Memories

4 days, 3 concerts! Part 2: Zaragoza!

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The alarm clock goes off too early. I am tired as hell, but I need to catch a train to see my favorite place in the world. I am happy that I got the better ticket and am now able to take a later train, but it is still feeling like middle of the night.

I gather my stuff together, check out and go to the bakery where I had a coffee yesterday. I find a bus to the train station and am right on time to get in line for boarding. Like last year, I am amazed that they charge you 6 Euros for a little bottle of orange juice here and people are okay with that. And I am also amazed that the two main food groups in Spain seem to be dead animal and sugar. You can get sandwiches with all kinds of ham and meat and everything or croissants dipped in every kind of chocolate plus an additional sugar coating, but something as simple as a cheese sandwich? Just bread and cheese? No way. I have to find Spanish vegetarians and vegans and ask them how they do it.

The train is as I remembered it. Space without end, air condition, luxury seats, clean. If I tell people at home that I paid about 15 Euros for this, including changing to the later train without additional charge and that it is the highspeed train which is also on time, they’ll accuse me of lying straight to their faces. I offer the couple who just got in to change seats with them so they can sit next to each other and cuddle, while I sit in the single seat and we are all happy about it. Time flies by so fast that I nearly forget to get off the train in Zaragoza, but of course I don’t. It’s why I am here. On the platform I need a second to process. It’s already beautiful here.

I get on the bus because I am already a pro and own a „tarjeta bus“ as you know and decide to take a little shopping tour before I can check in at my hotel. What I didn’t expect was that I already have five blisters on my feet. I brought a pair of shoes for travel and one pair for the concerts so they can dry up between. But this plan just went to hell. I try to find another cheap pair, but everything here is outside my budget. Instead I get some blister patches and decide to switch to the concert sneakers as soon as I arrive at the hotel. Before that I do the planned round – the basilica (I have been there now like four or five times and there has always been a mass. Are they doing it 24/7?) and some of the stores my kids loved so much in July. Lunch are some croquetas at the place we went to eight weeks ago (was this only eight weeks ago???) and they are still delicious. The hotel lets me check in half an hour early and I find myself in the most luxurious place – it has a balcony from where I can see the whole town. This is something else than the hostal with the steep stairs and the irritating night cough. And still cheaper than the room in Barcelona … I decide to have a little siesta after I called home and then get ready for the night. The nap is great and I am already looking forward to the night, the bed is extraordinary comfortable.

In the evening we go to see a Héroes del Silencio tribute band called „Bendecida“. I don’t have dinner because I can’t keep up with the Spanish restaurant schedules. It’s either open for a short period around lunch and then again at 9 at night or it’s open until noon and then closed for the rest for the day. Or only at night. Or open all day, but most of the time you can only get drinks. I plan on croquetas after the concert and get something from the bakery to eat on the balcony before we meet.

My friend and her husband pick me up and we walk to the bar which is only a few metres away. It’s a cool place, like Hardrock Café style, but much more local and with more heart and soul to it. We find a corner with oldschool cinema seats in front of the stage. Left side of the stage, needless to say. I found out earlier that the guitarrist is a friend of one of our fellow Bogofans and he tells us to say hello. There are some people at the bar, some of them wearing band shirts, but I can’t really tell if they are musicians or fans or part of their crew. Except for one – it’s painfully obvious that this must be the singer. Quite a young chap, curly dark hear, cute face, astonishing resemblance to a young Bunbury. I can’t help but to smile. How is it possible that so many tribute bands seem to have a clone of him? They are definitely not old enough to be some kind of souvenir from the band’s wild days, if you get the hint. Maybe it’s just the good Spanish genes, I’m not sure.

I don’t know what to expect, I just glanced at their Insta, and since I already kind of bonded with the guys from the other tribute band who thought they had met me last year, I don’t know what the policy is here. Are you allowed to like more than one of them? Is this like the other polytheistic cult I am part of? We just love them all, no matter what? And if you have stronger feelings for one of them on one day and the next day for another one, it’s still fine because we’re just spreading our affection evenly? I am a bit confused. But not for long, because our drinks arrive. I finally get to taste Tinto de Verano and it’s just magic in a glass. I don’t ever want to leave this city again!

We finally find out which of the two guitarrists is the other Bogofan’s friend and it just happens to be the one who plays right in front of us. We have the chance to talk to him and he’s very nice. The place is packed and I decide to put on the mask again. Better safe than sorry, took me long enough to recover from last time and I still am not at 100%. Then the show is about to start and I think I notice that they kind of do some extra cheering for their lead guitarrist before they go on stage and wonder what it might be about (apparently he wasn’t the band’s regular guitarrist, so maybe he was nervous to jump in, but he did an incredible job!). Just a few minutes later it is clear that I stumbled into some kind of time machine. This is not 2025 Zaragoza and a semi-professional tribute band. This is 1995 Héroes del Silencio, you can’t convince me otherwise. I have to blink several times. It’s crazy, about an armlength away on the stage I can see the young Bunbury, even with the shiny pants from their Avalancha era. I can also hear them. Only if I look very closely, I think I can see that the other band members look different than the original, but with eyes closed or focused on the front man, the illusion is perfect. Now this is how it must have felt back then. It’s amazing.

For the rest of the night I am two people at once. My 14-year old me finally enjoying her favorite band live and my 44-year old me being proud having it made this far – thanks to exactly this music. And constantly aware that it is a f*ing privilege to have a family having my back on this and the possibility to afford such a trip. I don’t go to the movies or restaurants, I wear my clothes until they are broken, I live on a tight budget the whole year to experience moments like this. It might not be for everyone, but it is for me. This trip is recharging my mental battery more quickly than I would have hoped. Others sometimes accuse me of not being a people person, being anti-social or even a party pooper, but maybe there is a reason if I don’t feel comfortable around you, just think about it. All I can say that in Spain I apparently am a very peoply people person around the people who share my obsessions.

Speaking of obsessions, this concert is fabulous. Those with the band shirts seem to be part of the show, they do like a little crowdsurfing skit – the singer leans over and they tear on his body like the crowd must have done with the original back in the days. During Avalancha the crowdsurfing actually happens and the people are thrilled. While I recognise most of the movements and gesturing, I am not sure about a certain one and I think I have to blindfold the 14-year old me when I research this. It has something to do with him shoving his hand down his pants … I’m trying to close my eyes every time and remembering the mantra, „I am a honorable married woman and also about twice your age“ to keep me away from trouble with law and decency tonight, but this feeling might also have something to do with the Tinto de Verano which obviously also contributes to me being a party person and foremost unlocking my ability to speak and understand Spanish.

After the impeccable show, we try to find the guitarrist to maybe take a picture with him and the rest of the band, but he kind of disappeared. So I get on the stage and take a picture with the singer and I am not really sure if this is the kid with the cute face from before the show or the beast from the stage. They wear the same pants though. It’s like meeting Arde in July, cute and shy kids backstage, but the greatest rock stars once they hold their instruments. It’s just amazing.

16 – ESTA NOCHE ES, ESTA NOCHE ES! Part 2

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Still Thursday, July 31st: Soon after I woke up from the most beautiful dream, we get to line up at the doors. There’s a lot of discussion, we don’t get anything, but try to stay somewhere near the English speaking Bogofans. Finally the doors open. And what time it takes to discuss the stupid parents‘ paper … We are right there, two adults, two kids, they are small, we will take care. K1 is in tears, all the good spots will be gone now. I tell her to run and look for one of the Bogofans on the left side. We somehow make it and they give her the front spot at the rail. My husband is getting drinks and pizza and everyone is settling for the start of the concert. I don’t dare to look at the crowd. I really don’t like crowds and I don’t know how this works well with me liking concerts. But I mostly stand somewhere in the front, so I realise a few days after that there were 30.000 people behind me when I see the pictures.

K2 decides to also see the concert from the front row, so my husband has to stand there as well. I need to go to the toilet, it’s a long way through an already pretty big crowd. When I come back, Hoonine is playing. She looks like a nice person and seems to be excited to be here, but I can’t really tell if I like her music or not. It’s much better than a lot of things I’ve heard, but it’s not really my taste. I feel bad again. (Addendum, August 2025: She has a new song which I find really interesting. Maybe I should listen to her music again and without the anxiety and wobbly knees from that day to find that I in fact like it. Sometimes I have to be reminded that I spend a lot of my days burning the patriarchy, but my taste in music is painfully narrowed down to long-haired guys with and without tattoos, vikings and other bad boys with golden hearts. Must be one of those cosmic little jokes.)

At just like that it’s nearly 22:00. Equipment is getting unwrapped, camera people are taking their positions, team members are checking the instruments.

And then it begins. The intro we have seen so many times on videos from other people in other places – we can now hear it with our own ears and see it with our own eyes. And feel it. And everything. Suddenly they are all there and I have to blink several times – if it was true and I had met them just hours ago, they were so different. A bit shy, very polite, like every mother’s and mother-in-law’s secret dream. And on this stage there are these incredible powerful beasts, made of pure adrenaline and Rock’n’Roll, of fire, lights and coloured glass, which every mother and mother-in-law would comment with a raised eyebrow and a „you really sure, kid?“ But all people here look like they have never been so sure of anything. It’s an incredible evening.

Amazing. I have no words. It’s all like we had dreamed it, but much better. They are so much fun on the stage, and it’s even more fun to watch. And the fans are as amazing as I thought they would be. At some point we even waved the flag together, our little Niedersachsenross, we danced together during Torre Picasso and so many more pictures and videos were taken. I can’t wait to experience this again some day!

And the band! I love when artists make eye-contact during the show so everyone feels seen when they go home, but this was another level. There were things like „I’ll stay like this to make sure you get your picture“ or „the kids in the front still doing fine?“ and as we had seen it at another concert, in Santander someone also signalled they needed help – the band completely stops, informs the security and waits calmly until the thumb goes up that everything is fine again. And how I love that the fans respect that. No pictures, no screaming, they are waiting patiently. It could be you or your friend needing help. Oh, I hope they can keep this spirit alive for a very long time.

I also remember at the end of the show that Antonio was looking at us and smiling like he was saying: „You guys are absolutely crazy for driving this far just for a concert.“ Well, you’re not wrong, I have to admit. This is probably the craziest thing I have done, but also one of the best and the most rewarding. It was a pleasure meeting you all.

But the night did not end before an even more amazing thing did happen in the end – I got another souvenir from Wonderland! The guys were throwing guitar picks and drum sticks into the audience and I guess the people around me just stepped aside – next thing I know is a drum stick is hitting me in the face and falls right into my arms. Thank you! WOW! I need more shelf space with all these precious things I’m bringing home.

On the way out, another fan hands me a bottle of water because I feel like I have dried out. On the way to the parking lot is a drinking fountain where I refill the bottle twice and drink it both times in one go. A man is asking K2 if he was at the concert and if he enjoyed it. I tell him he doesn’t speak Spanish, so he continues in English. I tell him that we are from Germany. He stares at me: „But they sing in Spanish! How do you know them? Do they play them on your radio stations?“ Oh lord, I wish they did.