My head swirled as I reached to my ear to push in an absent ear plug, and when I noticed it was gone, I smiled with the recognition that I had been deaf for over half the concert. Despite their numbness, my ears worked exceptionally well as they plucked every distorted note out of the sweet, sweat-filled State Theater air and send them tumbling into the outermost extensions of my body, where they gathered in garrulous parties to talk and sing. I was beyond contentment, I was in a state of utter peace in which nothing could go wrong, a personal utopia under the grayish, pink pineapple skies of Dinosaur Jr.'s musical horizon.

The area in front of the stage was separated into two levels, each with a capacity of under a hundred people. I was smack dab in the middle of the first level pressed between a beautiful young blond and an oversized happily drunk college guy, who was pressing me, without any resistance closer to the girl. The laws of geometry were tossed out, the total volume capacity of the level was overcome by staggering numbers of dancing teens and stumbling college drunks, who added adventure and danger to the less than threatening all-age crowd.

I could feel the pressure of the air's moisture pushing into me, almost collapsing my chest. As I inhaled, the sweat of my generation condensed in my lungs, cooling them and easing my body into a limp relaxed state. Now almost completely supporting myself upon the girl's back, I could feel my head begin to cloud into a foreboding storm. Saturated by the flowing energy of the crowd, I grew heavy and I could feel my legs giving way.

As I began to slide down the girl's small shoulders, my nostrils took in the hidden scent of her perfume and I could feel the firm grasp of a pair of hands underneath each of my arm pits. As countless numbers of unidentified hands pushed me upward I slanted my eyes open to find myself floating atop the sea of swaying teens. Their wet palms passed beneath me like gentle waves under a plastic raft. Through my half-closed eyes, I gazed upon the ceiling where a spectrum of colors from the stage danced like an electric rainbow lights through murky water. Below me the waves moved in unpredictable undulations. However, a strong current pushed me toward the stage, toward the bitter-sweet singing of the captivating sirens. A jagged reef of security guards encircled the coast where many an unlucky sailor would meet his demise. Thankfully the tides changed, and I was sucked back into the open water. By now my eyes were completely shut. I no longer noticed the hands that gripped my rear and rifled through the now-empty pockets of my corduroys. Oblivious to the sharks that lurked below me, I wished only to be washed away forever beneath the warm blanket of my generational sea. Then regretfully I began to sink, deeper and deeper, into the wash of hands and heads, before I was again on my feet anchored now by the entourage of excited friends who had seen my sail.

As the final drops of my voyage evaporated from my refreshed body, I could feel the warm stage lights fighting their way through the rippling sea and onto my face. The tide continued to go out, taking a few of my friends with it, but I stayed in a calm whirlpool of warm water and soft sand, letting my body sway with he will of my smiling neighbors. The music ended slowly, and night fell upon the calming sea. I took the salty air once more into my lungs, exhaling slowly, and waited silently for Sam, my fellow sailor. As the stage fans blew through my wet hair, Sam washed ashore happily soaked in a stranger's stray beer, and we made our way home. 1