My Afterglow Moment: Rain Check

Written by Elizabeth Braaten

My Afterglow Moment is a series where staff writers and editors share their favorite music-related memories.

Admittedly, I’ve had an extremely difficult time choosing my favorite music-related memory. Since the time that I was very young, music has meant more to me than most everything in my life. Owing to this, many of my most cherished moments––the ones that I hold on to in order to remember how beautiful life can be when times get tough––are associated with concerts, first listens to my favorite albums, or, most frequently, speeding down the highway in the dead of night, my stereo on full blast, with the people I care about most. However, the more I look back on these memories, one undoubtedly stands out from all others.

Free Press Summer Fest was an annual two-day music festival in Houston that used to take place during the first week of June from the years 2009 to 2017. My memory of it, however, takes place during the scorching Texas summer of 2016. I had graduated from high school the day before, and I remember everyone at the festival feeling bummed about the show being held in a parking lot, since Eleanor Tinsley Park, the normal festival grounds, were soaked and muddy from the heavy rains characteristic of a Houston May. 

I recall feeling sick, forcing my poor friends to skip part of the Mac Miller show in order to take care of me. However, as they dragged me back to the front of the crowd for the rest of Mac’s set, the intro to “BDE Bonus,” my favorite song of his, began playing. The air seemed to get just a bit colder for a second. I could feel the excitement of the people I adored most in the world around me, and, just when I thought the moment couldn’t get more perfect, the beat finally kicked in, and rain fell from the sky. A collective sigh rose from the crowd, and it was an absolute dream to have the privilege of seeing friends and strangers alike happy like that. 

I remember telling myself to take a mental snapshot of that moment, since I didn’t think I would get to experience those emotions many times in my life. And I was right. To this day, that was one of the most triumphant feelings that I have ever had–raw, beautiful, and, ultimately, human.