After I told my dear R.E.M. friend Perry about the great show in Vienna, he came up with the idea that I should go to Switzerland to see them again there.
And so I looked up the tour dates- just for fun, you know.
I couldn't even find this place Nyon, on my tiny map.
But I could find the other locations like Padova and Ancona, which are not too far away from Vienna.
Well, they are far away but let me just check...
Ok, so train ride would be around 10 or 11 hours and around 140 Euros or something.
By car? Like a 6-7 hours drive.
But I don't have a car. My Dad's car?
I tell him -my Dad- you know, R.E.M. are going to play in Padova and so on....and he says, well, if my car was air conditioned, I would go with you.
Hmmm...
I tell my friend Doris about it and suddenly, one evening, she says, well, let's just drive down there!
What?
Okay!
Now I just have to get tickets and find a place to stay in Padova.
4 years ago in Koper I met a bunch of Italian R.E.M. fans and they gave me their number.
So I try to find those little sheets of paper from back then.
Here they are.
I send some emails, and really, the "Murmur-Italian fan club" is the first who answers.
It seems that I am lucky cause someone has an extra ticket which I could have!
I call the official R.E.M. fan club in Athens to ask if there were any fan club passes for the Padova show left. But the nice Lady tells me that they've all gone.
But then I hear from an Italian girl that she has two passes of which I could maybe have one...

How I got there

I call like 10 Hotels in Padova for a room. Most of them are already full, but I get one that's pretty close to the Stadio Euganeo.
So it seems all fixed. I can get the time off from work, which wasn't quite sure in the beginning of my planning.

My friend picks me up on Tuesday, 22nd of July, the day of the show, around 9 a.m.. We arrive in Padova between 3 and 4 p.m.. But we take the wrong exit from the highway and WE DRIVE AROUND IN CIRCLES AS IT SEEMS FOR A LOOONG LOONG TIME.
Meanwhile it's past 4 o'clock and we're still on the road.
Finally we find the right street and we even find our hotel.
First thing when we get to our room, I call the Italian people who I was supposed to meet somewhere around 2 or 3 p.m..
The stadium is just 4 km straight down the road.
When I get there I am trying to find the Italians.
We can't see each other. It's now almost 5 p.m. and I start to panic.
I still haven't got my ticket! I need to find the Italian girl!
FINALLY we meet at the will call window where they are just picking up those fan club passes. I can even get one of those.
Now everything is okay.
The heat is incredible but I am so happy I have my own ticket.
Nobody knows if we -the ones with those wristbands- can get in earlier or if we'll have a special reserved area. We walk from entrance to entrance until we find out that "our" entrance is gonna be the disabled one.
Cinque minuti- the scurity guy tells us.

The show

Ok, the gate is open - we rush in.
There is the stage.
Now I am there, sitting in the first row, and RIGHT BEFORE THE STEPS DOWN from the stage!

I am sweating like ...I don't know....like never before in my life, I guess.
Time passes. Suddenly everyone gets up and there's a pushing and squeezing.
From now on I struggle to mantain my good spot.
The sun starts going down but the heat doesn't get any better.
After a while the support band, Feeder, comes up. They're pretty good. But everything is too much in this heat. After their set there's another support band, Sparklehorse.
I hope I'm not gonna faint cause by now my stomach feels pretty bad.
Finally the stage gets dark.
The crowd goes wild.
I think it's just an electricity failure...
But then Peter Buck comes running onto the stage.
I think he tries to check his guitars, but no, HERE THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first row is okay. There is not too much pushing.
The band sounds great.
Michael tells the security guys to give out water to the people -to us.

Almost at the end of the show I ask Microwave -I think it was him- if he could tell the guys to play "Nightswimming" and he says, "I don't know-probably not..."
He takes my hand and puts his into his pocket and he gives me one of those guitar things with "Mr.Meat Science" written on it.
Thank you.

During "It's The End Of The World" Michael steps down from the stage -and this happens right in front of me! He looks right into my eyes. He stretches out his arm.
The crowd behind me starts pushing like crazy, the people grab Michael and they won't let him go. I hold his hand for a short time, it all goes so quick....and then, somehow, he is pulled over my head. The security guys try to free him. I am trying to survive and not drown in the masses. Someone's finger is in my face. Before it reaches my eye, I take a bite and the finger is gone.
Michael is free. Gets back onto the stage.

That was the end of the show. No microphone thrown into the crowd this time...
Why did it had to end?

Read about the Vienna show