Hamburg, October 28, 2009: Almost there

At the beginning of a long, harsh and dark winter that already showed its shadows in late October 2009, Muse's The Resistance Tour stopped in Hamburg, my new hometown - and Muse once again enlightened our lifes.

But to be honest, Esther and I had not even a glimpse of an idea what to expect. At that time, we had listened to Muse’s new album several times. We liked what we heart, and definitely recognised what Muse once called „the Monty Python aspect in our music“, something very familiar to the Rodgau Casi Kingz. And that symphony of course, three parts that blew us away from the start. But we actually had no idea whats going on with Muse at that moment: being at the climax of their musical development, maybe. A double sold out Wembley Stadium triumph in 2007 and two fabulous Teignmouth homecoming shows on their “done” list. The “Resistance” treasure hunt – heard of, that’s it. The board? Well… I need to admit at that point that Esther almost had to talk me in to going to that gig. I thought: “I’ve already seen them three times, that’s enough.” Finally, I gave in and Esther came all the way to Hamburg for the concert (she actually met a Muser guy on her train and had a chat with him – signs, hello?!). For us, it was the best decision ever made – until our Wembley plans.

We started the evening with a fenomenal dinner at Kumpir cellar, with baked and filled potatoes at a digital bonfire in a trashy location worth a food coma experience. We left late, because we actually weren’t able to move for a pretty long time. But the Color Line Arena where Muse played that night fortunately was just a 15 minutes trainride away, so we were in no hurry. And we just came in time – we just sat down (yes, we’re getting old – we prefer to SIT THE FUCK DOWN) and Muse started to play. Well, playing is not the right word. They just made the whole arena EXPLODE. They were standing on these three towers, Matt in his hilarious pink throusers, the LED shades on his nose, with silver glittery shoes, wearing A CAPE. A couple of rows behind us, a group of young leds embraced each other and sang along every single verse. Pure happyness. I remember that I grinned all the time. And danced (standing, not sitting). And that I still wasn’t that familiar with the “older” Muse songs (in opposite to Esther, who sang along all of them) – I knew them, but I couldn’t say on which album they were. I was such a fail.

I’m not sure what happened that night, it was one of those concerts that make you feel like being part of something huge, but you couldn't explain why. You just remember the feeling, but not every detail. An EXPERIENCE, not only a gig.

It needed a while until we were able to leave the venue. We sat in the food corner, drinking something and watching the crowd leaving. We laughed about two girls on extrem high heels that obviously weren’t able to walk with them, passing in the direction of the VIP area and returning unsuccessfully some minutes later. Well, even that: we didn’t got it at that point. I think I wouldn’t be able to say what Dom’s an Chris’ family names was at that point (once again, Esther surely knew, because she’s a genius at things like that – and I’m definitely not). But honestly: why should a guy be attractive that is wearing pink throusers and a CAPE – not only in public, but at an arena show, in front of 8,000 people (besides his musical genius, of course)?

There came a time we knew the answer, immediately. A time when we became Musers.