a less than stellar time with 4aces

Since you asked GB...
It really was a bummer trip, a miss on most levels. I invited a friend with minimal trip experience, one mild mescaline trip and a profound one with lucy. She was interested in 4aces, I felt it needed to be a lighter experience since she doesn't have a strong background and it was going to be very public with alot of unknowns. I thought 20 for her and 25 for me would be about right and made some rolling paper parachutes.
Mistake one, I think I mis-measured with my cheapy scale, I'm usually patient and methodical making sure I have an accurate reading but I wound up tripping hard, more like my 40 experience than my several mid 20's trials. I still dont know if it was that or setting. It felt like much too much to be just setting.

I'm big on set and setting but I blew this one. I had watched several vids of Tobins ISAM show and it really looked like it would be interesting, even though it's not what I call music I thought the show would be an experience. It was, but not in a positive way. The sound was WAAAYYYY to hard edged for me... not just the extreme volume (which I do like) but it was just a complete, immersive full on violent assault on the senses. I don't even know how to describe it, but if there is an idea that some music can be described by what sorts of drugs go well with it... if LSD goes well with Pink Floyd, Yes, Entheogenic, Grateful Dead... then this would be like railing mass quantities of meth and coke, while doing shots of Jack Daniels. I can understand why some people might want an extreme experience like that, but damn...This is the only show I've ever been to that I couldn't hang.

I started coming up during the last warm up act which was similar, and had to go out in the fresh air to chill, thinking Amon would be the good part. While out there with my friend I started tripping hard... really. Fail #2... at this point she's saying she doesnt feel anything, maybe just a slight tingle. I'm starting to fly and I keep asking every few minutes, "Really?" One positive aspect, the venue was really top notch, extremely well run, friendly and an awesome place for a show. There are multi level rooftop chill areas, with bars for drinks, a few couches and chairs and a great view of the hip and active neighborhood. People could freely hang and socialize, and pass doobies and it was a really great crowd with no bad vibes. We hung outside until the last warm up act finished, which you could see in several places on the roof via a projected video on walls. I just tried to enjoy the experience, everything was that amazing amplified sensation to take in, the buildings, the sky, all the sights and sounds. Went back inside after that act to wait on Tobin and it was just as awesome inside, the grand art deco interior, looking at the designs on the walls and ceilings.

Tobin started and well, covered that. Half way though we decided to split and made our way to the lobby. By this time I was close to baseline, just afterglow but I needed to get out of the aural warzone.
There were a couple girls near the entrance totally breaking down.Not freaking out, but having emotional meltdowns, one sitting against the wall, huggin her knees to her chest sobbing. On the way out I asked one of the girls attending the entrance if they had someone looking after them and she said yes, they're ok and they're looking after them. That's what blew my mind. For me, music is supposed to be uplifting and joyful. Not something to tear you down and violently rip apart your psyche. I guess I can understand wanting to have an extreme experience but, damn. Take away the "show" aspect and that stuff could be used to break down a person like they do to terrorists in secret prisons. Yes, that extreme.

So we walk down the street to a little hole in the wall taco place, passing a sidewalk bar/club with a pretty lively music/light rave-y light show dance scene happening that was a nice antidote to what we just walked out of. At the far end of the sidewalk section a girl catches my attention going on about my outfit is so cool, bla bla, all lit up and lively. She's really pretty, all dressed up herself with red and black hair, crazy awesome makeup, and having a great time with a friend and a guy. They all chat with us for a few minutes and we say goodbye and go next door for some fish tacos. When heading back we pass them again and she starts up again, just going on and on, cute as hell and bouncy, she and her friend asking about my friends outfit and practically throwing themselves at me while the guy with them just kind of hangs shyly not saying much. I have no romantic attraction to this friend of mine and I'm thinking, how perfect with this fail of a night... I could have easily hung out with these girls and gone home with one or both, it was plainly obvious, but I wouldn't have done that to my friend. Man, just perfect timing along with everything else. Another miss to add to the boxfull.

In hindsight I don't know that I could have done anything different, I had given consideration to setting and the 4ace dose but between mismeasuring(?) the amount and not realizing what the show was really going to be, it could have been a truly bad trip if it wasn't for some tripping skills and ability to keep from internalizing the external. I really don't know how to put it into better words, I'm only just starting to feel normal today.
Overall, one big night of misses, but as with most mistakes, lessons to be learned when I pay attention.

 

Bummer, doesn't sound like 4-aco dmt music, I remember Tool came on heavy and hard when I was on 4-aco dmt but some of their stuff is really introspective and uplifting as well. Sounds more like a veteraned ecstasy type enviornment. When you dose a bunch of E that dark, thrash edge stuff can become appealing, I occasionally post some of that stuff.

 

I take your word for anything MDMA related but, from my uneducated understanding of a roll, that show would have ruined that too. But that could just be my bad perspective on the whole thing. I have nothing to base that on.
But there was clearly alot of x going around, quite a few people were lit, including the girls I met later outside the venue.

 

what were the girls in the lobby on...that were freaking out?

i listened to four ton mantis while reading this. kinda spooky

use paragraphs, bro. you're typing like a newbie

 

yep put me off reading the whole thing too, sorry man

 

Ouch!

Ya, well, I wrote it in notepad cause I was at work and c&p but ya, it's a bad read and I usually write better. But I wasn't really into it either. Not so much typing like a newb as structuring like a 6th grade dropout.

No idea about the girls... I wasn't about to say anything to either of them as it seemed they were pretty into being alone and crying it out. That's why I asked someone if they were ok and being watched. I'm sure they were fine just needed some recovery time.

And I cleaned it up a bit.

 

i was just joking with you, i hope you know.

i guess i meant to ask, what do you THINK those freak out girls were on? i supposed it could have been a little too much of anything...but did it seem like a psychedelic?

i still read the whole thing

 

Really, it would just be conjecture. I couldn't say for sure they were. When I wrote about seeing the Shpongletron earlier this year I mentioned seeing something similar after EOTO played, but the girl sobbing had her bf holding her in this sea of people and as I walked by he was telling her things like "you'll be ok" and "it will wear off soon".
Both were really kind of surreal to me, the first I was still tripping pretty well, this last time not.

 

Strangely. ever since I started using 4ace, about 4times now. I never had any bad trips.

The only time that I felt terrible was when I was tripping with my 2 buddies and both of them left the room. 1 went to get water the other went to answer a call. the moment they left the room I felt like CRAP. like I lost all my friends and I'm alone in this world.

hope the next few trips you have would be awesome.

 

I don't know how I missed this post. Remember my TR from Sonic Bloom - how the music was too much, like an assault? We were on ~30mg 4 aces and it was way too much, just overwhelming. Nothing to do but hold on, lie there in our sleeping bags, hanging on. 4-aces before then and after than has been good. Ima gonna get some 6-apb, I hope.

 

Ya, I remember you saying that. What you describe was kind of the same, only I didn't really need to stay and tough it out, unlike a similar experience with EOTO when I refused to leave, because Simon's Shpongletron was the main act.
I too have had nothing but good experiences both before and after. It wasn't really a bad trip, just not a good setting. And as I mentioned experience makes a difference, I was able to keep from internalizing it so I wasn't curled up in a ball with those girls.

About that 6apb, GB raves about the 5 and 6 apb combos he's tried. Might be worth a look.

 

"...curled up in a ball with those girls." You young guys are a trip. Good on ya.