Well, you know how I said the other day that as much as I had stated I would never return to Astra for a concert, I would give it one last chance so I could check out MF Doom? Well, that’s it – I am never, ever going to that shitty assed shit-hole ever again.
Let me give you a run-down of what happened.
Firstly, as per bloody usual in Germany – no event time listings were given – therefore you have to first do the research to find out when everyone is playing. Why no times are given as to when an act is playing is beyond me – it’s just another bloody pain in the ass that you have to put up with in this country – remember – life is not made to be easy here. Anyway, I had done the research and we planned to arrive at Astra at around 11.00pm so we could catch Antipop Consortium who I also really like, but we didn’t go any earlier because none of us were interested in the other acts at all.
Got there and it was quite a full-house (which disappointed me a bit really – I was hoping there would be far fewer people due to the weather and whatnot). Checked out Antipop Consortium who rocked the place pretty much but the crowd was already getting mega pushy.
What the hell is it with Germans? If you are walking along the street a lot of them don’t wanna get out of your way. If you are at a concert they don’t want to share the floor space (what they consider to be their space). This makes for a very aggressive crowd because everyone standing around watching the artist, or waiting for the artist to appear as it were, does not want to move for anyone and seems to have a ridiculous sense that their spot is theirs and not to be shared. Very selfish, very pushy, very aggressive and quite frankly, just plain weird.
Even the most aggressive of US, UK or Australian crowds at a concert are nowhere near as bad – and I have been to a bunch of concerts in my life. Hell – I was even at a Slayer concert once upon a time in LA where the crowd collapsed in on itself because there were just sooo many people – but even then everyone treated each other as a fellow fan – but more importantly than that – a fellow human being – and that is where we have a problem in Germany. Germans don’t seem to treat each other with the same level of respect that they themselves would expect. The whole do unto others thing was seemingly never taught during childhood. Maybe this disassociation towards fellow human beings was displayed to even a greater audience during WWII, anyway – that’s just a theory. Maybe they’re just scared.
So at 12.30pm MF Doom was meant to play and I was (regardless of the pushiness of the place) right at the front waiting, and waiting, and waiting…whilst listening to a German hip-hop DJ on the wheels of steel. It wasn’t that he sucked, it was just that I didn’t want to hear some semi-ok DJ playing tunes I didn’t particularly like or want to listen to. Well, at some point after all the pushiness, over seemingly nothing, had got to me to a point where I could no longer handle it, I left the front of the crowd and resigned myself towards the back where I waited with a few friends for MF Doom to show up. By this point it was 1.00am. We had another beer and waited until around 1.45am at which point I just couldn’t be jacked anymore – my time is worth more to me than being dicked around by some asshole promoter or artist and I bailed. There were, in typical German fashion, zero announcements given that he would be late – basically no communication whatsoever (communication is not one of this EU member’s strong-points). God – it is just so freaking typical of this place it drives me mad – I’m sure it wouldn’t if I was buried deep in the same ignorance as the locals here, but no such luxury for me. If someone is running late, then people who payed for a ticket need to be made aware of this, 30euros for this shit was a joke. Not too mention they’re one-way tickets so you have to stay at the place and wait for the artist if you want to see them, as soon as you leave you cannot get back in 
So never, ever again – no matter what – will I ever pay a single cent to Astra, and I will be telling anyone that wants to listen (even those that don’t) about what a piece of shit place this really is. Talk about a crap organized school disco – because that is exactly what it is – albeit with a shitty sound system not quite capable for the size of the place. Wake up Berliners, there are better ways than this – it has been proven the world over.
So up yours Astra!!
