Nena Windfall

it just goes to show that you never know when luck is working overtime for you.

look what i found in my old CD collection!

ever since hearing 99 luftballons for the first time as a kid on KROQ i’ve wanted to see nena live. i discovered her german songs in late high school or early college, and she made her comeback right at the time i was leaving for germany so i became familiar with her new songs as well. why i never made it a point to go to a concert of hers while i was living there, i’ll never know, but here’s my chance to make up for it. i was getting excited for the big kettcar/grand hotel van cleef concert next month that i’ll be going to hamburg for, and i decided to check out nena’s website to see if she was (by any chance) going to be putting on a show around the same time.

SURPRISE!

YES! and the best parts: it’s only 2 hours away from hamburg and it’s free!

it is, apparently, going to be held on the grounds of a brewery celebrating its 135th anniversary in the middle of nowhere, northeast germany. car is rented, hotel (next town over, since the one and only in lübz is full due to the anniversary celebrations) is booked. YAY!

i am, however, a bit intimidated: 1) this is the hinterlands (a friend from berlin calls this part of the country “uncharted territory”), 2) there will likely be lots of drunk beer-lovers (and i don’t drink), 3) i will have just stepped off a plane from newark 12 hours before the concert starts, and 4) i’ll likely stick out like a sore thumb. but what can you do? with such a confluence of things in my favor  i have no choice! my german concert bucket list will be completely checked off! (nena and kettcar in a month, and virginia jetzt back in 2010)

that will be one crazy weekend. my plan:

• land saturday morning
• get to airbnb place, drop off my stuff, take a shower
• pick up rental car
• drive to hotel
• nap
• check out the brewery celebration
• nena concert
• back to hotel
• conk out
• drive back to hamburg early sunday morning
• nap at airbnb
• get to the venue for the kettcar concert by 1 PM (doors at 2)
• kettcar/ghvc concert
• back to airbnb place
• REALLY conk out

remind me to pack some five hour energy…