If there’s one thing that we seem to be good at, it’s being in the right place at the right time. It’s happened to us on several occasions these last two years, but no occasion was as rewarding as when we arrived in Amsterdam this November and realised that the Killers were performing a pre-EMA awards gig in the city on our second night.
Let me preface this by saying that Scott is one of The Killers’ biggest fans. I have most of their albums and really like the band, but I had never seen them in concert like he had. Let me also say that this was the third time we had been in a city where The Killers had been playing and had twice before missed the opportunity. One of the previous times had been when we were in Bologna and they had been playing a concert in a castle in Verona – we would have killed (no pun intended) to go to that, but time and budget constraints meant that it wasn’t meant to be.
So of course, this seemed like divine intervention. Like the universe was telling us that we really needed to go and see The Killers concert.
Scott called the box office to see if there were any tickets left for sale and was told that it was actually a free concert and that tickets had only been given out to fan club members and those who had won a competition.
So he decided that we should go down there to stand outside (in the rain) and beg everyone going in to the building to give us two tickets. A flawless plan, right?
I thought it was a crazy idea, especially as not an hour before the concert, the electricity had gone out in our apartment and we thought we’d lose our fridge full of food, as well as not being able to take a hot shower or eat dinner. But we somehow managed to pull it back (thank heavens for circuit breakers) and we made it down to the intimate, renovated church venue.
Scott approached everyone (and I mean everyone) and asked if they had any spare tickets. Nothing. There was another lady doing exactly the same thing who said she’d left her baby at home to try and come to this concert, which seemed a bit crazy to me. Let’s hope the baby knew how to feed itself. (joking)
After fifteen minutes stood in the rain, I noticed that Scott had struck up a conversation with some guys who I assumed were in a stag party, because they were all dressed as women. I could see him pointing over at me and talking. I refrained from going over because, by this point, I was getting a bit embarrassed by everyone giving us pitying looks. And the pitying looks would surely increase if I was stood with a group of sodden transvestites.
He called me over. “This guy says he can give us one free ticket, but he only has one”. What?
Apparently, these guys weren’t on a stag do at all, but were doing a charity hitchhike dressed as women to raise awareness for a children’s charity. And they were willing to give us a ticket. I warmed to them immediately.
Turns out that, by pure coincidence, much like us, they had arrived in Amsterdam and learned about the concert and were hoping to get a photo with the band in order to raise even more money. They had been turned down by management, but not before some bigwig in a blacked-out car turned up and threw four free tickets at them.(As a side note – I thought things like that only happened in TV shows?) They had given two to another couple who had been desperate to watch the show, they said.
I didn’t even think to ask what had happened to the fourth ticket. Instead, I kept encouraging Scott to go to the show on his own and use the one free ticket and that I would go home. But he was insistent.
Just five minutes before the show was about to start and we were about to give up, two of the guys in the charity group starting arguing with the first guy, who’d offered us a ticket. Apparently he was holding on to one for himself, even though he could only go into the concert for ten minutes and then had to leave. They wanted him to give us the second ticket; he didn’t want to.
He finally came to an agreement – he would try and persuade the door staff to let him in with the ticket on the proviso that he could then hand it to me at the door as he left and I could go in. Of course, there was no need. Once he explained his charity plight to the people on the door, they let all three of us in. We were in!
The venue was small and ridiculously cool. We were closer to the stage than I’ve ever been before, although you can’t really tell from my terrible-quality phone photos. (As another side note – I hadn’t thought we would get in to the concert and so hadn’t taken my camera with me). The only thing that hindered the vibe was that the concert was mainly filled with MTV staff and bigwigs who seemed to have gotten free tickets and didn’t really know any of the words to the songs.
But the set list was fantastic and I loved it. I now have a much deeper appreciation for The Killers as a band after seeing them perform live. And to see them in Amsterdam, one of my favourite cities in the world, in an amazing venue, for free, was one of the highlights of this last year.
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