It seems to me that the most effective (and obvious) way to get to the front of the crowd is to crowd surf. For one, you don't have to wait with passive agression for some poor sod to get dropped on his ass. You get to take charge. A lot of crowds I've seen pass crowd surfers straight to the front. As long as you manage to get off the top of the crowd before the crowd control pulls you off and send you to the back, you should make excellent time to the front. Of crouse, you do risk being one of the poor sods that gets dropped on his ass.