Tales from the Shpongleland (6 apb + DMT)

The long awaited evening finally came. I never thought I would get the priviledge to witness a live Shpongle show and it actually happened. I felt strong anticipation and excitment for the entire day. As I came out a tunnel on the public transportation on my way to Oakland I saw the last rays of daylight slip behind the Bay Bridge.

When I arrived at the venue I met up with Spicey Cat and her husband. It was a priviledge to meet them, we hung out for a bit before parting and then I went to dose my 210 mgs of 6-apb. The doors opened up shortly after and I headed inside. I ran into Voyage and chatted with him for a bit then roamed around the theater to check out my surroundings. I watched Outersect for a bit who was ok, good downtempo music to come up to. Lynx came on next she was ok as well, pretty talented for a one person act but I decided to go upstairs. I rendez vu'd with Voyage and co. Chatted some more as I was coming up. THe comeup of 6-apb is slightly strange, sort of an uncomfortable 'butterflies' feeling but it's somewhat subtle as well. I gave Voyage a lightshow before he headed back to his company upstairs in the loge. I head back down to the floor, danced a little bit to Lynx and sort of caught my roll.

Shpongle came on next, Raja Ram came out in an elder mask and gave a short speech before they went into 'Ineffable Mystries from Shpongland' The band had a tight groove from the outset. Michele Adamson came out as a candy kid which I thought was absolutely hot in my glowy, happy mindstate.

The track list was roughly as follows:
Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland
Shponglese Spoken Here
'new track?'
When Shall I be Free/Stamen of the Shamen
Dorset Perception
I am You
Invisible man in a flourescent suit
Divine Moments of Truth
Nothing is Something Worth Doing
No Turn Unstoned
Electroplasm
Outer Shpongolia/Levitation Nation
My Head feels like a frisbee
Around the World in a Tea Daze

I danced my ass off for most the tracks and a couple of the slower tracks I would do slow liquiding. I smoked some DMT in changa for 'I am you' and 'Divine Moments of Truth'. I meditated for the first half of 'I am you' and like my previous experimentation with DMT + entactogen it was a very different trip. The patterns were tiny and sparkly and I felt like I was floating slowly through the DMT space. I broke trance to get up for the more upbeat second half of 'I am you' and was greeted by an amazing guitar solo by Pete Callard. He was giving some extended solos on a couple tracks and he is a really solid guitarist. For 'Divine Moments of Truth' I meditated throughout the whole track and was taken far far away from the thousands of people in the concert venue to some absolutely beautiful and graceful DMT realms. I broke out my glowlights for a few of the more uptempo tracks. For the glitcy intro to 'Shponglese Spoken Here' I felt like I was rollercoasting off the lights and the beat. I also used the glowlights for 'Dorset Perception' and 'My head feels like a frisbee.' My glowlights switch tempos so I would ride the lights on the quicker tempo which gave a series of overlaying after images and then on the slower blinking settings I would sort of feel spacey and floaty. A couple people around me seemed to be enjoying the lights as well so I included them for a bit. There were some really cool MDMA-esque patterning off the glowlights, fractal like, not quite as widespread as normal hallucinogens but also much more rapidly transforming. I know Shpongle tracks really well so I felt really in tune and comfortable with my dancing for most the night, I closed my eyes and danced at one point to go into the entactogenic trance, feeling the mind control the body was pretty amazing and my dancing space was kinda limited so I'm glad I didn't knock into anyone.

When I was rolling really hard there was a point where Raja Ram was playing one of his stranger looking flutes and it had lights that like stunned me and I got after images and dazed from that. Michele Adamson at one point glowed this amazingly beautiful purple aura which look awesome with her red hair. Michele and the cosinger did an amazing job all night. Simon came out from behind the producing equipment and played guitar for a couple tracks, that was pretty cool. The band was joined on stage with various dancers/creatures, some giant horned fawns, glowing psychedelic worms, girls with feathery headdresses and barely there outfits, and more. The whole set felt like an amazing celebration and Shpongle played great, and the crowd was really into it and it exceeded my expectations. Great Evening!

 

Great report and thanks for that setlist! LOL! Isn't The Fox a beautiful venue?

 

Yes the fox is a beautiful venue, I checked out the architecture a couple times and watched the lights from the stage dance off the patterns.

 

I don't know if I'll write anything, just home awhile ago.

I was blown away by that place. Over-the-top opulence, I think I told GB its even more so than the Wiltern.
The patterned ceiling has this metallic silver paint and the colored lights from the edges light up the various flat sections and edges in this most amazing neon-glow fractal pattern.
That place is serious psychedelia in the truest sense of the word and I can't imagine a better venue to have seen that show. Worth every minute of the hours of driving.
T'was cool making your aquaintance GB and thanks for the mini light show.

You can almost hear her voice echoing/reverberating off the walls of the place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhQUFcTg0ls"]Shpongle - Live in Oakland - YouTube

 

Great post bedlam, Glad Shpongle did you right! Sounds like you had a fantastic time! I caught the experience at the electric forest and it was amazing, didn't have the balls to hit the dmt in the crowd though!

 

Really cool.

 

Opening number...Ineffable Mysteries, at the end he moves the camera around and you can get a slight sense of the venue, including the ceiling. Pretty decent sound too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq11o_WJjbk"]Shpongle at Fox Theater, Oakland - YouTube
The human slinky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMQl14tFcJE"]Human Slnky @ Shpongle Live 2011 Oct.29 - YouTube
Closing number, Around the world in a tea daze
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5h73bJ6u-E"]Shongle Live in Oakland - Grand Finale - YouTube

 

Michele Adamson So Hot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoUHXSmVeI4"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoUHXSmVeI4


Nothing is something worth, some hang drum magic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUNc3KIURrY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUNc3KIURrY

My head feels like a frisbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL4h_AdYvWQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL4h_AdYvWQ

 

Right? How close up front did you get? Not that you needed to, she was hot from the loge

Hey, I forgot to thank you for your post and summary. Good stuff.

 

There was like 2 parts to the GA area, the lowest part was the 'pit' and then behind that was like a carpeted area. I was in the very back of the pit near the stairs on Raja Ram's side, about 20 yards or so from the stage. I could have got closer if I wanted but it was very crowded in front of me and I wanted dancing space, Plus the stairs gave me about the only spot to comfortably smoke DMT.

 

What a night .... this sounded ridiculously fun :0

 

I know you're not much of a crowd and concert guy, but if you ever have the chance I would say it's not to be missed.

 

One for GB

 

shpongle puts on a great show! last time i saw them i smelled a lot of dmt

you seem to really like 5/6-apb..

 

Wow sounds sphonglextraordinary!! The set and the costumes look absolutely amazing, and that Michele Adamson, Oow Ooww Aaawoooogggaaa!:drool5: Plus you got to meet up with more than one Hipforumer, the power of music bringing people together and whatnot.

Not to mention you got to smoke the deems, you basically got the shpongliest you could get! :2thumbsup:

 

You got ballz of titanium bro. That was a tight theater with a lot of ushers. I was up in the seats (Loge section) and smelled plenty of cannabis and palo santo burning but no DMT, not even during Divine Moments of Truth or I Am You You Are Me, which is when I typically smell DMT @ Shpongle events.

 

Thanks for uploading those awesome videos and pictures guys. That venue looks sick.

 

That's something about Oakland - it's full of far out buildings with brilliant, carefully wrought architecture.

 

Hey Spicey... we were in the second row loge, I haven't been around DMT before and I haven't heard of palo santo, I thought it was mass amounts of DMT. It seemed like we got a few wiffs of weed, and my friend had a little, but nearly non stop smell of mothballs/plastic. Am I mistaken?

Ya, I was quite taken by that neighborhood, there's obviously been much effort into preserving all that awesome victorian architecture. Even the hotel we crashed at was from the period. Narrow halls, small rooms, a wrought iron rickety elevator. Nice continuity of theme the whole weekend.