Southern Misadventures Part 2: The Beginning

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Like some tales of odyssean travel, ours begins with a house. Two houses actually. Well, a house and a dorm...

Anyway, My girlfriend, Elizabeth, and i leading up to the trip departure date, which was a Saturday, were house-sitting for a well-off woman that Elizabeth's family knew. We took care of the dog and cat, watered plants, and watched some amazing t.v.; the usual house-sitting fare. The only problems with the sitting portion was how little sleep we got, the dog, and how packed the weekend was going to be. As I, foolishly, overbooked the weekend with tons of activities. A concert on Thursday, GRE on Saturday, and leaving for Louisiana. Elizabeth and i went to the concert. Found a great new band, but almost died. Exaggeration? Unfortunately not.

The title act at this rock show was Flogging Molly. An Irish punk rock band of some note. Elizabeth and i settled into the seething mass of people. Each jostling one another for a better place to listen to the over 130 decibel performance. The band takes the stage after the lights dim. Cacophonous screams from the crowd echo off the interior of the concert hall/bar. Flogging Molly play a whole fifteen seconds before I immediately have my senses tweaked for the fight or flight response. The issue i was having reflected the poor construction of the concert hall. The area we were standing, with five hundred of our closest black clad friends, was recessed below the bar level. This design would have worked wonders had it been a dance hall or a place to dine. A rock show turned the space into a giant push pit. A distant cousin of the mosh pit and all the more terrifying.

Mosh pits are voluntary collectives where people can elect to subject themselves to the flying fists of other flagellants. The push pit however, traps the entire audience in a tidal crush of human flesh. Those in the back would push forward as far as they can before being repelled by the backs of the concert goer in front. Didn't want to be in the push pit? Too bad! Because now you're going to die. Elizabeth and I decided to leave at this point or we attempted to. Some of the audience was a bit more raucous than others and as i was dragging Elizabeth out of the crowd some nameless ne'erdowell grabbed hold of her scarf in an attempt to keep the comely lady in their proximity. Unaware of this i began to tug harder on her arm exacerbating the issue. Luckily i managed to pull her free and we left the concert early.