Just Get Yourself High
Six Legal Ways to Keep Your Energy Up and Your Dance Moves Down
"Don't rely on us to get you high; just get yourself high." Great advice from the Chemical Brothers--how's a healthy, law-abiding, dance music festival goer to comply?
The Crystal Method, Tweaker, Chicks on Speed, Junkie XL—does it ever seem like your favorite artists might be trying to tell you something? I wonder what it could be?
Sleep is decidedly optional during a festival, but you don’t want to drag through the night either. There’s always someone at every gathering who will insist that “it’s just the music, that’s all I need,” but you and I know better, don’t we? We know that to make the most of a festival, a little chemical intervention is in order.
You could waste valuable pre-festival time on the hunt in unfamiliar territory, where chances are you’ll wind up—in even the most benign scenario—disappointed.
Or you could try one or several of the less romanesque but certainly more fruitful or at least licit ways to keep your energy from flagging, below. It’s essential, of course, to drink as much water as you can choke down, especially for the daytime events at WMC Miami, Ultra Music Festival, Bonnaroo, and especially at Coachella-but-it’s-a-dry-heat-Fest.
Vitamin C supplements: In a recent New York magazine article, several fashion-week types were asked to journal their daily intake. Two of them—a fashion editor at Elle magazine and a fashion show producer—independently mentioned taking two each of the 1,000-mg packets of Emergen-C, the powdered vitamin C supplement you can get at the counter at any drug-store chain. The show producer is quoted as saying, “I do herbs and vitamins year-round, but I add in the Emergen-C during Fashion Week because I don’t do drugs.” ‘Nuff said.
No Doz and tequila añejo: A surprisingly effective long-term boost, especially if you crush the caffeine pills up first. The tequila should be a sipping tequila like añejo—or use white or gold tequila if you can bring yourself to drink that without shooting it. Shot = crash, which is not what you’re after here.
Energy supplements: Ginseng, Rhodiola rosea, and Maca rootare allpopular in supplements, because they reportedly stimulate energy and also increase sex drive.
Vodka and Cuban coffee: No, not mixed together, silly. One shot of vodka followed by one shot of café Cubano, which is a shot of Cuban espresso that is, unless you specify otherwise, loaded with sugar. The combination leaves you at just the right pitch—alert without being jittery. If you’re in Miami for WMC or Ultra, any number of little places along Collins or Washington avenues offer Cuban coffee; David’s is open 24 hours.
Energy drinks: Red Bull and vodka, of course,but new to the scene is “Cocaine,” a drink made of caffeine; guarana; taurine; vitamins C, B6, and B12; dextrose as a no-crash stand-in for the usual sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup; and the secret weapon, inositol, which is similar to a vitamin B complex except it’s not technically a vitamin: apparently it’s looking good as a treatment for panic disorder and bipolar depression in studies. The company claims Cocaine tastes like, “a fireball, a carbonated atomic fireball!”—a claim that I’m sure they can back up with hard evidence culled from the labs at Area51. You can order the drink online, although it’s not widely available yet.
Sublingual Vitamins B12 supplements: Edie Sedgwick, the Andy Warhol superstar and subject of the Sienna Miller movie, Factory Girl, swore by the shots she got from her Dr. Feelgood. The primary ingredient in these shots was liquid vitamin B12. OK—so maybe it wasn’t the primary ingredient. But it was in there.
Related Articles:
- Check out the Chemical Bros.' new single, "Do it Again."
