was sober for this show so thats good. having

fun without the drugs. bassnectar killed it as normal. big gigantic opened for him. theyrekind of like a jazz electronic. they have a lap top, a drum set, and a saxophone. theywere pretty good. i was digging them. when bassnectar went on it was next level shit.

straight killed it. it was at an arena though and it was first come first serve for the mainfloor. so some of my friends had to sneak down, but it wasnt hard, they just couldnt goto the bathroom or get water once they got down. they found us cause of my hat. i

remember i moved to the side and this girl was like great now i have a panda in front ofme and cant see. i turned around apologized and gave her a piece of kandi. she

smiled, she was no longer mad. we chilled for some of the night. it was cool.At the end of the show Drake and I were in the lobby looking for Nate. while

waiting for Nate this guy comes up to me and asks if i was the Detroit Panda Man ichuckled yeah thats me he was like oh my god dude, im from Minneapolis and see

youre shit all over facebook, can i get a picture? i was like of course. Drakes jaw

dropped and started laughing like holy shit. i was a little in shock as well. Minneapolisthats some out of state shit.

The guy thanks me for the picture and leaves. i look at Drake dope dude, dope

he was like fuck yeah thats dope, thats crazy as fuck. we told Nate and Nate wasprobably more excited than i was. holy shit thats fuckin crazy bro, i wish i would havebeen there for that!

The ride home we were all just like holy shit Minneapolis.

12. Fast forwarding to december. Le castle vania was coming back to town. he

was playing at the grime, which is more of an underground venue. this was my first timethere. it was December 23rd two days before christmas. This venue was grimey as fuck.

(but eventually becomes one of my favorite venues) I walk in there and theres 2 roomstheres a front room with a small stage and a bar and a back room with just a stage. Im

walking to the back room through this hallway and im thinking to myself i feel like im ina heroin documentary it was grimey. so im gettin some weird vibes. This was our first

time at this venue. It was Drake, Nate, Ian, Sam, Jake, and I I believe. Then we metsome friends there. we didnt know what time he was going on because it was our first

time at this venue. we got there around 12:00am he went on at 1:30. i actually saw himwandering around the crowd. so i went up and talked to him for a second. Real cool guy.Down to earth, he was awesome. there were maybe 30 people here. Another small

crowd when we saw him. We took our molly, 2 caps again. Our friend took 3. i thought

he was nuts. i was like dude youre gonna die (later 3 becomes a joke for me). Le castlevania goes on. Were literally like right on top of him we were so close. it was awesome

and just as before he had the energy as if he was playing in front of a stadium ofthousands. he became my one of favorite DJs, probably second after Tiesto. Were rollin

balls going hard as fuck to his dirty electro set. it was nuts. Were pretty much talking tohim while he spins. we had a blast, one of my favorite shows.


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Were still rolling as the show ends. There was a snow storm. Drake was driving(after our electric forest incident with Sam, Drake likes to be in control of the wheel)

maybe 15-20 mph. it was not straight to drive but whatever we wanted to get home. wewatched 2 cars slip off the side of the road. Now were all back seat drivers. carefulDrake, stay slow, stay slow.

We finally get home. took us like an hour should have only taken us 30 minutes.but we made it home safe so we dont give a fuck. Were home safe thats all thatmatters. its like 4 or 5 in the morning. now we have to drive home from Drakes place to

my place. no big deal we made it home so were straight. That was Jakes first show.even though there wasnt a huge crowd he was rolling and he had a blast. So hes

happy.

13. Now were in 2012. no new years eve party (that i knew of). i was kinda pissedive always wanted to go to a new years eve party. Especially since Kaskade played a 12

hour set in vegas for new years, 12am-12pm. you could have gone home went to bed

and came back in the morning and he would have still been playing. crazy.Now were at like 200-300 likes on facebook. So were doing good. i decided to

email spirithoods about how theyre hat (its actually called a hood but whatever) has

changed my life. I basically told them about how i went from having 6 or 7 friends inhighschool to random people coming up and petting me and wanting to startconversation with me. I told them i was like yeah everyone asks me where i got my hatand i tell them proudly that its a spirithood and every hood you buy spirithoods donate

10% of theyre profits to different animal charities. spirithoods emailed me back. i wassurprised. i didnt think they were going to email me back. but they did. They offered me

a spot in their brand ambassadors program. basically i have a code and if people usethat code to buy a spirithood they get a 15% discount and i get 15% commision. Holy

shit. I couldn't have asked for a better response. This helped out immensely. So i madenew business cards with my info on one side and the spirithood info on the back. i

passed these out at shows now and i got a lot of great responses. one i remember, thiskid was like whats this? i told him its a discount for spirithoods. he was like hell yeah

my girl wants one so bad and her birthday is coming up, youre the best dude! Thismade me feel great.

People were still dropping my cards but not as many. i got my first check fromspirithoods. i thought it was going to be like 50 bucks. hell no. it was nearly 400 (andthat was my smallest check from them, i got checks monthly) Im ecstatic. i end up

making more money from spirithoods going to shows than i was working. Life is good.

14. Our next show was Avicii again, some time in early january. Now hes playing

at The Mill which is one of the bigger venues in Detroit. Because of what? Levels. Thistime it was Drake and I in a car and Nate and few of his other friends in different car.

Nate got shafted again. it was on a thursday and the one girl that drove with Nate had tobe home at 11. so he had to leave early. I wasnt happy. I felt bad for Nate. He might

have saw half the show. So we meet up in the parking lot and the kids Nate went with


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wanted to get there early. We usually get there late so we don't have to wait in line andright when we get there the headliner usually goes on.

so were there super early just kind of walking around the music hasn't evenstarted yet. Drake and i are just kind of rolling our eyes at each other but whatever. Thiswas a dope show. i dont remember who opened for him but, he wasnt that great. we just

wanted to see avicii. i actually ended up running into some kids from high school there. iwas surprised to see them. i wasn't friends with them but i talked to them, after all, unity.avicii went on at 11. (remember this i will get back to it when i talk about kaskade) Nate

told his friend sucks for you were not leaving yet. i dont blame him. he ended upleaving around 12 or 12:30 i believe. Avicii opened up with levels. he walks up on stage,

puts his hand up in the air, and we hear oooooohhhhhh sometimes gotta get a goodfeelin that was the chorus of the song levels, the greatest dance song of all time. The

beat dropped and the whole crowd starts jumping in unity. if there was no music youwould have thought there was a stampede of elephants. it was magical. holy shit. you

look around everyone jumping with a huge smile on their face just having a blast.

everyone just loves the music. we dance all night. i think it went until 1:00 or 1:30.i was chillin with Nate when he had to leave and this girl comes up to me. Are

you panda man? i smile yeah thats me she was like oh my god i like you on

facebook, can i get a picture? yeah of course this was the first time Nate witnessedsomeone recognizing me. he was pumped. Just like hell yeah dude, thats dope asfuck!

After Nate left i went to find Drake and we partied the rest of the night. We had a

blast this was the second time seeing Avicii so i was talking to someone and guess whati said. yeah i saw him back in october and he fuckin killed it. i always wanted to say

that and finally i could say it. i felt cooler than ever. yeah I've seen this guy before. whyi thought i was cool i don't know. but i did.

15. January comes to a close and there wasnt a show that we knew of until the

end up february. so we were going through withdrawls. but it was another back to back.We had Steve Aoki followed by Big gigantic, the guys that opened for bassnectar. These

were pretty much the last shows Drake went to, i dont know why.Steve Aoki was dope. I love Steve Aoki. Hes an entertainer. he gets really

involved with the crowd. i really liked this about him. he started a new thing at this event.he would throw cake at people. Everyone wanted to get cake thrown at them. Fuck thatnot me, if he threw cake at me i would have been pissed. So i stayed away from the

front.

we (Drake, Sam, Ian, and I i believe) get to Steve Aoki, snuck our rolls in weregood. Datsik opened for him. when we got there Datsik was playing, not a huge fan of

Datsik but he was killing it. so were just dancing waiting for Steve Aoki. once datsikended and i popped my molly. So im feeling great. i had a blast, like i always do. Steve

Aoki comes on and hes doin his thing. either his light show was crazy as fuck or therewere bad drugs going around because 3 people had seizures. it was scary I've never

seen someone has a seizure before. the person dropped to the ground and everyone


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spread out around him and was calling for security. security rushed in there and gotthem out as soon as possible. it was kind of a buzz kill honestly, but i still had a blast.

i remember when he went white raver rafting thats what he calls it when herides in the raft. remember from identity fest? he climbed these huge speakers, probably20 foot speakers, and jumped off of them onto the raft. i thought this was the coolest

thing in the world. I was like damn thats crazy.After Steve Aoki we had big gigantic the next night. It was just Drake, Sam and I.

they wanted to drink so i was the designated driver. i wasn't a huge fan of big gigantic

this time. i just wanted the show to end so i could pass out my cards to be honest.We ran into our friend from high school lauren. we havnt seen her in a while

because she went to school in chicago, so seeing her was really cool. she has aspirithood. she actually used my code to get it. so that was dope. she thanked me for

the discount. i told her she was more than welcome.I also met this one girl, she had the skrillex haircut (half of her head shaved) so

shes cool as fuck. her name was Helen. we talked for a little bit, couldnt tell you what we

talked about because i honestly dont remember. i basically just told her that her hair wascool as fuck.

big gigantic finally fuckin ends. so im pumped cause i can go pass out my cards

and get my name bigger while giving out discount codes for spirithoods. once againpeople were thanking me cause spirithoods are pretty popular in the rave scene butthey're expensive. but lucky for these people i can get them a discount. so people loveme. i feel great about myself. spreading the love. thats what im all about, is spreading

the love, helping people out. After tonight im at around the 350 - 400 likes on myfacebook page. making progress.

This unfortunately was the last show i went to with Drake for a long time. i dontknow why. i guess he grew up or something. he just wasn't down to party anymore. but i

wasn't done. shit i was just getting started.

16. I beleive the next show was porter robinson. its the middle of march. i hit upDrake yo porter robinson is in a couple weeks. he says im gonna pass pass? the

fuck you mean you're gonna pass? he was outporter was playing at a club called NightLife in the same city where Ian and Sam

went to school. so we hung out during the day and went to the show that night. this iswhen i met Collin. Collin was Ian and Sams friend they met at school. he later becomestheir roommate. Collins cool as fuck, i like Collin. smart as fuck too he was going to

school for engineering.

we were smoking weeds and Collin decided we were gonna make something, idont remember what they called it, but he invented it as far as he knows. he basically

wrapped a joint paper around a bowl so the bowl was as wide as a normal bowl but itwas as tall as a joint. probably fit 1.5 - 2 grams in this bowl. i was like holy shit dude. it

was really cool. it fuckin worked too.Were just walking around campus i have my hat on and feel out of place.

everyone we see is smart as fuck going to one of the top colleges in the state, U of M. I


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Finally back to the dorm i say my good byes nice raving with you guys and imout. i get home around 3:30am i live like 40 minutes away. i take a shower because im

soaking wet and im cold from the molly. This shower feels fuckin amazing. i stood underthe water until the hot water ran out. finally got in bed freezing cold i had like 6 blankets,i slept like a baby. then i had class at 9:00am, yeah i didn't go.

17. Its still march. and we find out about the electric forest 2012 lineup. theexcitement of a festival line up for ravers is basically like a 6 year olds christmas

morning. there were some bangers on this lineup but honestly compared to the first yearelectric forest this lineup was a joke. if only i realized how dope the previous years

lineup was last year. but it was my first electronic experience so i had no idea.there were a few names we weren't s sure of so we checked them out on

youtube. dada life. we checked out dada life. holy shit. we needed to see these guys. 2guys from sweden obsessed with bananas. if you wore a banana suit they would bring

you on stage. this was awesome. these guys were a must see.

well it turns out they were playing at this new EDM club called Bright City thefollowing week. we were excited. we kinda wanted to wait to see them for the first time atthe forest. but fuck that we couldn't wait. we all bought our tickets that day.

dada life finally rolls around. i drive all the way out to ann arbor 40 minutes tomeet with my crew. it was Ian, Sam, Dawn, Collin and I. we head out to Bright City. itwas like an hour drive but whatever. on the way there we were on the highway and thiscar next to use is clearly filled with ravers i stick my head out and yell to them. they start

yelling back Dada Life!? Fuck yeah dada life! i almost lost my hat sticking my headout the window. i would have been pissed. Were all like holy shit dude what are the

chances! we get to the Bright City club and there were a shit ton of people. the parkinglot was full so we had to find a different place to park.

we park the car and Collin decides he wants to roll for the first time. okay fuckyeah dude. we all take a little bit out of each of our bags and give it to Collin. Collin also

wore a banana suit and we also brought bananas to throw in the crowd cause dada lifeloves bananas so it fit.

we get inside and someone immediately recognizes me and wants a picture. sowe took a picture and i gave them a card send it to me ill put it on my facebook page i

started saying this to everyone that wanted a picture.the place is packed. we were way in the back and could barely move. but it was

still sweet. within 10 minutes of being in there our bananas went from green to brown it

was so hot and humid in there. Dada life goes on at 12am, its a club so 12am-2am. it

was a 2 hour set. cant complain with that. its like 11:30 so were just waiting for dada life.i notice a lot of spirithoods. there were a lot of ravers at this club so i was pumped. not

nearly as many bros as the NightLife club. There were also a lot of banana costumes,Collin being one of them.

Dada Life finally goes on. the lights flash and the music starts. its loud as fuck.the whole crowd goes crazy. we lost Collin within minutes. Collins rolling for the first time

so who knows what he's doing. well find him later. dada life throws the fuck down. they


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open with happy violence. this is the song we saw online that made us want to seethem. so right off the bat were going hard as fuck. were all rolling dancing having a great

time. thank god we werent in the front because they were spraying champagne all overeveryone. if they got champagne on me i would have been pissed. so luckily we were inthe back. we decide we should probably try and find Collin. there were a bunch of

banana suits so we started with them, Collin obviously had to be one of them. gettingthrough the crowd with a train of 4 was difficult becasue it was so crowded. we made itabout 10 feet and got stuck. so we chilled there like fuck it. who was in front of us? the

guys we saw on the fuckin highway! it was magical. i slapped him on the back, he turnsaround i was like what up dude!? he was like oh my god its you guys! we had a bro

hug and made small talk with them for a minute. no idea what we were talking about, itwas loud as fuck, you could barely hear yourself think.

about half way through their set maybe a little further in. they started bringing thebanana costumes on stage. who do we see? fuckin Collin! Collin was on stage in his

banana suit. he is clearly having a blast. were all laughing our asses off like fuck yeah

go Collin. hes up there doing this awkward dance like i have no idea what im doing rightnow but i love it. Were telling everyone around us thats our friend, its his first timerolling! everyone gave us high fives.

the show finally ends and we meet up with Collin. were all ecstatic for Collin. weget back to the car and ask Collin how was rolling? Collins like i didnt really feel itwe all burst out laughing Collin at porter robinson you barely moved. tonight we lost youand found you on stage. okay you're right i totally felt it, that was fuckin awesome

we finally get back to ann arbor after an hour drive. then i have to drive another40 minutes to my place. im dead tired so a shower and my memory foam bed never

sounded so nice. i get home around 4:00am jump in the shower get my six blankets andim off to bed. luckily there was no class in the morning. so i wouldn't feel guilty for not

going.

18. April. April was a good month. we had Rusko, Feed Me, and Laidback Luke.Rusko was first. All my friends had seen rusko, but this was my first time seeing him. so

i was pumped. i went with Ian. we had a blast. i was sober for this show so that wasgood. rusko killed it. he had a lot of energy on stage. he was probably going harder than

the crowd was. it was either rusko or feed me that i met Tron. i dont know his actualname he just told me it was Tron. cool guy i still see him at shows today. he had aspirithood so i had to talk to him. he was part of the tribe. if you have a spirithood you

are part of the tribe.

ruskos light show was pretty cool. it was no pretty lights or deadmau5 but it wasstill cool. there were light up letters that moved around behind him that spelt out rusko

pretty cool, nothing crazy but still cool. it was just me and Ian at this show but we stillhad a blast. i dont remember why the rest of the crew didnt come but they didnt. no big

deal


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Next was feed me. Drake came to this show so that as dope, i havnt partied withhim in a few months. But Drake saw feed me at electric forest the first year and loved

him so he came. i had never seen feed me before but i liked his music.feed mes light show was really cool. it was like a giant creepy smile that he was

behind and the teeth had screens on them that showed different visuals along with

blood dripping down the teeth. it was sweet, but not as sweet as i thought it was going tobe. the teeth needed to be bigger. but still dope. im sure it was expensive though.

feed me is where i met this guy Papa Cuz. Here is why i love the rave scene. he

was up front and i only saw him from the back. i actually thought he was the guy fromNightLife with the american flag bandana. so i work my way up to him and slap him on

the back whats up dude!? he turns around and looks at me like who the fuck areyou? sorry i totally thought you were someone else. he was like no its straight dude.

We talked, i told him the story about who i thought he was. and we became friends. isee him at shows all the time now. Thats what i love about the rave scene we all go to

the same shows and get to know each other its amazing. one giant rave family.

A rave family is basically your crew who you see at every show. the bonds youmake with people. its great. pretty much every raver has a rave fam. if you dont have arave fam you dont go to enough shows. or youre shy. but even if youre shy people will

come up and talk to you. everyone in the rave scene is nice as fuck. we just want tohave a good time. and if one persons not having a good time we change thatimmediately.

Laidback Luke was up next. ive wanted to see him for a while now. i heard his

essential mix online. An essential mix is basically an hour long set of music a DJ makesfor a radio station called BBC radio 1. his essential mix was my favorite so i was pumped

to see him.He played at the club NightLife with all the bros trying to get laid. Laidback Luke

was Ian, Sam, Collin, and I. Drake didn't want to go unfortunately. so i hung out withSam, Ian, and Collin during the day and we partied at night. during the day we didnt do

much just kind of hung out and talked about how excited we were for laidback luke.We get to the club at 11:00pm and the line is long as fuck. we didnt get in until

like 12:15am so we missed the beginning of Laidback luke. i was a little upset butwhatever. so we get in there and i start taking dips out of my bag of molly imediately. the

taste is horrid. it tastes like chemicals, because thats what it was a bunch of chemicals. istart rolling and, im not really feelin the music. every drop was the same and it was adrop i didnt really like. a drop is basically when they drop the beat and everyone starts

dancing.

around 1:00am i fight breaks out. i roll my eyes you've got to be kidding me. impissed. god dam bro starting a fight because someone was dancing with the girl he was

trying to get with. There is no fighting in the rave scene. everyone loves everyone. butwere in a club where there are a lot of bros. bros are the anti christ of the rave scene.

and this is why. a fight, really?Laidback Luke ends and i was disappointed. i love his music but those drops

were all the same and i wasnt feeling them. he deserves another shot though. so if he


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comes back to town im obviously seeing him again. At this point were around 900likes on facebook.

19. May. may was a relaxed month. avicii was supposed to come to town butended up canceling. i was pissed. i really wanted to see him again. At the end of may

was DEMF Detroits Electronic Music Festival. its actually called movement i believe, buteveryone calls it demf. i only went the last day because my friends were busy and ididn't want to go by myself. so i ended up going just the last day with Sam

We finally reached 1,000 likes on facebook. Sam thought this was nuts.DEMF is awesome though its a lot of old school house music. and a lot of huge

name DJs started out playing DEMF. skrillex, bassnectar, and deadmau5 all playedDEMF previous years, and those are some of the biggest names in dance music.

Monday. i meet Sam and our friend from high school, Jay, at Sams place. wecruise down to detroit and meet up with Kathy at her dorm. she was taking summer

classes at wayne state. we pick up Kathy then we go and get our molly. were in detroit

in a neighborhood we should not have been in. Sam goes into this house by himself. imnervous im like Sam be fuckin careful. the dealer didn't want anyone else coming in tohide his identity. Sam was in there for like 15 minutes. im very uncomfortable. theres

people walking around with pit bulls. kind of looking at our car. i look at Jay, Sam needsto hurry up. these 15 minutes felt like hours. finally Sam comes out in one piece. Samthat was risky. no dude its fine thats my friend. okay whatever lets get to the festival.

We get to the festival and the line is long as fuck. luckily someone in line

recognized me so we went and cut in line with him. made small talk until we got in. theysearched us but we hid our molly well. we were good to go.

we get in and Sam starts yelling Detroit Panda Man 1,000 likes on facebook! iwas acting kind of awkward like, what do you say to that? thanks? yeah im awesome? i

didnt know. but it was pretty cool i guess. i lost Sam, Kathy, and Jay almost immediately,but well find them later. i did a lot of socializing with my fans more than i was seeing

music being played. this was fine though i didn't mind. i love meeting new people.i was going to see Dillon Francis but someone told me he pre records his set. so i

decided not to see him. i should have though because i end up really liking him in thefuture. he apparently killed it too.

i saw zeds dead again. they were sweet i really enjoyed them. but claude vonstroke was my favorite, i rolled for his set so thats probably why. but i ended up seeingmy friend Stacy there, the girl from shazzzam. she loves claude von stroke. i ended up

chilling with her for pretty much all of his set.

his stage was really cool. it was facing the water of the detroit river and the crowdwas on the grass. i love being in the grass so im pumped. he laid down a dirty set. i

couldnt find him on stage because there were so many people up there dancing. theymust have gotten VIP tickets or something i dont know. but it took me like a half hour to

finally find him on the stage. I finally found him and was like boom! there he is. i wasreally excited i finally found him. he closed out the festival with a banging set.


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i was really pumped for the after party it was afrojack. i love afrojack but he nevercomes to detroit. but just like avicii, it got cancelled. i was really bummed I've wanted to

see Afrojack for a while now.

20. Its finally summer mom tells me i need to find a job, and that i cant rely on

spirithoods for the rest of my life. well a walmart was opening up just around the cornerfrom my house. so i applied. they called me back and wanted an interview. so im at thehiring center for like 3 hours. because they actually called all 3 of my references and

couldnt get a hold of the one because they changed their number or something. so theyasked if i had any other references i said only family and on the application they said

you couldnt be related to your references. they said whatever thats fine because ivebeen in the waiting room for 3 hours now.

so theyre interviewing me and they said they had an opening for cart pusher. iwas like are you serious? i applied for every position except cart pusher and maintence.

but whatever i took the job. i actually ended up loving it. i was outside all day there were

no managers watching me so i could do whatever i wanted as long as the carts werentover flowing the corrals.

my boss was a dick though, his name was mike. he would always try to intimidate

you like he was better than you. i understand his frustration though, because he was theco manager and he was in probably his early to mid 50s and our store manager was 30.i can see why he would be frustrated.

he didnt like me though, the store wasn't open yet, we were still stocking all of the

shelves and everything. it was the day before we opened at 4:00pm we all went home at5:00pm. we were moving these boxes of watermelons and he asked me to grab a pallet

jack and help. well i have never used a pallet jack before so im struggling just trying toget this thing to move, let alone move a giant box of watermelon. we end up spilling and

dropping probably 20 watermelon busting open all over the floor. his hands fly in the airthis is what i get for working with rookies alright fuck you too buddy. ever since that

incident he treated me like dirt.I told myself when i found this job, i will not miss a rave because of work. i dont

care how tired i am i will not do it.

21. Its now june and our next show is nervo at the Bright City. i love nervo I'vewanted to see them for a while. nervo is 2 twin sisters. i have a crush on the one twin,Mim.

it was a glo out so it was a black light party. bros on bros on bros. were like fuck.

but whatever. it was Sam, Ian, Collin, Dawn and I. we walk in and there is a make upartist air brush painting peoples faces and bodies. i had to get my face painted. i was

the only one of my friends that got painted. i got polka dots, i have no idea why.i rolled really hard at this show. i started with .2 but then Sam let me have the left

overs of his. so im having a blast. nervo comes on and they open with the way we seethe world. this was the one song Sam wanted to see but he was in the bathroom.

unlucky Sam. Nervos killin it. there werent a lot of people there cause it was a sunday


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night. but im front row goin hard as fuck. mim blows me a kiss and my heart drops. i feellike a school girl. i turn to my friends you guys just see that!? they were like fuck yeah

we saw that! so im pumped, this night was a success.The following friday was Felix Cartal at the same club. we didnt end up going

because in 2 weeks he was going to be playing at electric forest. so we passed on him

and just saw him at the forest.

22. Electric Forest 2012 rolls around. its the last weekend in june. we all crash at

Sams place and get ready to leave in the morning. we went with a much bigger groupthis year and i hated it. ill explain in a second. i think we had 3 or 4 cars at Sams then

we were meeting people in east lansing to follow us.im pumped our friend Jeff came with us. this was his first electronic experience. i

was like Jeff i was in your position last year, youre about to have a fuckin amazingtime. Jeff is pumped. he's going to roll for his first time too. im probably more excited for

Jeff than he is.

We leave in the morning around 7:00am. This year i brought 2 grams with me. myfriends had a bunch more, they were planning on selling a lot of it. which they did. wehad lsd, and 2cb on us as well and were smokin blunts the whole way there. i keep

telling Sam drive straight dude, we have multiple felonies on us im paranoid as fuck. idon't like smoking in the car and we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. this was a long 3hours. i was paranoid/nervous the entire time. smoking was a bad idea.

weve almost made it to the forest. and the cops are randomly pulling cars over

and searching them. im about to shit my pants. our drugs were hidden, but still scaryshit. we ended up making it past the cops so they didn't search our car, thank god. we

finally get near the gates of the festival and they were searching vehicles. they literallyopened our trunk and shut it. didnt touch a thing. so were like fuck yeah.

were in a gridlock so everyones out of there cars chilling getting pumped for forthe festival. people are walking around passing out beers, and joints. were having a

good time. people are playing hacky sack, frisbee. life is good. we finally make itthrough the gates and are following this guy to our camp site. we get our 7 or 8 cars

together and we immediately claim camping territory. we set up all of our tents andcanopies...in the fire emergency aisle. fuck, we now have to move everything. it didnt

take long but it was just a hassle. we get everything set up and we sit in our chairsunder the canopy. we were in 3 circles. each group had their own circle. own bluntrotation. we were not one big group. i did not like this. so you're telling me we stopped to

pick you guys up and youre just going to use our shit? fuck i didn't know like 3 of the

people and no one introduced us. im pissed. but whatever.this was my second year at the forest so i chilled at the campsite most of the day

instead of wandering around checking everything out. i mean i still wandered aroundjust not as much as the previous year.

i ended up leaving the campsite around 7:00pm and i think wolfgang gartner wenton at 9:00pm Jeff really wanted to see him so im obviously chilling with Jeff. its his first

festival and first time rolling. were at wolfgang gartner we start dipping our molly. Jeff


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Trevor's laughing you do not like thunderstorms. i was like no, no i dont therain ended then Ian and Sam joined me in the tent to smoke a joint. i like smoking in the

tent. its like a fort. it got a little warm but the rain cooled it down a bit.The festival gates opened at like 4 i think. we went and checked out Das Racist

at 6 i believe. we were just laying in the grass my friends were smoking opium. i wasnt

because the only drug i use is molly because its not addictive. so i was just chillin withmy friends, and Jane, my first fan comes running over. what up panda!? oh supJane! she chills with us and joins in on the opium fun. we talk and chill watching das

racist for probably an hour or so. it was nice seeing her again i haven't seen her in awhile. she said she doesnt go to shows to much anymore because theyre all at that

new Bright City club with a bunch of bros. like i said bros are the anti christ of the ravescene. a die hard raver who drove to Tennessee to see bassnectar is not going to

shows anymore because of the bros.After das racist ended i went over to the ranch area, and saw ghostland

observatory. theyre a band. i hate live instruments. here a perfect example of why.

im with Drake and were right in the front and we ended up finding Greg andKent. they had a giant lion friend finder. some people call them totems, i call them friendfinders. a lot of people have them at festivals its actually really cool. but we found Greg

and Kent, Drake hasnt seen them in a while because of his abstinence. so they werereally excited to see eachother.

Ghostland Observatory finally goes on and we can hear every instrument but notthe vocals. everyone is yelling turn it up! this is why i hate live instruments, something

always goes wrong, whether it be over powering instruments or just bad in general live,something always goes wrong, with my experience. the beat was pretty cool though but i

wanted to hear the vocals. after about 15 minutes Greg and Kent decide theyre going togo somewhere else. about 5 minutes after that Drake leaves. then i leave. fuck this. well

it turns out pretty much right after we left Ian showed up and everything was fine. fuckyou Ian!

i just wandered around enjoying myself until dada life came on. dada life wasplaying at tripolee. originally dada life and bassnectar were scheduled to play at the

same time. this did not go over well. everyone was pissed. luckily they changed it forbassnectar to play sunday though.

so im chillin at the tripolee stage. the tripolee stage is right by the gates when youwalk in, you cant miss it. dada life comes on. im sober for this show. not sure why, but iwas having more fun giving out dips than dipping myself. free dips for everyone! im

walking around through the crowd giving out dips. who do i see? the guys we saw on

the highway when we saw dada life back in march. holy shit. i slap him on the shoulderSup dude! he turns and looks at me closes his eyes and opens them real wide woah!

its you! i hold out my bag have a dip bro. hell yeah, thanks dude. hey guys check itout its this kid. he points at me over his shoulder. this is crazy what a small world. dada

life plays their remix of the big bad wolf and everyone starts howlinghooooooooowwwwwlllllll! i tell these guys peace out. and continue wandering. this

time someone slaps me on the shoulder. i turn around oh fuck! its Amy, Ian, Dawn,


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and Alex. so once again the most magical feeling in the world is finding your friends. soi chill with them and were all howling at the moon. having a blast.

were pretty close to the front and they start spraying champagne everywhere. iwas not about to get wet so i crouched down until they were done. im not about to get allsticky and wet from champagne fuck that. this hat was expensive. they finish spraying

the crowd with champagne and then they throw giant blow up bananas and monkeysinto the crowd. i got to hit one, success!

After dada life was major lazer. major lazer has a hype man. hype men are

annoying as fuck. all they do is yell on the mic jump! or in major lazers case girls letssee those shirts in the air! annoying as hell. they were closing out the night though and

i was kind of tired so i said fuck it and went back to camp.i was the first one back at camp. it was pretty quiet, kinda eery. but you could

hear other camps partying still. i could have went over and made small talk but i wantedto sit down. so i sat down in a chair. shortly after i sat down Amy and Alex showed up.

sup guys they both say ugh fuckin major lazer and their annoying ass hype man. i like

theyre music but cant stand their hype man i was like i feel you guys on that one i cantstand that guy. i really want to see just Diplo they agreed Diplo by himself would bedope. Jeff shows up what up guys? we all go how was it Jeff? fuckin amazing Jeff

informs us. wolfgang gartner was still his favorite though. he was diggin wolfgang. and idont blame him wolfgang killed it. and for a first experience wolfgang was a good one. idon think it was quite as great as my tiesto but it was still great.

everyone else shows up and were all talking about our night over a blunt. Ethan

shows up last and gives us a buzz kill. were all smoking a blunt most of us still rolling alittle bit and Ethan throws at us you guys hear about the guy that died? really dude?

youre bringing this up now? i guess there was a guy that showed up by himself, he wasneighbors with Ethans friends and he offered them all these drugs that they have never

even heard of. they told him no thanks were good. he ended up taking a nap in his carwith a blanket during the day and over heated i guess. thatd kind of tweak you out as a

neighbor. that would be more of a buzz kill than the story, obviously. could you imaginethat, watching the medical team taking this guy out of his car on a stretcher? and hes

dead.its like 4 or 5 in the morning and the blunts out. im about to hit the hay and call it

a night. i was the first to go to sleep. i change my shirt cause its all wet from sweating. isnug in my blankets cause im freezing cold. not from the molly this time. i stayed soberthis night. but when your shirt is all wet and were in michigan so even though its

summer the nights can still get a little chilly especially if youre wet. so i go to sleep on

my deflated air mattress. its extremely uncomfortable so i lay one of my blankets downunderneath me. not great, but better. sweet dreams

Day 3, saturday. i wake up from the blistering heat around 9:00am a little later

this morning because we were tired as fuck. fuck the heat im sleeping still. i get out ofmy tent and Jay is awake already. morning Jay sup Steve (my name is Steve, i dont

think ive addressed that yet.) i sit in a chair and rest my head on my hand cause im tired


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as fuck. i dont even want to sit in the chair. i lay on the ground. this is much better. i passout.

i wake up and its probably noonish. im not really sure my phone was off to savebattery incase of an emergency. everyones awake now except Sam. Sam tends to sleepthe longest. i dont know how he does it in the blistering heat but hey he can do it and im

a little jealous. i sit up and hit the blunt. at festivals blunts and joints tend to be inrotation at all times. its part of the camping life. for us at least.

i didnt do much during the day just laid around and slept. i was exhausted. Steve

Aoki is playing tonight. im trying to see him. i turn my phone on and check the app onmy phone and it says he's playing at the sherwood court stage. at 2am i believe. but on

the schedule they passed out at the gates it said he was playing at tripolee. were alltrying to figure this out, all day. we finally figure out he was playing at tripolee because

thats where all the other dim mak artists were playing. dim mak is Steve Aokis recordlabel.

so dusk rolls around and i head to the festival, tripolee is literally right there when

you walk through the gates. so i didnt have to go far. first guy i saw was felix cartal. theguy that was playing at the Bright City club a few weeks ago but we were waiting untilthe forest to see, thats this guy. i was with Drake. i was diggin this guy, i really liked his

set. Drake wasn't feeling it he said every drop was the same. i liked the drop so thisdidn't bother me. but i understand how he feels because of my experience with laidbackluke.

after felix was datsik, same stage. we were at the tripolee stage all night. i went

and sat down in the grass for a while. im not a huge datsik fan. this guy comes up to meand we start talking. we talk for like 3 hours. he was from canada and drove 8 hours by

himself to meet his friends. here have a dip thanks dude he was telling me about allthe different festivals that he has been to. he said electric forest was one of his favorites

but he was telling me about this one in canada. i dont remember what it was called. buthe said it was the greatest festival hes been to and hes been to some of the biggest

festivals like Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) and ultra. those are 2 of the biggest dancefestivals in the world, and are the 2 biggest in the country. we talk about dance music for

like 3 hours. i like this guy. i could talk about dance music all day.we talk about some of our favorite artists. our favorite songs. this guy is great. i

never got his name though. but thats whats magical about the forest. this completestranger comes and sits next to me. 3 hours later were still talking. its amazing. we kepttaking dips while we were talking, were having a blast. rolling balls talking about our

favorite thing in the world, dance music. this guy has been in the scene a lot longer than

i have but we both have a great understanding of what this scene is about.we end up talking about deadmau5. i told him my experience with deadmau5. i

told him honestly i wasnt a big fan of deadmau5s music but i wanted to see hismau5head on stage. so i went. and i had a blast. i told him after that i decided you cant

judge a DJ until you've seen them live. he says exactly live and on record arecompletely different. we agree. we agree on a lot of stuff.


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datisk ends and zeds dead is up next. i tell this guy ugh ive seen zeds dead like4 times in the past year and a half, im kind of sick of zeds dead. he shrugged his

shoulders eh i dont mind zeds dead i didn't mind them the first few times i saw thembut anymore its like ok ive had enough of this. he understands. we continue talkingthrough zeds dead. we talk about the forest and how amazing it is and how much time

they must have put into it. every tree was lit up, and every art display was very unique.and there wasn't a single bug. we just realize this and are amazed. youre right, thereare no bugs! we converse about how they may have went about killing all the bugs. we

never make it to a conclusion. another dip? hell yeah thanks dude.zeds dead finally ends and Steve Aoki is up next. a lot of people are waiting for

him at sherwood court. theyre pissed. they realize hes at tripolee and they sprint literallyacross the entire festival to tripolee. alright dude im about to go up there for Steve Aoki,

it was nice talking to you and if i dont see you enjoy the rest of your festival and gethome safe. will do, you too. one last dip? make it a big one fuck yeah thanks dude.

im rolling pretty hard now so i pull a Jeff and sprint to the crowd. i start jumping

and spining in circles like a figure skater. im feelin good. i get into the crowd and im goinhard as fuck. i really like Steve Aoki and i was pumped to see what crazy shit he had instore for us this time around. the music was dope but his stage presence, i was a little

disappointed he didnt stage dive once. i thought for sure he was going to do somethingcrazy but he didnt. whatever it was still a great time. my friend Trevor and his girlfriendGail waited at this stage all day to get front row. Gail wanted to get caked. getting cakedis this new thing he does where he throws a cake at your face. honestly id be pissed if

he threw a cake at me. more pissed than the champagne. but Gail wanted to get caked.hes got his cake in hand lookin throughout the crowd. who do i throw this at? Gail is

cheering me! me! and the girl next to her gets caked. so close! she got some cake onher but it wasn't to the face it was on the shoulder.

i saw one girl in the crowd she had a sign that said its my birthday take me raverrafting so he pointed at her and brought her on stage and she jumped in the raft. it was

so sick! i wanted to ride in that raft. i never got to, but dam did i want to. fuck the cakeput me in the raft!

Steve Aoki drops an unreleased track that was a collaboration with him and knifeparty. this song went hard as fuck. im lovin this song. im jumping and doing whatever

the fuck dance moves i was doing like no tomorrow. ive noticed a lot of my dance movesoriginate from the Macarena.

Steve Aokis set ends, im still rolling pretty hard. but the night is over so i head

back to camp. this was my third time seeing him and i loved it. but was also

disappointed at the same time. i loved the music. that knife party collaboration wascrazy. but i was disappointed with his stage performance. he had a lot of energy but he

didnt do any crazy stage dives which he is pretty much known for. i was expectingsomething crazy since it was a festival and he was closing out the night. but whatever ill

still see him again.we get back to camp and were starting to come down. someone rolls up a blunt

and the rotation begins. were all talking about our night and Gail is pumped and


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before. i ended up falling a sleep and i woke up in the morning so we were fine. but itwas the strangest thing. weird.

23. i wake up at like 3:00pm. hi mom. so how was it? crazy as fuck i actuallystayed out the whole night this time so it was ridiculously crazy. i had a blast. i tell her

about Jeff, and how much fun Jeff had. shes happy for him. she asks me where my stuffis. i told her i was about to go get it from Sams. we got home at like 5 in the morningand the last thing we wanted to do was unpack.

so i headed to Sams and got my stuff. wasn't a lot. a couple of blankets. a dufflebag. i left my deflated air mattress at the forest becasue i couldnt roll it up small enough

to fit in the car and got frustrated so i said fuck this shit and kicked it on the ground. i feltmuch better.

the next few days are recovery days because im exhausted. a lot of layingaround listening to music and thinking of memories past. still thinking about what

happened to me that night when i got home. i didnt tell my mom about it. i didnt want her

getting suspicious of drug use. so she didn't need to know about my alien encounter. itold Drake and Sam about it though. they had no idea, they thought it was crazy too.

24. the next show was a few weeks away it was a triple header. it was above and

beyond with wolfgang gartner, followed by knife party, followed by identity fest. i was stilltired from forest and didn't want to be tired for identity fest so i didn't go to the first 2shows. i should have though because none of them came back within the next year.

identity fest rolls around. its at a different venue this year. which is good because

there were no seats this time. this time i knew just about everyone on the lineup. i endedup going with Nate. we get there the line is pretty long. but luckily for us we see Jane

pretty close to the front. she calls us over, fuck yeah. so we cut with Jane and chit chatfor a minute while were in line. we talk about the forest because it was crazy and it just

ended. she went off about bassnectar. she loves bassnectar. i told her how i missed himbecausse i got sick, i was pissed. she told me thats unfortunate because he killed it, like

always. we get to the front of the line. what up panda man? the security guardrecognized me. awesome. he searches our camel baks to make sure theyre empty. if

you're going to a festival bring a camel bak. its a backpack that holds water and has astraw you can drink out of. extremely convenient.

we get into the festival and us and Jane part ways. catch you later guys laterJane theres 2 stages theres one inside of the new EDM club Bright City and theres oneoutside in the parking lot. we wander on inside and who do we run into? le castle vania.

we talk to him for a second shake it hand and hes off. he leaves and we both look at

eachother Fuck! we should have gotten a picture. oh well. nothing we can do about itnow.

inside we catch a duo called dvvbs whatever that means i have no idea. but theyhave a hype man. ugh. hes not nearly as annoying as major lazers though. it was at

least tolerable major lazers hype man makes you want to leave. its still not to packed,the festival just started but its an all ages event so someone taps me on the shoulder

and its the 16 year old. im pumped, i turn around what up dude! i introduce him to


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Nate. they make small talk for a minute then the 16 year old is off to find his friends. ilove seeing the 16 year old at shows. hes actually proabably 17 now cause i havnt seen

him since november at zeds dead. but im always going to call him the 16 year old. itgives him character.

after dvvbs inside is le castle vania. its starting to get pretty packed wich is sweet

cause i everytime ive seen him it was a real personal show. ive always wanted to seehim in a packed crowd. he gets on stage and destroys it. there was a mosh pit. impissed. i hate mosh pits but it pushes me all the way up to the front, cool. im dancing

having a blast to le castle vania and he has just as much if not more energy than he hashad at every other show. the crowd is going crazy, im happy for him. one of my favorite

things he does is when he drops daft punks around the world he gets on the DJ tableand puts his headphones over his eyes like hes thomas from daft punk.

daft punk are like the gods of electronic music, they havnt toured in years butevery raver would kill to see them live. i know i already told myself if they tour ill drop

$500 on tickets without hesitation. i dont care where there playing.

at the end of le castle vanias set he says his thank yous and goodbyes and thathell be doing a meet and greet by the merch booth. i find Nate lets go! we had asecond chance at our picture. and we got it. as we were walking to the merch booth we

ran into Drake and Ian. they just got here because they had to work. we went to themerch booth and were like the second ones there. we got our picture.

Nate went with Drake and Ian to the outside stage i went back inside because iwanted to see madeon. madeon was only 17. he technically wasnt even allowed in the

club he was playing at. how cool is that? madeon was sweet. nothing crazy but he wasonly 17 so i thought it was cool as fuck. i dont know why i just thought it was so cool how

young he was.after madeon was excision. he was on the outside stage, the rockstar stage i

beleive it was called. excision had just gotten new 100,000 watt amplifiers. so this shitwas loud as fuck. talk about feeling the bass. i catch up with all my friends and were to

the left of the stage probably 20 feet away from one of the speakers. he goes on andwere so close to the speakers we can feel our hair blowing in the wind from the

speakers. this shit was loud you can feel it throughout your entire body. it didnt hurt myears though surprisingly. his stage set up was pretty cool it was like a giant X but

honestly i wasnt paying much attention to the stage set up cause this bass wasridiculous. i eventually had to take a step back because i felt like i was going to throw upfrom the bass pounding on my chest. i wasnt complaining though. i walk back to about

the middle of the crowd. i lean to the person next to me i had to step back i felt like i

was going to throw up from all the bass, how dope is that?

my summer with molly (word)

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