Talking about Concerts

The other day, I met Bassam and Tobs in the city. We all had more or less urgent things to do that day, but there's always room for a quick pizza with extra cheese and a cup of coffee. Especially when it's right around the corner. One of the many things we talked about was concerts. Bassam told us about one time when the crowd went crazy and started to stick their elbows into other peoples faces. It didn't sound like much fun to me. I guess, I don't necessarily need to fight for my right to party anymore. I thought about the most memorable concerts I've been to and lo and behold, non of them included any kind of beef. Instead, the concerts I liked best were pretty mellow.  

My very first real concert was acutally kind of gay. It was Sting. I mean, I'm sure he's a great musician, but frankly, I wouldn't do it again. It was about ten years ago and I hadn't developed any musical preferences. It was supposed to be a huge thing, though, so I figured it might be cool. I went with a guy called Demian. He used to be my best friend, but then he hooked up with the girl I was really into at that time. So fuck them, and screw Sting, too.

After that there were a couple of German Hip Hop concerts, which were pretty cool. Actually there's a bunch of very cool stuff that I still listen to from time to time. Blumentopf definitely had the best words, EinsZwo rocket the beats, and then Clueso made a great album with 'So sehr dabei'. Freundeskreis was pretty dope, too, but I never got the chance to see them live. 

Then came 2006. I had just arrived in Korea. A close 누나 of mine told me about this Japanese dj who was playing in 홍대. I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet and greet all the 형s, so I went along. Little did I know that it was Nujabes who was performing that night. It was the first time I heard his tunes, and they really blew my mind. I got back home and couldn't stop thinking about the music. So I ordered two of his albums from Japan right away. You have to support good stuff.

In November that same year, The Legendary Roots Crew came to Germany to promote their new album Game Theory. My brother told me about the gig and that he was going to go see it with some friends. He asked me and I joined them. The first song by the Roots I ever came across was 'What they do', and it's still one of my favourite songs. They didn't perform it that night, but they had a great playlist and it was a really cool concert.

In december of 2008, I was in Korea again, a good friend of mine told me about Nujabes coming to Seoul again. He couldn't make it, so I called the 누나 from the first concert. She and her boyfriend joined me for the second Nujabes concert I had the privilege to attend.

A few months later I saw a poster hanging at a bus stop and I couldn't believe my eyes. The Roots were coming to town. There was no question I was going. I asked around, but nobody had the time, the cash or the interest to go. Nobody but Kwang형 and his girlfriend Mai Song. So we planned everything, but shortly before the concert night, Kwang형 told me he coudn't make it. I was kind of upset, because I didn't want to go by myself. But then he said, that his girlfriend still wanted to go. I won't lie to you, it was a little awkward, at the beginning, but it turned out to be a fantastic concert.

That was exactly two years ago. There's a lot of people I'd still like to see live and I hope that this year another great concert is waiting for me to attend.