Was at Leeds the last year RATM played in 00 I think, and the wall of fire from the line of portaloos on the last night was fkn insane. Lord of the flies shit. At one point someone threw what appeared to be an almost full gas canister on there. One of those industrial ones about double the size of a basketball. We'd all forgotten about it while we were conga lining and taking turns to do freestyle dance solos with a flame backdrop to the cheering crowd. I'd gotten two tent poles and was keeping a heavy tribal thing going on an upturned metal bin, soon to be joined by another two tent pole drummers. The heat from the flames was immense. It felt like everything just kept intensifying. Then the riot police swooped in with shields and helmets, one of them rugby tackling a girl who's turn it was to do a performance to the floor. Everyone booed. Brutally ott but I guess that was their way of sending a message to the rest of us. That dampened the spirit for a moment, but iirc shortly after that the gas canister which we'd all forgotten about blew up, and man, I've never been pushed so hard by air like that. Fell backwards onto a tent, fkn nuts. Don't think anyone got hurt. After that the police formed a huge double layered line between us and the fire and things died down.
Something gets released in those moments. Something primal and ancient. Something we keep tucked away for most of our lives.