02.03.15

5:57 p.m.

back in the of winter ninety eight, dug and i drove down to new york city to see fatboy slim spin at the hammerstein ball room. this was the first time i had ever gone to see a real, honest to goodness, dj perform. i was pretty new to the whole scene and was actually surprised when i first found out that he would not, in fact, be performing live.

but, don't get me wrong, i was a little hip. you know, i had gone to a rave when i was sixteen. i had been listening (off and on) to mix tapes by frankie bones all through out high school. but, for about a year leading up to that winter, i had been exposed to more and more types of electronic dance music.

so when dug and i found out about the fatboy slim show, we decided we should go. and, oh god. oh god did we have a good time. seriously. good time.

but, before hand. before the show i had gotten quite drunk on half a bottle of cheap gin drank in twenty minutes in the dorm room of my friend paul. paul was going to school at SUNY purchase at the time, and dug and i met up with him as soon as we got downstate.

and i was drunk. drunk. quite. i was so drunk that i nearly passed out and fell asleep before the show. i nearly missed out. but, paul woke me up. paul's a good man, he woke me up. paul also helped me walk to the car. helped, because i had trouble getting there on my own.

but, the show. oh jesus, the show.

the show was the most amazing thing i have ever been a part of. it was just so- everything. it was everything that i could possibly imagine fun being. it was. it was everything.

it was the building of collective energy through music played through high definition speakers. it was us, as pistons in a machine. it was two hundred people going nuts, jumping up and down, transcending.

it was the shutting off of the mind, the opening up of the soul. it was the lifting of the spirit.

and i had never done ecstasy before that but, in retrospect, that night for me was what i would later discover ecstasy being like. that night, completely sober (almost)- me and fatboy slim, in a room with records- the way he made me feel. that way. that way is exactly like the way that ecstasy makes me feel.

and that night, that night was the night that i decided to be a dj.

that night, i decided that i wanted to capture that energy, that i wanted to make people feel the way that he made me feel.

(and, not to be overly dramatic or cliche, but) that night, that night changed my lfe completely.