A week ago, I was sitting with Sophie in my living room, watching Gravitation, and randomly said, "Hey, Infected Mushroom's playing at UCSB a week from today... We should go get our tickets." So we went, after getting lost, needing a map, and finally finding the ticket center, to find out, by some grace of God, that they'd actually gone on sale that day. Our ticket numbers were 464, 465, and 467. (one for another friend.) Needless to say, they sold out that day a while after we left.

Last night, by another grace of God, we got to where they were playing, and were one of the first groups let inside. After an amusing interlude in the bathroom, ("It smells like asshole! Or nasty pussy." "Your mom smells like pussy..." "...Was that Tracy??" "No..." "My mom smells like pussy? My mom needs to take a shower...") good places to stake out between the stage and the barrier were found, with only one (short) girl in front of us. When they actually did come on, I'm pretty sure I crushed her, and would continue to do so throughout their entire show. Nothing like holding on to the railing for dear life with both hands so the drunk frat boy who keeps yelling shit in Hebrew(? Jewish? Some language he felt the need to keep screaming that he thought would be impressive.) smashes you into the people around you. (This same guy would later irritate Sophie enough for her to move out of the front with me, and then toward the end, try and start a fight that I got to try and break up with the guy directly next to me on my left.)

Anyway! Good things that happened:

Since we were in the very, very front and center, we got our pictures taken several times...

I got to touch the vocalist three times; he came off the little stage and climbed onto the railing directly in front of me; the third time I was hoping to steal the drumstick he'd been sort of "conducting" everything with (it had been in his back pocket)... it wasn't there, but his ass was, so I grabbed that instead. (though it was kind of unintentional. oh well.)

And among the songs playing:

Deeply Disturbed (opening)
A Psychedelic Trip
Chaplin (I think)
Acid Killer
Change the Formality
Special Place
Cities of the Future
I Wish/Converting Vegetarians/In Front of Me (these were mixed into each other)
Becoming Insane (closing, finale, whatever)

and probably a couple others I forgot.

I also managed to record two very good (picture wise, the sound is was too loud) recordings on my phone.

Either way, getting to see them, touch them, and be as close as I was, I'm still extremely elated. ("Because you just don't get that close without having sex!")

"Oh and," (quoth the vocalist) "We've never played at a college before... You guys are the first."

EDC 2006
Nocturnal 2006
Monster Massive 2006
EDC 2007
UCSB 2008