The Addicts on the Dock.

October 5th 2026. Long Beach “Festival Name Redacted”.

This was my first time having a media pass. I was at a festival that I would later discover had some skeletons in the closet lets just say, But fuck em I didn’t pay for a ticket, nor was I invited. I was in the media pit waiting for The Addicts to go on. I was chatting it up with some of the other photographers, and checking out their gear. I had my 1080p camcorder while they had 4k crazy setups, with monitors. I felt out of place. Like they knew I wasn’t supposed to really be there. I maintained my composure of pretending like I knew what I was doing, that I had the real credentials, that I wasn’t 5 beers in. Behind us was the barricade, where over 1000 of people were gathered waiting in anticipation for the addicts to go on. It was weird from this perspective, being behind the barricades, and not in the crowd, but right as I had this thought… the lights went out, and I heard the intro to “A Clockwork Orange”. The band slowly walked on stage to build the tension, but monkey was still offstage, the crowd roared in a scream. When monkey got on stage, the crowd got even louder. He walked on with his back towards the crowd lifting his arms to extend his cape, a large smile appeared on the back. They started with “Lets Go”, after their walk on intro. When the music began, and monkey grabbed the mic, the crowd got eve louder. People were going crazy, and so was the band. Being my first time in the media pit, I was so stoked that I forgot to start recording, first mistake. I grabbed my camera, and rushed to turn It on. I had to record to get my footage, but also to appear “professional” to security guard 6 feet to my left who had been staring at me since I showed him my wristband. After “Let’s Go”, monkey handed off his cape, revealing his suit, and they began with “Joker in the Pack”. Monkey began to throw out large The Addicts playing cards. I made sure to catch one. There was a bit of feedback during this song, you could see monkey was visibly concerned, but it subsided. The people in front of the barricades were all singing the song in unison. Further back you could see a pit start to form. I started to film the crowd, but as I watched them I couldn’t help but want to join the pit. I was considering leaving the media pit looking at my exit, seeing the security guard who is still staring at me. It would be too risky to come back, he was already looking at my wristband a little too long don’t want to give him a reason to look at it again. I started to feel like this security guard was hired just to watch for me, like they knew I wasn’t was coming. I continued to film the crowd, watching people crowd surf all the way from the back to the front. Some of these security guards almost throw these people down it’s crazy. As I turned back to record the band, Monkey was dancing with a stuffed monkey. I couldn’t figure out what song it was, as I was still thinking about seeing a security guard grab and throw some poor crust punk on the ground so hard it knocked the dust off her. I was taking it all in lie all those edibles I took earlier in the day. So much was going on, it was hard to decide where to turn my attention. After a few more songs, giant streamers flew through the sky. Everyone screamed as they descended upon them. The band began to play “Chinese Takeaway”, and monkey had pulled out a Chinese takeaway box that had more streamers inside which he would throw everywhere. He took off his jacket, as I imagine it was hot dancing in the full suit. By the end of their set, monkey was completely shirtless. Later they played “you’ll never walk alone” their last song. Once the full song came in, beach balls of all different sizes were thrown into the crowd out of nowhere. You could see some people get hit knocked in the head with the ones that were about the size of a Zorb Ball. The security guards who not long ago were playing Mortal Kombat with the crowd surfers were now punching all the beach balls into the crowd in a row. It was kind of funny to see honestly. Some big security guard launch a 6 foot beach ball with a punch. More than once a security guard “Hadoukened” one right into some peoples faces, knocking them back. The song reached its end, and the band was saying their goodbyes, I tried to give them a World Gone Mad pin to which they looked at then looked away. The other photographers in the media pit started to look at me strangely, one of them saying “Bold move”. I brushed it off until I look over to see that same security guard, now whispering to another security guard and pointing at me. “Fuck”, I said to myself. Knowing my time was limited I grabbed my camera to record the bands final moments of the night, it looked like monkey was about to say something. I hit record right before he grabbed the mic. I look over to see another security guard joins on their conversation, still pointing at me. Monkey takes a big breath and screams “YES’, and the band walks off the stage. That was my cue to leave and fast. I booked it to another exit that I didn’t see earlier until some of the photographers exited that way. The security guards on that side didn’t look at my wristband so I knew I was safe. Having made it out the festival now was another problem. My car was 2 miles away through a dark dirt trail. I found a petty cab and paid him way too much to only go half the way. he dropped me off at the end of the first mile and I spent the next hour trying to find my way to my car wondering what the noises in the bushes were. Eventually I found my “Silver Bullet” and drove home. The theatrics of the addicts creates an atmosphere like no other. A set from The Addicts becomes a performance that pulls you in to their world. It’s so captivating, during their set everyone becomes a droog(the nickname they’ve given their fans). If they’re ever near you, make the trip, and become part of the droog army.