2:16am – My alarm goes
off, wake up a bit. Go downstairs, eat, pack, remind Liam (brother) to
wake up. Then we leave, just before we pulled up to pick Phil and Rob
up, Liam said something 'What the fuck are we doing? It's 3 o'clock in
the morning'
I concurred but there was no turning back. So got Phil and Rob, and I drove us all to Stansted Airport listening to The Gaslight Anthem all the way there.
Parked
up, got the train to Stansted and checked in. Cleverly, I'd left my car
keys in my back pocket walking through the Security metal detector
thing, I got lovingly felt up by a good old chap, and then got my Red
Bull and Lynx confiscated because apparently terrorists love 'em.
Anywho,
so we were all through security and we found some really cool chairs
and sat there reading/talking till the gate number for our flight came
up, when It was up we had to get another train all the way to gate
1094191 or something, I may be exaggerating.
Ryanair.com
somehow gave us priority boarding and we got seats right at the front,
muchos leg room
After managing to make the stewardess crack up when
she was informing everyone how to stay alive in the event that Red Bull
and Lynx are mixed together.
The
flight went very quickly most of us slept, but it wasn't for more than
10 minutes or so. We got off the plane and we were in Berlin. Hoorah! After some great wikipedia research I blagged my way through getting a family day pass on the S-Bahn (Berlin's
Tube). Whilst sitting on the S-Bahn we popped out these Lucozade Carbo
Gel things that are supposed to give you energy, they were horrible and
I left mine on the side, then Rob decided to just use me as a bed, and
when he got off me I was covered in feckin' sticky carbo gel. Great
start!
Anyway
so we had absolutely no idea where to go. So we saw Alexander Platz was
written in bold, so y'know we though that was the place to be. It
wasn't. It was dead, hardly anyone around so we thought, lets get some
food. Where you ask? Where else, McDonalds. We ate then left again and
went to a few more stops before we got to some decent place in Berlin
where we saw the Reichstag and some bits of the Berlin Wall that were
cool. Nicely whoring their history about my having some guy in a guards
uniform stamp your passport for 2euro with a East Berlin stamp.
We then found a rare spot of grass in the sun and we just sat and slept
there for the next hour or so. By this time it was about 4 o'clock time
so we decided to sit down and have an early dinner. After dinner we
text some companions (Carl, Nadine) and managed to get hold of some
street names and the likes so we took the S-Bahn to Rosa-Luxemborg Plaza
and tried to find the club from there. It didn't work, 1hour 30minutes
later, we were back at the same point we started. So we went and has
another look at the map to realise it was upside down, and we'd been
going in the complete opposite direction. So we turned around and
walked another 45minutes and finally made it to the venue. We sat on
the steps outside drinking our Budweisers in .5l bottles (hardcore) and
then about 4minutes into our rest, who comes and ruins it Brian Fallon
and his wife. I introduced us and he said that he'd heard about us and
we talked for maybe 5 minutes before he left to go get some Chinese
food. We decided to move to a bench rather than clog up the stairs and
Brian and Hollie walked by and stopped and chatted to us for longer,
then Hollie left and we must have spoke with Brian for nearly an hour
now, talking about tonnes of things such as $200 Gaslight Anthem vinyl,
Joe Strummer and The Clash, lots of talk about England too. He then
went inside to get some coffee and said he'd see us in there. We went
down the road to find somewhere to watch the football and then Phil and
Rob got themselves a Chinese and then we walked up to the venue. I
showed our ticket to the guy on the door and he said ID Card in a scary
German accent, I showed him my passport and Liam's passport and Phil's
passport. Then he said you have to be 18. Phil was not.
So we got up at 2:16 in the morning to fly all the way over to Berlin
to see a band, on no website and on no flyers did it every say anything
about being 18+. We pleaded and pleaded then said OK, but you must
leave by midnight. Gaslight Anthem take the stage at 00:30. We pleaded
some more and in the end they confiscated Phil's driving license and
said as soon as TGA finish playing he must pick it up and then leave.
So we were in by the skin of our teeth and thankfully because of all
the fuss we made about Phil, Rob wasn't ID'd and he is 16. We got in
walked around, saw Brian and Hollie again and explained what went down
and he said he was under the impression it was an all ages show, but
alls well that ends well!
We
got some beers, not Phil and Rob though! And watched the support band
Miyagi. Miyagi, who listed in The Guardian: The Guide. Played in Edinburgh
the other day for £26 a ticket! So we watched them and they were
average. They weren't bad, but they were all a bit samey and every song
has the same breakdown and they must have played for almost an hour!
So the dancefloor emptied and we walked to the front and we waited, not long, for TGA to take the stage.
Over
£100, no proper sleep in over 48 hours, hours of walking in circles,
all for this next 60 minutes. They kicked off with 'Drive' and I
immediately noticed two things.
.. -->[if !supportLists]-->1) .. -->[endif]-->This is going to be epic
.. -->[if !supportLists]-->2) .. -->[endif]-->I'm surrounded by people from England, there were at least 10-12 of us and it felt like home!
A
couple of songs into the set, I see a guy I recognised from AM! Forum
and quickly introduced myself to Scott between songs, he was American
but I made him an honourary Englishmen for the show. They played
amazingly, nearly every song they have including a promising new one
called Backseat, 'For Scott!' said Brian before playing it.. Finished
the main set on We're Getting a Divorce, You Keep The Dinner' and then
Brian came out on his own and played Red at Night which was a great
performance. The band then joined him for the final song which was Say
I Won't (Recognise) and it was perfect end.
Scott
then invited me backstage so I said Yes, and told Liam I'd 'be right
back'. Which wasn't really true. Albeit I was only gone for 15 minutes,
it didn't help my phone had died and then Phil was worrying about his
drivers license. But anyway Scott got me in backstage, where no-one
was, and then we headed to the after party bit and he bought me a
Beck's and then TGA started loading the van and Scott introduced me to
each of them and they were all really appreciative of the effort we
made to get there and we all really interested in playing in England. I
announced that I had to leave and then Scott organised the guys to get
a photo with me in the van which I haven't seen yet, but I'm sure it's
awesome. I thanked each of the guys for the show and Scott for the beer
and then left to go meet the others. We got our stuff from the
cloakroom and headed to try and find a taxi. Got one, 35euro to the
Airport, pretty sure he rinsed us silly but we were too tired to care.
We found some corridor and 4 of us just slept on the floor in our
sweaty clothes.
The
show was incredible, the guys were incredible, I wasn't sure what to
expect when I rushingly booked the flights but I was amazed at what we
got. Was it worth it? Every day of the week.
Setlist (roughly)
Drive
Wooderson
Boomboxes
We Came To Dance
I'da Called You Woody, Joe
Angry Johnny and the Radio
Senor and Queen
Where For Art Thou, Elvis
1930
Navesink Banks
I Coulda Been A Contender
Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts
Backseat
We're Getting A Divorce You Keep The Dinner
Red at Night
Say I Won't (Recognise)
Subject: My Gaslight Tale... 
Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:14 am
