So, in 2005, a couple of friends of mine decided that, since their birthdays were on the same day, they were going to have a massive birthday bash. This bash? Going to the Taste of Chaos show in Orlando. The only two bands I remember were The Used and Killswitch Engage.

That show was the first time I was ever in a mosh pit. I was scared out of my fucking mind going in, considering I'm tall, but kind of small now, and was much smaller 7 years ago. One of my friends, "7¹/₂ inch Matt", told me to just run in with my arms up like a boxer and just bounce off of people. By some odd miracle, I managed to make my way through the fray without touching anyone. The crowd on the other side of the pit caught me, turned me around and pushed me back in. This time, things went as planned and I got the regulation number of bruises.

One of my friends, Aaron, whose birthday we were celebrating, is very tall and VERY skinny, so he kind of got tossed around like a toothpick for a while, quite literally. At one point, he was picked up by a guy who had to be only 5 feet tall, and thrown into the crowd, at which point he started crowd surfing. He was immediately thrown into another pit. At this point, I was no longer in the pit, so I was able to watch the scene unfurl. Shortly after I saw his wildly flailing gangliness disappear into the pit, he reemerged, only to crowd surf back to the pit from which he was originally thrown. He made a few rounds in the pit before returning to my side with the biggest smile I've ever seen. He already had a kind of gaunt, but not in an unhealthy way kind of look about him, so the smile was amplified that much more.

Before Killswitch took the stage, there was, of course, the waiting period as everything was set up. In this time, people started throwing things, usually water bottles. They weren't throwing them onto the stage, though, they were just throwing them any which way they deemed fit. When I noticed how many things were flying through the air, I leaned over to Aaron and "7¹/₂ inch Matt" and said, "Don't they usually wait until the music starts before they throw shit? I'm kind of expecting to see a person go flying once they start playing!"

Unbeknownst to myself and my friends, there were these two Asian guys who were helping people to crowd surf all evening. One would get down on his hands and knees and the other would make a stirrup with his hands. The person they were helping would get on the one guys back and then step into the other guys hands and he would proceed to toss him into the crows. I met with them later and they mentioned that they weren't even there for the music, they just loved helping people to enjoy the show like that.

Anyway, so as soon as the music starts, I see this relatively short but extremely skinny guy go flying through the air. I asked the guys about it when I met them and the guy who stirrup'd his hands told me that he got a little too into it and threw him as soon as Killswitch started playing "My Last Serenade", which was his favourite song.

The only thing I remember from the way back that night was Aaron leaning forward and making a pillow of my lap while I made a pillow of Aaron's back. Every once in a while, I would sit up to tell Amanda that every time she opened her mouth to talk about how awesome The Used was, all I heard was "Zzzzzzzz" so would she please shut the hell up and let the rest of us sleep because it's four in the morning and we've been moshing since nine last night.

It was a spectacular evening.