Writer's Block: Legends of Rock
Dec. 6th, 2008 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badseed1980[Error: unknown template qotd]
The Einsturzende Neubauten 20th anniversary concert at the Columbiahalle, Berlin, on April 1, 2000. I was, at the time, studying abroad in Ireland. When I heard my favorite band was having their 20th anniversary gig in Berlin, I thought, "You know, there is NO OTHER TIME when I will be on the right side of the Atlantic for a gig like this. I need to go." I did. I didn't speak German, but managed to get from the airport to a hostel where I was staying with another woman on the fan mailing list. We went to the gig and met up there with a whole bunch of people on that list, people from Germany, the US, Austria, the UK, Australia...it was awesome. There was no opening act. The band played for over three hours, three hours full of breathtaking found-object instrumentation and a mix of whimsy, passion, and sheer beauty that had us all spellbound. The only break consisted of the time it took to set the stage up for some classical string musicians. When they were set up, the lead singer came back out, sat on the edge of the stage (his bare feet were only a few feet in front of me, incongruous with his three-piece suit). He sang a slow, hypnotic, improvised solo. Then the strings were joined by the band, and they went back to the rest of their set. At one point, the lead singer announced that the last U-Bahn train had left for the night, and everyone cheered, knowing we'd spent almost all night with the best band ever. In the end, we took a night bus to the home of one of the fanlist folks, a guy who lived with his Israeli diplomat parents in Westend. We ate Doritos and drank coffee and hung out for a couple hours, until the sun came up and the U-Bahn started running again, and we could get back to our hostels and hotels.
Still one of the best nights of my life.
The Einsturzende Neubauten 20th anniversary concert at the Columbiahalle, Berlin, on April 1, 2000. I was, at the time, studying abroad in Ireland. When I heard my favorite band was having their 20th anniversary gig in Berlin, I thought, "You know, there is NO OTHER TIME when I will be on the right side of the Atlantic for a gig like this. I need to go." I did. I didn't speak German, but managed to get from the airport to a hostel where I was staying with another woman on the fan mailing list. We went to the gig and met up there with a whole bunch of people on that list, people from Germany, the US, Austria, the UK, Australia...it was awesome. There was no opening act. The band played for over three hours, three hours full of breathtaking found-object instrumentation and a mix of whimsy, passion, and sheer beauty that had us all spellbound. The only break consisted of the time it took to set the stage up for some classical string musicians. When they were set up, the lead singer came back out, sat on the edge of the stage (his bare feet were only a few feet in front of me, incongruous with his three-piece suit). He sang a slow, hypnotic, improvised solo. Then the strings were joined by the band, and they went back to the rest of their set. At one point, the lead singer announced that the last U-Bahn train had left for the night, and everyone cheered, knowing we'd spent almost all night with the best band ever. In the end, we took a night bus to the home of one of the fanlist folks, a guy who lived with his Israeli diplomat parents in Westend. We ate Doritos and drank coffee and hung out for a couple hours, until the sun came up and the U-Bahn started running again, and we could get back to our hostels and hotels.
Still one of the best nights of my life.
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Date: 2008-12-07 09:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-07 04:19 pm (UTC)