Subterranea Festival
The Caverns - Pelham, TN
Papadosio has been my favorite band since a friend introduced me at a garage party in 2014. One cold winter night, everyone was sitting around chilling for a smoke break after a raging tournament of beer pong, and my friend said, “hey give me the aux and hit the lights, I wanna show y’all something.” So he put on ‘Find Your Cloud’, a song from their TETIOS album that came out two years prior, whipped out some light-up balls attached to rope called “poi”, and started flowing with them in beautiful patterns that perfectly synchronized with the heavenly jams that were filling my ears and soul. I had never experienced anything like this and it absolutely irreversibly changed my very being; I was awakened to a whole new world of music experience. Once the song ended I had to hear the rest of the album, so for the next round of pong, Dosio was our vibe. I lost pretty early on because I was so distracted by dancing to the music, but I didn’t care, this new love of my life was singing sweet sounds through air so my heart was compelled to listen and my body possessed to move.
My friend told me that they had a show coming up in April if I wanted to go, but of course he already knew the answer just by looking at the glow in my aura. Finally the day arrived - Saturday, April 18th, 2015 at Tipitinas in New Orleans was the day of my first show. It was a two-day run for Bicycle Day and I could only make it to the first night, but in no way did that dampen my excitement. When we got to this unassuming yellow building on the corner of a street with a name that would be a right of passage to correctly pronounce, the place was flooded with a sea of dreads and tie-dye, more of those poi balls, and the sweet smell of the devil’s lettuce in the air…my people. Since it was a psychonaut holiday, everyone was about to be (or already was) in another dimension, and that included us thanks to a kind dread-head in a trippy Pikachu shirt. I had previous experience with psychedelics though mushrooms, but had never before done LSD until this night. We talked with the guy for a while and right before doors opened, we all cheers’d our tiny papers and I strapped in for my first acid trip. As the opener started, so too did my ride. I don’t remember much about them since I was processing the come-up that felt like I had a shit brewing for 45 minutes while simultaneously feeling an insatiable need to tap dance. Nevertheless and thankfully, I leveled out right before the boys went on.
Since I was still new to their music, I hadn’t yet built my melodic memory of recognizing a lot of the songs, especially since they had played a couple of Radiohead covers that really threw me for a loop because I wasn’t familiar with them at all at that time. But one thing was for sure, I immediately knew when they played my song, the one that started it all. Bliss befell me. Because I had joined my fellow trippers in another dimension, I don’t really remember much of the night, but also somehow still remembered everything from that night. I had several existential experiences during their set, some were internal realizations, and others were external hallucinations, but all permanently altered every molecule of my existence. Over the years, there’s been a lot of speculation of the meaning of the band’s name, one of them being that it’s a code about psychedelics, specifically LSD, of which one of the street names for is a “dose”. So, Papadosio. Pop-a-Dose-yo. The band hasn’t really confirmed or denied this theory, but it was certainly true for me, because that night, my first dose was with Dosio.
This was my first experience which would lead me down an 11 year road of self-exploration, psychedelic adventures, falling in love with live music, developing a passion for dance, finding the love of my life, and making friends with other like-minded, kin-spirited souls who found each other through the manifestation of love that is music. I am eternally grateful for the person who changed my life, and especially for these five amazing people who opened their minds, followed their hearts, and created a musical movement fueled by connectivity, creativity, and consciousness. Now, attending the third year of a music festival held inside a cave hosted by my favorite band, will be my 14th and final Papadosio show for the foreseeable future of their hiatus.
