Nothing fits like wet denim!!!

I want to talk about the concert, but I warn you, this'll be long.

It was awesome! I met Geli and her friends at a Christmas market (one of many here in Munich) to have some Glühwein before we headed off to the concert. Their names were Ron and Heidi. We got to the concert and got in a line up for the coat check. Is that weird? That there was a coat check, I mean. Anyways, we made it to the front of the line in a relatively short time and then we grabbed a beer. I had gotten an SMS from Nicole and Olivier, while we were on the way to the show, telling me where they were standing in relation to the stage: right up front, to the right, and I wanted to go find them. So Geli and I finished up our beers, arranged to meet Ron and Heidi in that spot after the concert and headed into the crowd. We got pretty near the stage and then hit a dead end. There were these people sitting on the ground waiting for the show to start and we couldn't really get around them, so we just stood and waited for the openers (The Rakes). During the second song of The Rakes' set I saw Nicole and Olivier just a little bit ahead of us, so we pushed our way through the crowd to them, where I just danced and danced for the rest of the set.

I would like to take this opportunity to fully agree with Hannah: I hate how indie kids don't dance!! You're at a freaking show!! There's a freaking band on the freaking stage playing their freaking hearts out and you politely applaud at the end of each song??!! Are you kidding?! The music is in me!! I couldn't NOT dance if I wanted to!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!

*Ahem* Sorry, I'll continue now. After The Rakes' set I decided that I had better use the facilities, so I headed off through the crowd. When I was done I figured I'd go look at the merch table to see what they had. I had made the comment to Geli earlier that I hadn't seen the merch table and she said that it was at the back. I went to the back. It wasn't there. But there was beer there, and I have been explaining in recent posts how much I like the beer here, so I bought myself one. I turned 90 degrees to the right and headed off in search of the merch table; I followed the wall all the way to the left hand side of the stage (like, I went all along the back wall and then down the side of the hall). Oh, I should mention here that this place is kind of like the Agricom, it's a completely wide open room with no chairs at all. The bands that play at the Shaw Conference Centre are the bands that would play at the Zenith, but it reminds me more of the Agricom than the Shaw.

Anyways, without having found the merchandise table, but content because I had a nice cold beer, and pretty certain that Franz Ferdinand would be coming on any time now, I decided to try and get back to my spot, which I knew would be difficult because we were so close. I was on the very left hand side of the crowd and about halfway through the really dense part of it. I considered going all the way around to the right and then cutting through (because they were closer to the right) but I figured that might be slow going because no one really wants to let you in front of them. I eventually decided that the best way was to, essentially, cut sideways through the crowd and just kind of get a little closer up every time. I found myself getting way too far to the right without getting any closer up. So I tried to head back towards the left with the same tactic. I got a little closer to the stage, but not nearly enough and had now hit an odd situation where I wanted to go straight forward, but no one was really into moving. And I still had three quarters of a beer. I eventually just stood there and drank my beer, deciding that I would wait until the band started and then push my way up. As I got down to one quarter of the beer I decided that was a rotton idea and that I really wanted to be with my friends when the show started! So I pushed my way straight right (like I wanted to get out - people are always willing to let you out) and then cut the diagonal line that I was hoping for. Olivier fortunately saw me as I was about 10' away; I say "fortunately" because people are more willing to let you through when someone is waving at you, they look like a dick if they don't.

Okay, so I got there just in time because the show started very shortly after. As they were coming out Olivier says to me, "Okay, guess the first song - it's tradition!" I thought about it for a quick second and then was like, "Well, uuuhhh, it'll be something from the new album, and something kind of fast.... This Boy!! Yeah, This Boy!!" (it's getting really loud now, and I have no idea if Olivier can even hear me) (but then I waffled), "No, maybe not! Maybe it would be something from the first album! Yeah, something from the first album!!" I'm retarded. No band would open up a tour for their second album with a song from their first! Whatever, the point is that they started up with This Boy and I was really happy that I called it, but I waffled, too. Oh well, I still say that, for the record, I totally called it. The rest is pretty much history; after a song or two Olivier asked if I wanted to head into the crazy part of the pit and I almost proposed marriage. We spent almost the rest of the concert there, which is really unusal for me - even as much as I love the pit! It's nice to have someone there to keep you safe and not being crushed and there were times where I was like, "I gotta get out of here!" But then I'd look over and see that Olivier was still into it, so I'd just clear myself some room, take a deep breath and then keep jumping and dancing. It was awesome!!

We ended up staying in the pit until about the second last song were we took a break, but then headed back into the ruckus for the encore. After the band left the stage we found Nicole and Geli again. Nicole was pretty much where we left her, and it turns out that she stayed there pretty much the whole time. Olivier and I were absolutely soaked with sweat (most of which, I have to admit, probably wasn't ours) and we headed off to the back of the hall. Wow, nothing fits better than wet denim, eh?! Believe me when I say that every single stitch of fabric that I was wearing was soaking. So Geli and I head off to find Ron and Heidi and ended up losing Nicole and Olivier in the process. I wanted to head to the coat check for several reasons:
1. I was very, very wet and they had opened all the doors in the place, so I was getting cold.
2. I kept the coat check ticket in my back pocket. My jeans got very wet and I got pushed around a lot. Also, every now and again I'd stick my finger in my back pocket to make sure I hadn't lost the thing. So this little piece of paper had turned itself into about 100 even littler pieces of paper. I pull a handful of this wet confetti out and find the number 11. Then the number 68. Then I find the top half of a 7. Then (*phew*)the bottom half. I finally decide that the original number was 11768 and, fortunately, Geli had number 11767, so I knew I was right. At any rate, I couldn't very well put this "paper" (trust me, the quotes are necessary) back in my pocket, so I made a fist and never opened my hand again.

The problem was that the line for the coat check was huge!! We waited in line for almost an hour!! As we were waiting, I finally saw the merch table! Turns out that, after I got distracted by the beer, if I had turned 90 degrees left instead of 90 degrees right, I would have been looking straight at it! I considered leaving the line long enough to get a shirt, but we were kind of in the middle of a crowd and it might be hard to get back, besides, I had my fist clenched tightly around what was left of my coat check number and thought it would be a difficult transaction with only one hand. Anyways, when we got to the front, the guy made fun of me for "murdering" the ticket, but found the coat anyway because it was only one number after Geli's. As we walked away I was like, "I want to stop by the merch table." Guess what. Yup, it was closed. I looked at the guy and I'm like, "What do you mean, 'It's closed'?" "It's closed, they're packing up, but you can still buy posters over there." So I did. It's better than nothing, but I'm pretty choked. Whatever. Anyways.

That was pretty much it. Nicole and Olivier had left long ago, so we headed off to the train and came home. It was a pretty long walk considering that even my undies were wet, but I made it! I have to write about today, now, but that took so long that I have to go to bed. So you'll get today tomorrow.