From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

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An alarm woke us for the second day running although this one we'd set ourselves. We packed our now significantly heavier bags with all our Monty Python merch, walked to Bethnal Green Station and bought tickets to Gatwick. We had a small walk of a few blocks to transfer to the right line in London central but made it to the airport with what we thought was plenty of time to spare, only to be caught in a huge check in queue at Easy Jet. We made our flight but it was a little too close for comfort.

Nik and Emil greeted us in Berlin where they were dropping the rental car off and we caught a cab into the city where we checked in to the Hollywood Media Hotel - our home for two of the four nights we were staying in Berlin due to a mix up in bookings. We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe then met the girls for an ice-cream at Hagen Daas.

The doors for Dropkick Murphys were due to open at 1730 so we had little time to do any touristy stuff. A short sleep was in order and we met the Herbys at the train station and headed off to Citadel Spandau on the U-Bahn around 1700.

The train slowly began filling with Dropkick Murphys t-shirts and was fairly full as we hit the station closest to the venue. An enterprising group had set up a tent in the carpark of a business nearby and were selling beer at EUR2.50 per 500ml bottle. This seemed more than reasonable so we bought a few to have while we were in the long queue.

What a magnificent venue for a concert! The castle's courtyard was transformed by a huge stage at one end and a sound booth in the middle. Around the outside tents sold beer, bratwurst, sandwiches and a host of other food and drink. As had become customary, my first stop was the merch tent where I again bought one of just about everything (and two of one particular t-shirt).

The opening act Bronx got the crowd going nicely with the singer joining the pit for one of the numbers but everyone was there for the Dropkick Murphys.

We managed to get a spot in the second row just right of stage. This would have been impossible had the concert been in New Zealand but (as in France) the crowd was very calm and organised. The pit started going crazy for the opening numbers "For Boston" and "The Boys are Back" but all the action was in the middle of the stage so even Klara and Jo were able to be up front without getting destroyed by the sweaty masses.

Dropkick Murphys played for around 90 minutes and, as is the custom, allowed a hundred or so girls onto the stage for "Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced". They didn't play "Workers Song" or "State of Massachusetts" which was a little disappointing but it was an awesome gig made even better by our great spots.

We all left smiling (even Klara and Elin who I thought may not have enjoyed the gig) and the night was unanimously agreed to be a success. We returned to our respective hotels happy and with no fixed plans for the next day. We had a concert to sleep off.

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[D MJ Binkley]

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