I think that I have mistimed my medication tonight. It is
over the counter medication, but it’s designed to reduce swelling and relieve pain.
The other one is to numb the pain and send me into over the counter unconsciousness.
Unfortunately, they are beginning to take effect and I have this to write and a
few other things to do before I should go to sleep. I am having trouble
concentrating and there is a loud ringing in my ears. I am assured by Louise
that the ringing is definitely in my head. Great! I’m just going to keep
pushing through and hopefully it will make some kind of sense.
I can remember that when my friends and I would go to
concerts, it was vitally important to get the timing right for the drugs. If
you took the drugs too late, then your buzz would come well into the concert
and you might have to listen to your favourite song totally straight. Taking
them early was the worst. There was a very good chance that you might forget to
get up and go to the concert altogether. You might get lost on the way or get
side tracked by something bright and shiny.
Back in those days and I suppose the same would apply today,
you had to get as much information about the drugs and concert as you possibly
could. You needed to know just how long after you took the drugs you would get
the peak high. This would involve taking the same drug the weekend before and
actually remembering that you were testing the drug. Once you found out how long
it took to reach the peak stone, all you needed was to find out when the headliner
would take the stage for a wondrous night of chemically induced enjoyment.
Unfortunately, the headliners were more than likely higher
than their fans and couldn’t be trusted to be on time. That was a bummer, but
usually they would take the stage well within the window your drug allowed you.
The odd time for no apparent reason, there would be an opening act that wasn’t
announced. Sometimes they would be announced and you just didn’t pay attention
or forgot because you were more than likely high when you bought the tickets.
If you were really lucky, the opening act would be fabulous and they would
enhance the evening’s enjoyment. If you were lucky…
I can remember one concert that had all of the earmarks of a
great evening. The band was “Ten Years After”, we had had a wonderful meal,
taken the drugs, had no trouble at all getting to the “Gardens”, and finding
our seats. There was a haze of bluish smoke hanging in the still air of the
stadium while everyone found their seats and looked around at all of the other
freaks in the audience. This was going to be a magic evening! Well, until the
opening act showed up of course. The act was “Captain Dynamite”.
Captain Dynamites act was unique to say the least. He comes
onto a stage with a large wooden box in the centre and proceeds to tell the
crowd that he would get into the box with a stick of dynamite and blow himself up!
WTF??? He had this spiel about how dangerous and death defying the act is, but
all the audience could focus on was dynamite and explosion. You see, the drugs
were kicking in and we were supposed to be listening to Ten Years After, not
watching some nutcase blow himself up.
Captain Dynamite gets himself into the box and within a few
seconds the box and Captain Dynamite blow up in a cloud of flame and smoke.
Fuck!!! He gets up and staggers around the stage with a microphone telling us
what beautiful people we were, to a chorus of “You’re Fucking nuts!”
“You Fucking Moron !”
“Get the Fuck off the stage!”
“Did you see that guy?”
There were people laughing, crying and just staring at the
stage in disbelief. He finally stumbled off the stage and within minutes Ten
Years After took the stage. It wasn’t a good start to the concert, but it
turned out to be a good night of music.
I found a video of Captain Dynamite who was still blowing
himself up in 1986 at the age of seventy to the delight of baseball fans,
country fairs and shopping centres. What a whack-a-doodle!
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