Twenty people in line, fourteen years of waiting

As a teenager, a friend gave me a CD he didn’t like — he thought it was too heavy. That’s how Herzeleid landed in my hands, in the early 2000s, and it was love at first listen. I eventually owned the original Rosenrot and the Live aus Berlin DVD. In 2009 I got my third tattoo as a tribute to the band.

On December 3, 2010, I traveled from Bucaramanga with a PYRO ticket. I got in line starting at noon on December 2nd; at that hour there were only about twenty of us. We spent the day on the side of the road, listened to the soundcheck, and were among the first to get in. I enjoyed the concert to the very end, in tears.

I’ve tried twice to go to Mexico without success, but I bought a ticket for the June 11 show in Barcelona — fourteen years after Bogotá, the first time I’ll see them outside the country. There’s something about that 2010 night nobody knows: after the show, someone from the crew came out looking for a fan to bring on stage for a photo. I was shirtless, tattoo showing, and he looked right at me — but I felt sick, close to fainting twice from exhaustion, and I couldn’t hold his gaze. I lost that chance. I know it won’t come around again, but it’s part of that night too.