Put out the fire, and don't look past my shoulder

Their names are written on us, while we cross the almost desert lawn. It's waaay to early, but the sky is blue and the grass is shining. We lean on the fence, and the scene doesn't seem that far away. We're waiting for The Who, and I still can't believe it. People start gathering behind us, the first warm-up band plays unknown music in the sunset.

When the Counting Crows get on stage, the feeling somewhere near where the heart's supposed to be is really strange. I hadn't listened to any of their songs in a while, and "A Long December" comes as a real kick in the back of the head, bringing with it five years old memories, dragging them out of the closet and throwing them right in my face.

Some people start screaming. Someone turns off the sky, someone else turns on the stage lights. The crowd grows, the crowd screams. And there you go, Pete and Roger walk in on the stage. They do not appear from darkness, they don't come flying down from heaven. They just walk in. And I suddenly realize how our little stupid fence is miles and ages away from that scene. I try to grab the air, and the beating of my heart. But you can't touch dancing nerves.



They start. The music strikes the fluorescent petrol in which we're all floating. We get hit by it, time after time. Rogers's voice never gets covered by the screaming, ooh no. The voices of the crowd in the stadium take his vibrant tones and throw them up against the sky. The stars look at the music and soon realize that this kind of shining madness can only be human. So they throw it right back at us, song after song.

Orion is shining (upside down as always) right o'er the stage. Baba O Riley comes right after another song, totally unexpected. Notes from nothing. I've never really been religious but I've heard about people who can swear they've seen god, angels, and stuff. I think something similar happened there with the Music, and the idea that we all have an amazing unexplored ocean inside ourselves. As the organ starts to play it feels like there's just one voice, made out of all the screams. Just one heart beating, out of all the people. And that heart is beating inside my head.

Reign O'er me, You Better Bet. The night is long, the crowd is hungry. On the bus to the city center we all look pretty wasted. We have been inside a tornado, we just don't know it.

I think I've lost the fear of getting lost.