534 words
It's been extremely hot the past week. Yesterday I regretted to not have gone to my (basement) office because my room became unbearably hot at daytime. Later, we went to a little open air thingie.
Good thing about it: There was a free bus shuttle. The location was in a forest and quite a bit uphill – hard to go there by bike when it's cool, probably impossible in the extreme heat we have these days. Being in the forest also meant it was relatively cool there. Bad thing about it: They actually checked peoples rucksacks for any drinks they brought with them. Given the overpriced drinks within and the heat that seemed a bit inadequate to me. Funny thing about it: It was an smoke-free open-air event. Not for the usual witch-hunt reason but rather because due to the extreme heat forest tend to burn easily. Things could only go ahead if the organisers made sure there were no fires – which included cigarettes.
The bands were Gernan, the motto being Neuer Deutscher Wahnsinn and, well, D-list at most (if, we say that stadium-fillers like Robbie Williams or the Rolling Stones are A-list, teen acts are B-list, people like The White Stripes are C-list, &c). Nobody who's more popular than that will bother to come here. We misssed most of some local band's playing, then there were Sofaplanet, who had some video on telly last year and have never been heard of again – although the drunk old man who started talking to me kept insisting they were very professional. At least they were quite brave.
Afterwards Der Junge mit der Gitarre played. We listened to some of his songs when doing some late-night hanging around once. Acoustic guitar and singing. Half of the songs are fine. The other half is probably supposed to be funny, pseudo-ironic or whatever and I don't like them too much. After that Die Schröders were on. A somewhat local and slightly older band that surely is quite professional. They have a couple on fun songs, covering the topics of suicide (once again) and torturing frogs.
Finally there were Extrabreit playing – fossils of German 1980s pop-punk (or whatever). Quite popular possibly, but not my cup of tea. They are old guys whose music sounds like the 1980s. I still think it's good the 1980s are over. (In addition let me add here that while young people wearing 'combat' pants with zillions of exterior pockets and maybe even camouflage colouring look stupid – old people wearing them look downright embarassing. Should I start wearing those when I'm over forty, please shoot me.)
The audience was quite mixed as well. Ranging from families with little children to drunk teenagers to students to wasted guys in their mid-forties (the only ones trying to break the no-smoking rule, btw). One particularly overweight specimen of them wore a Tito and Tarantula shirt over his beer belly.
As the place was a bit dusty, we were all covered in dust/sand at the end of the shows. Our respiratory systems as well.
Today I'm off the visit my family. Saying good-bye to my brother who's leaving to study in San Diego for a year.