talk to me. I want to know your dreams...

Just a mere five days ago, I was at Electric Daisy Carnival.

The trippiest thing for me was the flashbacks of last year that it brought. The stages were different, granted, but there were some moments where in our exploring of the grounds I'd seize up a little as I realized that exactly a year prior, a ghost of myself had walked over the exact spot I was standing in.

This was especially strange when, around 5 pm, we were exactly opposite the coliseum from where I had been the last year. And, when, during Laidback Luke, we were standing exactly where I had been sitting watching David Guetta.

The weirdest part was thinking about how much things had changed. The one person who defined that experience for me, I'm no longer really speaking to. It marked a beginning, a hope, last year. This year it did too, but in a very different way. This time it was untouched by the tendrils of tentative romance and was purely about the solid rocks in my life, the friends who I know will always be there for me, the blossoming of some of my most treasured relationships.




Performance wise, it was surprisingly underwhelming. There were, however, gems here and there. Laidback Luke played Dirty Talk, and the crowd went crazy as the pink fireworks exploded all over the screen. When Luke dropped the first few bars of For An Angel, too, I jumped as I was brought back for a moment to Beyond Wonderland. When Benny played Otherside (though sadly this was probably the best thing that he played.) Sean Tyas at the outdoor stage--I was completely down to earth at that point but he still rocked my world. What an artist. Dada Life were pretty good, too.

Will.i.am? Awful. Afrojack? Awful. Benny, apart from that moment? Pretty bad too. And Luke was a pretty big letdown.


Now, however, we need to talk about Above & Beyond.

Because however shitty everyone else was, they made the $100+ dollars miles much more than worth it.

I don't really know if I can put this in words. Like that last entry, it's not the kind of thing I really want to touch. But I really do want to convey how absolutely amazing they are.

They have moments of quiet, moments of loud, powerful, gut-wrenching beats. They are soft, soothing. If there's anything in this life that I could compare to a siren's call, something so enrapturing and entrancing that you can't help but look away, you feel taken in by the music...this would be it.



I was near the top of the stands, and I was looking down on tens of thousands of people. From that high, the crowd moves sort of like a wave. During Benny, the crowd jumped up and down in unison--when the beat dropped, it was like dropping a rock into a pool, watching the ripples of motion rock the crowd.

The people in the crowd, they're like drops of water.

Given that this was an electro concert, you'd expect the drops to keep moving, the waves to continue.



But when Above & Beyond came on, everything just stopped. Every face was turned towards the beautiful lights emanating from the stage. The entire coliseum, for the first few minutes, was absolutely still.

Then people began to sway, the movements began. Slow, steady. And finally, when the beat dropped (and not an abrasive beat like most, but a soft, quietly powerful one) the waves started again.

They do this thing where they don't actually speak during their performances (if you've looked at YouTube you've seen clips of Lil' Jon, the worst MC ever, yelling stupid things during everyone's performance. Thank god A&B kicked him off the stage for their set.) They write simple messages on their laptop screen, white type on a black background, and turn it towards the cameras so that the entire crowd can see it on the screens.

Miracles happen every day.

Never forget about love.

This one is for the ones who left the Earth too early.

So simple, so beautiful, and so touching, especially because I can relate personally to each of these. So inspiring.

And, when the first notes of On A Good Day rang out, you can imagine what happened. I started to cry. Tears of peace, of happiness.

This, people, is music that makes you feel, that brings people together. This is music that can change the world. I may not have captured it well enough, but I hope I have conveyed some inkling of how unearthly and beautiful it was. Seeing them has changed me, has changed my life, and I hope that everyone at some point in their life is changed in this way by music.

After all, what is music for, if not to change us and make us feel?