Warped Tour

We stood in line.
And we stood in line.
And we stood in line.
The gates opened at 12:30, and the line finally began to move.
Me wearing shorts was a rare occurrence, but the weather man said it was supposed to be in the nineties, so I was wearing shorts. They were shorter than I was comfortable with, but they fit in well with the other concert-goers. I wore a Pierce the Veil shirt, even though they weren't going to be there, but other people do.
The line began moving faster, and we got to the gate shortly. We handed the lady our tickets, and she gave them back with a smile, and told us to have fun.
My friend's boyfriend was waiting on the other side, and he walked over to us.
We mused over the schedule for a while, trying to figure out where to go first.
First was Atilla.
My friend grabbed on to her boyfriend, and I grabbed on to her, and he pushed his way through the crowd to the stage Atilla would be playing at in five minutes.
Since Joseph was leading the way, and I was holding on to the back of Maria's shirt, I didn't necessarily have to pay attention to where we were going, so I looked around at the people. It wasn't really the crowd I'd always associated with Warped Tour, but I supposed they weren't going to put the terrifying shit on the websites concerned parents would look at.
A boy who could have been no older than thirteen walked past us. He had a mask over the bottom part of his face, and had red colored contacts in. I'm scared of most all people, but I've never been as afraid of anybody as I had been of that little kid.
I decided I didn't really want to look around too much. That felt like a good time to put headphones in, listen to Gospel music, and pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Joseph led us out of the crowd and onto the lawn, which didn't have too many people walking around. We sat down in a relatively empty patch of grass as Atilla took the stage.
They were Joseph's favorite band, but I wasn't a fan. I didn't understand much of what they said, but from what I could decipher, most of it was "Fuck this" and "Fuck that."
I looked at Maria and raised my eyebrows. She shrugged and shook her head, obviously not a fan either.
"I told y'all we didn't have to see them." Joseph said.
"You're watching Andy Black with us, we can see them with you." Maria said.
I felt myself getting sunburnt. We had meant to bring sunscreen, but had forgotten. It wasn't really surprising, since I had the memory of a goldfish, Maria was about as ADD as they come, and Joseph would leave his head if it wasn't attached to his body. You'd think that between the three of us, somebody would remember, but no.
The kid with the red eyes eyes walked by and sat relatively close to us. I almost started bawling like a little kid, but refrained myself. I'd never wanted to go home more.
When Maria saw I was getting burnt, she had Joseph take us to sit under the pavilion. I blocked out Atilla and sang Jesus Loves Me in my head. I watched the mosh pit down by the stage. It made me anxious, and I wasn't even near it.
Atilla's known for their mosh pits--I learned that they even had lyrics that said "Fuck this shit, you can find me in the mosh pit." but I'd rather not--and I'd thought theirs was big, but Fit For A King's turned out to be worse--or better, depending on whose point of view you were going by. In my point of view, it was the scariest situation I've ever been in.
I was a big Fit For A King fan. They're a Christian metal band, and they're good. It turned out they were better through a screen. We were less than a hundred feet from the stage, but still out of the pit. It started out relatively calm. People were headbanging and jumping, but that was it. They played Slave to Nothing, and in the middle of that, they started crowd surfing. Some strange guy was standing far too close to me for comfort, and to make matters worse, he was smoking a joint. He didn't even bother trying not to blow it on me. I tugged on Maria's arm and stood on my toes to whisper that I was ready to leave. We watched FFAK for me, and I'd had enough. I had a headache too, with a mixture of all the weed and the loud music. Maria relayed my message to Joseph, and he led the way away.
Almost as soon as we'd walked away, the crowd had started a wall of death. That was now occupying the space we had been in just moments ago. I consider that a near-death experience to this day.
Beartooth was the last band we wanted to see. They were one of Joseph's favorites, and I was actually a fan of them. Unfortunately, there was a two hour gap between the last band the three of us had wanted to see and Beartooth, so we went to sit under the pavilion with all the scary people. Maria and Joseph talked while we waited, but my head was pounding, so I laid it down on the table in front of it and closed my eyes to nap to the ambient sound of the death metal band playing.
It started to rain, and the sound was loud on the metal roof, but it didn't do much to drown out the murmur of the people or the death screaming of the band. When I looked up, I saw lightning, but the music was too loud for us the hear the thunder.
The seats soon filled with people trying to escape the rain. A girl walked by us, and she was wearing a cape with a burning church on it. I stopped praying for my safety and started praying for these peoples' souls. I've never been more out of place in my life.
"Wake me up when Beartooth starts." I told Maria, and laid my head back down.
I was wet, and cold, and scared, but I managed to fall asleep. Now that I think about it, that probably wasn't the safest place to fall asleep, but I survived. Besides, Joseph was there, and he was rather intimidating, and, despite all our differences, I trusted him. It might be a bit dramatic to say that I'd placed my life in his hands, but that's what I'm saying.
I don't know how well I slept, but my headache was gone when I woke up.
Beartooth was probably the best band we saw that night, even though Andy Black was my favorite artist. I was glad we'd stayed. They had a pit too, but it was more controlled. The lead singer--screamer, whatever--asked them to get down on their knees, and barely a second passed between his words and everybody in the pit getting on their knees. They started a song, and everybody jumped up. It reminded me of a metal version of marching band.
Warped Tour scared the living shit out of me, but it's still the best concert I've ever been to.