System of a Down - Soundwave 2012 - Melbourne, Australia.

We flew from Sydney -> Melbourne at 6:30am. We arrived at the house where people had been partying all night at 8:30am. I had 2 shots and 2 beers in me by 9:30. We walked at the festival at 11:30...we stopped at a bar on the way. I don't remember much of the bar time. Or that photo.

We got to the festival and they only served mid strength beer (basically, like 3% alcohol..very hard to get drunk off of but very easy to get dehydrated / hungover on).

It was hotter than hell, humid as fuck, and poured rain on and off all day. System went on a 10pm. I was absolutely miserable, hungover, full shakes, hot, cold, dry heaving on my muddy feet, in the stands, thinking about how amazing System is but how I was too miserable to enjoy it. That's the first time I cried. I always cry when I'm sick like that. I hate being sick like that. I dozed off into hangover la-la land during Revenga. I remember singing the lyrics in my head but being so asleep at the same time.

My friend woke me up and said, "We're going in the pit."

The pit seemed so... far... away. You had to go through the initial crowd, through this walled off area, and into the pit. It wasn't just open. I chugged the rest of a Jack Daniels Slushie and we were off - we ran through the crowd, the mud, not giving a fuck who we ran into. I was basically being dragged/carried in between my two guy friends.

We almost made it into the pit of the pit. It was really violent and crowded. I threw up the rest of my Jack Daniels slushie at one point. By this point I wasn't even disgusted at being sick like I normally am. Usually I'm in a nest in the bathroom crying and taking showers. I really hate throwing up. I knew that I was going to regret not being able to enjoy System - I didn't want these guys to not enjoy it because they were babysitting me. I had also accepted that I was going to die and had come to terms with my death. No use in crying about it.

As we were standing at the edge of the pit, trying to figure out how to escape the utterly violent, thrashing madness, the mood completely shifted. They started playing Lonely Day. The circle pit of elbows stopped.

The first line the song, the entire crowd sang. We sang. The pit turned into this swaying, peaceful, overjoyed, mass. It was insane. I still get full blown chills thinking about it. Watching that video brings me back. Holy shit.

We basically all just held each other and rocked to the music and looked at each other. That powerful sense of "oh my god...I'm so overwhelmed and happy that I can't even deal with it." You can hear it in the video - the crowds' voice cracks. And I cried again.