One Night in Hartford

Wow. What a day. I know this post is really long, but you may find it interesting/crazy/scary. So.

I went to Hartford today to visit Zoe at Trinity College (and to see Girl Talk in concert). I left at about 1:30 pm (after kinda getting lost to the train station) and arrived a little before 2:30pm. Neat.

I was exhausted. I have had no sleep this week, and how do I greet Zoe? I take a nap. A pretty long one too.

I get up a couple hours later, we grab some dinner (turns out one of the guys I had dinner with was Hugh Hefner’s son, Marston, who was a really friendly guy), I meet her friends (who are all awesome), and we head out to the senior dorms (“the Fred”) for “Oreo Appreciation Night.” There were cookies. There was milk. There were competitions. It was great.

We left after it was over and went down to the Girl Talk concert. There were a couple opening acts: some DJ who was really good, and some indie rock band from New York (The Dig) who were pretty bad. We left after the Dig played their first song and grabbed some coffee. Right when we got back, the Dig ended and Girl Talk got set up.

Here’s when things started getting weird. They kept telling the audience to move back, and nobody did. It was kinda chaotic. After like half an hour of just waiting, Girl Talk came out… and didn’t start. They kept telling people to move back. The lights of the auditorium/gym/whatever even came on… it was ridiculous. Whatever. People moved back. Girl Talk started playing (essentially Play Your Part pt. 1 from Feed the Animals) and the stage was FULL of people dancing.

And then the music stopped and the lights went back on. What the fuck. It turns out the table with his laptop and whatnot fell into the audience–too many people on stage.

So security got everybody off. This took another 10 minutes, and a lot of people were pissed. A lot left the concert–allowing all of us to go to the very front. Five minutes later, Girl Talk came back out there, pumped up, and started playing again. It was epic… we were so close, in the middle of the hardcore crowd, with Gregg Gillis (that’s his real name) rocking out on stage, taking off his clothes, and high-fiving the audience. I’ve always heard he was unimpressive or disappointing live; that’s not true at all. It was amazing.

The craziest part happened about 45 minutes into his set–he disappeared off stage. Where did he go??? I was still dancing (because the music was still playing), then “the crowd” pushed me forward and I bumped one of Zoe’s friend’s head with my elbow. After apologizing, I turned around to see who pushed me… and Gregg Gillis was right there, going crazy, dancing. What the hell. It was awesome/crazy/ridiculous. He turned around and went back on stage to change up the music.

And then the last five minutes of his set. The music was amazing, but the people were getting rowdier. The crowd surfing began. People just get caught up in the moment; they don’t really think. Even Gregg was crowd surfing by the end. One kid, though, after getting picked up by the crowd, came down and kicked one of Zoe’s friends in the head.

She briefly passed out, but regained consciousness right away. We took her off to the side, and the Emergency Medical Tech came to her aid. The concert ended like 2 minutes later, so there was a mass exodus, leaving just Zoe’s group of friends. The girl was really hurt–more than a bit out of it. An ambulance was called, and she was taken out to Hartford Hospital, where I’ve been for the past two-and-a-half hours, waiting with two of Zoe’s senior friends to see what’s up. I’m back in the dorms at Trinity now, but Zoe is still waiting with her friend, waiting to get her an x-ray. She seems fine; she was talking, but she’s on a gurney with a neck brace and IV.

We’ll see what happens. I’m sick, getting sicker, and the late night plus crazy dance plus cold rainy weather hasn’t done much to help me. But all that feels insignificant, and it’s a bit selfish to act as if that really matters when a girl is in the hospital. It’s 4 am, and I’m going to sleep, and I feel horrible about it when Zoe’s still awake for who knows how much longer by her friends’ side. Hopefully all things get better soon.

-Adi

Tags: Adi