The stage was set! The crowd,
gathered like numerous beads of moisture on thousands
of tents. A strange feeling observed the air, ominous
yet exiting, perhaps something deeper was stirring.
A tremor flickered: a nervous
oscillation, quietly creeping upon the listeners, who
inched forward, craning to catch the first threads as
they warbled on the summer air.
In the corner of my eye, I saw
a figure advancing, the hairs on the back of my neck
prickled, the moment was approaching!
Now the tones were clamouring,
the tension at breaking point, stretched tightly like
a guy rope made of a diamond cord, never fraying, but
always on a gilted edge.
The figure was taking its female
form, edging into the sunlight. As the music reached
its crescendo, she unveiled her slender shoulders, and
the DJ broke into a galloping rhythm.
An explosion, a mass of flailing
arms and legs, stomping, skanking, raving! We came here
to party! And a party it was!
I saw her wide eyes sparkling
like a glitter ball, her smiling mouth, and her luscious
chanting lips. My pupils dilated and my blood ran warm,
then cold, then warm again, echoing, echoing…
an adrenaline bassline, rumbling, rumbling…
She took my hand, not a word,
not a sound, silently we began to dance.
An electric waltz, in an electric
dream, almost in slow motion, amongst the stampede around
us.
She slid her fingers towards
my shoulders, as if stroking a revolving record on a
mixing deck. She pulled me closer, grinning…
We locked thighs, a muscular
motion, gyrating like a slowly circling gyroscope, pushing
and thrusting, pushing and thrusting: Allegro then falsetto,
then staccato. Allegro then falsetto, then staccato.
Then in a moment, our intentions
met, we leaned forward. The tempo cooled, an offbeat,
offering the ravers’ respite. Our lips touched,
ever so slightly, the beat stopped, we held the moment,
the build up began again. We touched again, closer now,
trembling and wavering.
We locked lips, a muscular motion,
tongues gyrating like a slowly circling gyroscope, pushing
and thrusting, pushing and thrusting: Allegro then falsetto,
then staccato. Allegro then falsetto, then staccato.
I felt entranced, mesmerised,
ecstatic. Enzymes flowing, standing at the top of a
peak or a pinnacle, glancing at the musical madness
as it rises in peaks and troughs.
We danced on and on, her the
crowd and I. Our feet stomped, our bodies glistened,
we were one organism following the rhythm as it snaked
its way from dusk till dawn. We were slave to the bassline
on a pathway littered with strobe lights, glow sticks,
crazy outfits and smoking cigarettes, a sizzling salsa
in the black hole of a dance-floor. We rotated and gyrated
in time and space. We rotated and gyrated in time and
space.
Yet the pace began to slacken, the bars drew out. We
danced on but our lips loosed, we retracted, and tailed
off. As I looked around I saw etched on the army of
drawn faces, the time had come, our time was nigh. The
bassline still pummelled like a piston, yet the flesh
is beginning to flay from its bones. The ravers’
stuck together, but a feeling of inevitable defeat took
hold.
The girl was parting, she was
melting, we were melting, and the crowd was melting
around me. The girl was parting, she was melting, we
were melting, and the crowd was melting around me.
We ground to a halt as the beat
waved farewell, a sombre departure, an evaporating ether,
whispering as vapours, like vampires at dawn…
Silence ensued:
“One more tune! One more
tune! One more tune!” mumbled the crowd feebly.
…But it was too late. It
was finished, and as I watch her slender figure wiggle
away, I know that we are finished.
With a sigh I turned and
traipsed back to awaiting society. Yet I had a smile
on my face. Although it was over, I felt that in those
moments we were a part of something beautiful and exciting,
something with a deeper stirring. It was something that
had its place in space and time, and that in itself,
my friends, is what is electric.
