Affordable Today

New Year's

For the first time this year I can’t think of a single resolution that I should try to make. Not even one I’ll fail to keep.

I think that’s good.

Goodnight Denmark

I’ll stop doin’ ‘em when you stop laughin’

Liebe ist für alle da...

Today I made the right decision.

It’s one of my last days in Copenhagen, so I did what any self-loving study abroad student should do: I emptied the last of my bank account and went with Brian to find scalpers selling tickets to the sold out Rammstein show.

There’s a ticket sales racket in Copenhagen, where by a bunch of salesmen (and women!) team up to buy up all of the extra tickets from other scalpers and sell them at inflated prices. The big Polish guy and the little guy from Berlin explained the whole thing as they made passes at cute Danish girls and shouted for more tickets. They shook my hand, they patted my back, they assured me the tickets were real.

They were.

Inside we bought our $10 beers and moved to the front row. We met a Dane from a few hours away who was off to fight in Afghanistan next year. Until then, it’s all kicks and headbanging.

The opening band was Combichrist. I have to say, this music video hardly does them justice. Two thrashing drummers, a keyboard player, and one guy screaming as hard as he could. They were loud, they were good.

As the room filled up and Combichrist left the stage, I went to search for the bathroom. The rear of the room was crowded as more people piled in awaiting Rammstein. This was my only mistake. By the time I got out of the line, it was already too late. I was half a football field away from Brian and the soldier with a solid mass of people in between.

So I did what I had to — I moshed through the crowd. I was smashed, I did smashing. Glasses knocked off, shoved, pushed. I was fighting and they were fighting, but I jumped as hard as I could, metal fingers in the air, towards the front of the arena. By 5 songs in, I could see the back of their heads. I made one final push, jumping forward and touching the Dane. He looked back, and when he saw me immediately grabbed my hand. The Dane behind me who had been wrapping his arm around me as I tried to mosh away was throwing up discretely. The biker gang in front of me, after a little discussion, parted and let me join my friends at the front.

I headbanged the rest of the concert, stomped my foot, and screamed in German. There were flamethrowers on everything. Industrial architecture. Insane lighting. Rafters, moving platforms, huge fans, confetti shooting machines, gigantic explosions with fireworks, a suds launcher, a set of fold out flamethrower angel’s wings, and my very favorite: the sonic boom. It starts with a high pitched whine, and suddenly falls into a roar as a jet of air is blasted into the audience and your stomach vibrates to the thunderous bass.

Thank you Rammstein.
Thank you Copenhagen.
Goodnight.