The right to get buzzed at concerts

Another GLOWfest means another chance to throw your hands up in the air while comfortably drinking and/or getting high. What could be better?

Though the festival has philanthropic underpinnings, the focus of the evening will undoubtedly be on alcohol, drug-fueled dancing and seeing who can wear the most neon.

It’s too bad the show starts at 4:30 p.m., since glow sticks would have been perfect eye candy for the throbbing mass of dazed concertgoers.

Last semester’s GLOWfest featured Pretty Lights, an artist who might actually smoke more weed than Snoop, one of the most basic party-mentality rappers ever. This semester’s headliner, Deadmau5, keeps with GLOWfest tradition of providing the perfect music for inebriated college students.

This is only a good thing.

We work hard during the week, losing sleep because of papers and poring over readings in the stacks. Some of us even have jobs. We’ve earned the privilege of getting buzzed and losing ourselves in a great concert.

And if not a great concert, then at least a concert that demands a party.
If a mindless electro rave produced by a geek with a giant mouse head doesn’t sound like an occasion to party to you, I’m curious where you get your kicks.  

A few beers (or whatever substance you prefer) can elevate the already dreamlike experience of a concert into the realm of the religious.

Few pleasures in life compare to the altered appreciation of being enveloped by waves of light and noise at a concert.

This joy has its limits, though. We’ve all been to shows with that guy. You know the one I’m talking about.

His vocabulary is limited to “woo” and “I love you.” He tries to crowd surf multiple times during the first song. He laughs at himself doing the stanky leg. He sing-screams along to every song, including the new one he can’t possibly have heard before. And he wouldn’t quite be that guy unless he spent a few songs sitting atop his friend’s shoulders, shouting indiscriminately at everyone around him.

The sacred trance of a great concert can be thwarted by a single ungracious drunk bro. Don’t be that guy.

Let’s all agree that you don’t need to get slizzared to enjoy the aural and visual assault of Deadmau5. However, we can also agree that a few drinks might help.

Getting buzzed at a concert is one of life’s fundamental joys, maybe even a basic human right, as long as it’s done responsibly. Wednesday’s GLOWfest is a perfect opportunity to take it easy and blend into the huddled mass of your smiling and carefree fellow students.

­— ptbeane@indiana.edu