And I'm back! What a day.
After leaving work at 3:30am, I headed for a co-workers house after our shift was over, just for something to do. I went home at 5am only to see a note on my door saying that if I wanted to get a free ride to the Rolling Stones concert, the bus leaves at 8am. Wow. Well, ok. That sure beats driving, as Toronto is going to be complete and utterly insane.
So, sleeplessly, I went off to one of the biggest concerts Canada has ever seen.
I went to work from 7pm - 3:30am on Tuesday. I had a ticket that I had received through work $15, and no one to go with. I had a few options but noting was indefinite at this point.. a little sketchy considering it was the night before.. the best plan at this point was to drive up, meet my cousins fiancé's in Toronto, and then we'd ride our bikes an hour to the concert. this sounded really fun. I was looking forward to riding there, just to see what a zoo the city would turn into... and crippled public transit was at this time, it would also be the fastest.
Over the course of my day at work, talking to a few people who had a bit more experience driving into Toronto.. i realized how crazed the city is really going to be. The place is going to be hit with a titanic amount of people. The TTC can move 55k ppl/hour, and the go trains are going to be mobbed, etc, i'd probably get nailed by a bad driver just trying to drive into the city!
Anyway, as work ends I was still intent on driving because that was my only hope. After I finish work I went over to a friends house for a drink (3:30am). I get back to my apartment at 5am, and theres a note on my door from my roommate saying "I got you a ride on our bus, we leave at 8am". My roommate's Dad had organized a bus, and I didn't know this.
Ok, so I'm thinking I can sleep on the bus. No. So, I went to the concert on zero sleep. I went to bed at 11am this morning and totaled 42 hours without sleep. This is part of the reason why the concert was intense for me, i was pretty stunned from the sun, the walking, the heat, a trip to the beer tent.. and NO SLEEP. Everything was really far out. So, we spent most of the day just trying to find shade. I wasn't overly interested in seeing any of the earlier sets, I mean... I like Blue Rodeo and the Flaming Lips.. but my body wanted me to rest. We finally got one of the best seats in the house, under the shade of tractor trailer. I didn't sleep, but I closed my eyes and cooled down.
When Justing Timberlake was ending, we decided we'd make our journey to the front. There was no way I was going to be seeing ACDC and the Stones and a video screen.
At that's when it happened. AS we started, other people started noticing we were clearing pass to the front, and wanted to follow. Eventually we have a train of people walking over peoples legs/hands/blankets, etc An off duty police women freaked out, refusing me to pass...a small verbal stint ensued, after making her look stupid, and helping rationalize the amount of people behind me, she moved.
So we fought our way up there, and finally got
FOUR rows from the gate, on the left side of the stage just in time for The Guess Who... then rush, then ACDC BABE! (and the Stones, of course.)
Just as we got up there, the Jumbo screen on the stage flashed a picture of the crowd.. we realized we were stuck there whether we liked it or not. hehe.
Things got a little intense during ACDC, people crowd surfing, almost getting pulled under the crowd countless times. I'm not that big. The group of people standing around us formed a little community that wasn't up getting thrown around. Its ACDC after all, at the front of a crowd of over half a million people.
After ACDC was over, my legs and body were dead, yet I was strangely awake. As much as I wanted to stay up front for the Rolling Stones, I decided it would be best to hop the barricade and find place to chill and watch the stones on a jumbo tron.
After the stones were over, and the fireworks were over.. we got up on a crate of watter bottles and watched the masses flood out of Downsview Park. What a sight. A sea of people.
Waited in line for an hour to get onto a shuttle bus back to OUR bus, and then drove home.
Couldn't sleep when I got home, or on the bus.. so I went over to a Friends house, and talked about the day.. and put myself to rest at 11am this morning.
Incredible experience/memory.. all I can say is.. WOW. Oh, and ACDC rocked my world.
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