Pendulum (A Series of Stories: Part I)

Wow. Sorry it took so long to post up my first story... Mehr, life makes shit busy, lol.
Anyways, here's something I wrote a while back, like early September. I ended up turning this in as my final for our first unit.

Pendulum. To most people the first thing they think of when they hear that word is probably a clock, like some old-school grandfather clock. But whenever I hear Pendulum, I think of something quite different: electricity and energy.

It all started in the middle of the spring of 2009. I was feeling apathetic and annoyed. Things just were not going too smoothly for me. Chemistry and Math classes were bogging me down, I had just broken up with my boyfriend, and, on top of all of that, I had not been to a concert or show in close to a year. I needed a pick-me-up and fast. One day while listening to my daily radio morning show, I heard the host raving about this supposedly fantastic Australian, Drum and Bass band, Pendulum, that was stopping by for a show about a month from that day. I did not know much about the band at that point, only a few random singles and that they were renowned by Electronic world for putting on one gnarly show.

I was pretty desperate for something to look forward to, even if the concert was on a school night and would probably go on until 12 a.m. To be honest, I didn’t really care all that much about that. I just wanted to get out and have one night of excitement and ecstasy, to escape the monotonous cycle that I’d fallen into as a typical Gunn High School student. I just went ahead and bought tickets for me and my friend, but I didn’t ask my mother beforehand. I knew she would never have agreed if I had asked her before, but since I had bought the tickets already, she didn’t really have much of a choice. And, lucky for me, she really trusted my friend and knew that she would keep my in line if I tried to pull anything too outrageous. My tickets were bought and, in a month, I was heading off to the Pendulum show.

I probably should have been more excited than I was at the time, but because I wasn’t all that familiar with the group, all I knew was that I was going to escape into a beautiful, musical night in a month, and, at the time, that was enough for me. Since I thought I didn’t know anyone who had actually ever heard of Pendulum, I just kept the news about the concert to myself. However, about a week before the concert, I was causally chatting with my friend Ashton over Peet’s Coffee. “Do you have any plans for next week? Like anything fun, or just the same old same old?”

Ashton was an Electronic music buff so I thought that if anyone would know about Pendulum, it would be him. “Oh, yeah. I’m going to a show, actually. It’s for this band called Pendulum. I’m not entirely sure what to expect, but it should be a cool show,” I aloofly mentioned while sipping on my warm cup of green tea.

Ashton stared at me, his dark eyes wide with shock and wonder. I honestly had no idea why he was giving me such a bewildered look. “What...” I said slowly.

“Dude, are you kidding me?! Pendulum is one of the best Drum and Bass bands! They’re one of my favorites! I was so bummed out I couldn’t go to that show. Do you know how lucky you are?!?!”

I laughed. “Well, I’ll keep my expectations high then. I’d better not be disappointed, Ashton,” I replied sarcastically.

“Trust me, there’s absolutely NO way you could be.”

As I headed home from Peet’s, my conversation with Ashton got me thinking about the show. It was funny how I just happened to go on a whim and buy these $35 tickets. To see a band I essentially knew nothing about. On a school night. This was pretty out of the ordinary for me. I’m one of those people who is annoyed by trivial actions. At any other time this would have been foolish in my eyes, just buying tickets to see a band I was barely familiar based on a chance suggestion. If truth be told, I would say the real reason I even bought the tickets was to prove to myself that I wasn’t an apathetic square. That I could still have fun.

As the Tuesday night neared, my anticipation grew. I was excited, but also slightly nervous, as I almost always am before concerts. Not being familiar with the band just made me more anxious that usual. I had listened to Pendulum nonstop for that past week, cramming as much of their recorded work into my musical memory as possible. They really were quite good. Still, I was nervous about going to their concert. Concerts are something else. Being surrounded by all those screaming fans who know all of the band’s song lyrics almost as well as they know their own names is a little overwhelming at times, especially if you don’t know those lyrics.

Then came the Tuesday. My friend and I left at around 7 p.m. for San Francisco. The long drive to the venue fed my pent up uneasiness. We had parked a few blocks away from the Regency Center and made our way through the sharp, cold wind, the speeding cars, and the masses of nightlife in the Mission District to the entrance of the Grand Ballroom. To my surprise, there was a long line outside of the venue doors. Damn, they’re a pretty well known band after all, I thought to myself. When we finally reached the doorstep of the entry, I handed over my tickets to a lady dressed in black, clothing with beautiful, pale skin and deep red lipstick and went inside.

We made our way into the softly illuminated ballroom, the only lighting provided by the dim glow of the chandeliers that hung majestically from the ornate ceiling and the glow of the concert attendees’ Glo jewelry. As we walked about, the strong easily recognizable scent of pot drifted into my nostrils, causing me to laugh since it was hard to tell where the scent was actually coming from because most everyone there seemed to be dragging on a joint or cigarette. There was a man with unkempt long, blonde hair dressed in dark baggy jeans and a white t-shirt spinning a few tracks for the crowd to jive around to. I could tell that he was probably just some local guy, nobody of immediate importance to this crowd since they were all talking fairly loudly over his music.

The crowd. They were something. I felt so awkward amongst this group of people. Everywhere I looked, I saw people with insane hair, sharp outfits, and outrageous makeup. They all looked like they had just walked off of a runway from some “Haute Couture meets Hot Topic meets American Apparel” fashion show. I felt so out of place in my gray skinny jeans, beat up Chucks, and black hoodie. I stood awkwardly next to my friend as we waited, along with the rest of the people at the concert, near to front of the ballroom floor for the band to come on stage.

An hour or so had passed, the blonde man long gone, and Pendulum had still not come on stage. The crowd buzzed with anticipation chanting “Pendulum!” calling for the band to come on stage and perform for the mass of people begging for their presence. Then, it happened, the moment that the crowd had been pleading for. One by one, the band members walked on to the stage towards their respective instruments. There was no pause or “Hey there, San Francisco!” from the band. They just dove right into the guts of their music and began their mind-spinning performance.

The crowd went ballistic, breaking free from any inhibitions that it might have previously held. I had never before seen or felt such raw energy from a group of people during a concert. With each note played and each lyric sung a jolt of electricity was sent through all of us. I could feel my anxiety melt away as the music and the atmosphere created by the crowd washed over me.

I no longer felt like an outsider, I felt like I was a part of this mass of people. We were all in continuous motion as the band executed their psychedelia for us, nobody stopping for even a single moment. The fluidity of our movement unified us into one huge gathering of pure energy and exhilaration. The feeling spanned the rest of the night. I never felt disinterested or discomfited. I, like the crowd, had broken free from all bonds that had held me in place when I first entered the venue.

On the way home, my mind and body were in a surreal, almost dreamlike, state. I couldn’t distinguish reality from fantasy in my mind; it had all meshed into one that night. I didn’t remember ever not liking Pendulum that night, didn’t remember the listless and lethargic me before the show. All I knew now, on this night, was the electricity, still surging through my body as I collapsed onto my bed.