I love Southern Europe! There are a lot of great places to spend some time. I hope, I'd have a chance to come back and discover more. However, I'd like to come back in my thoughts to my beloved Germany and suggest you another mind travel to a small German town. It was the first time as I went to a different city for a concert.
So it was 2011. It was a month later after Blind Passenger played in Moscow. And since we had a great time together and made a promise to party again sometime, I checked out if they were playing anywhere near Berlin. The frontman of the band Nik these days doesn’t believe in the German capital as the good place for playing concerts. So he was driving all around Berlin. Btw. he has two bands. Both normally play in small towns ONLY. This time it was Magdeburg - the capital city of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the Elbe River, the native town of Till Eulenspiegel and Martin Luther.
I arrived in the morning. The town met me with a sunny glowing day. Even if it was autumn, I haven't seen such a beautiful autumn days before. So before going to the party, which started just in the evening I decided to walk in the town. Without a map or any plan. Of course at first I ended up at the main square. Magdeburg was quite an important city in the Medieval times and during the Thirty years' war. However today it is famous rather for its Lutheran cathedral, Unser Lieben Frauen Monastery (Our Lady) from the 11th century and The Magdeburger Reiter.
On my way I also run into a monument in a memory of the "Hauptmann of the Sowiet Army Igor Alexejevitsch Belikow, who caught a falling from the fifth floor 4-years old Kathrin Lehmann in his coat", this happened on March 13, 1969, at W.-Pieck Alle, 24.
At the main square and around there are a lot of places of interest, a lot of monuments and just interesting stuff to see. I also walked through the city down to the river and enjoyed fairy-tale town scenery and great views at Elbe.
It was the first time as I noticed those bronze (?) stones with names of Jews - victims of the Nazi-regime in Germany. Those stones you can find massively in many German cities.
So the time passed and I moved to the party. Surprisingly the venue was kind of outside the city and it took a lot of time to reach the place by foot. The venue was an old building of a Feuerwache, which was another detail to the atmosphere of that event. Actually I love this kind of venues the most: the old fabrics, factories and plants which now became musical asylums. I came a bit too early, but the staff was kind enough to let me in. The dark rooms of the Feuerwache made an impression of the ordinary but very small club.
There were only about 20 people at the show. And this is a predictable number for a small town concert. So it was kind of little private party. However the musicians played as if the club was full of people. This is the true love for your music, your public, no matter how big it is, and a sign of professionalism. For the public on the other hand it must be was a reat event which happens not that often in a small towns like this. On the tables there were flyers for a similar upcoming party in a different city.
The Blind Passenger at that moment was Nik Page, the Rocketqeen, the Australian Jamie and Clemens. Here in Germany they seemed much smaller and homie as they were back in Moscow - where they made a great party with ten times more people. In Moscow people were waiting for them as the comming of the legends, and all the hits from the Blind Passengers were met by public with great enthusiasm. In German towns Nik used to say: "Thank you for comming and let's not forget, this is not a standing-concert, buuut...? a dance-concert! Let's dance!" And finally I had the feeling that I am at a party and not at a wax-museum, since the people started to move. However all in all it was rather a reason for the old friends to meet and drink some beer...and to party. On the other hand there were also two die-hard fans, father and the son - both in merch-t-shirts, both waiting for Nik to come out to ask him for an autograph. They also poped-up later on the facebook with pics together with their favorite band.
After the show the band was so kind to take me with them, as they came with a car. They quickly packed all inventory. Much quicker than it took to give all the autographs and make pics with all the twenty fans. I don't really remember what we were talking about sitting at the backseat of that car. But something which I thought was very interesting and important. Another sweetest memory of that day was a licorice-candy he gave me. And ever since I associate our friendship with taste of licorice.
