Zock (Astpai – vocals)
SPB: What is the furthest you’ve ever traveled to see a show (and who was it/where was it)?
Astpai: In May 1999, I woke up on what I thought was gonna be yet another lousy school day (I was 12 years old at the time), preparing myself for eight hours full of incompetent teaching and an evening of annoyingly boring homework. Little did I know that my mum had made big plans, so far off of what I thought was gonna happen. She had decided to take me out of school for two days and put me on a train to the very west of Austria to see The Rolling Stones live, as she was convinced that it’d be one of the last chances for me to see my most favourite band at that time. Needless to say, I had my mind blown when she broke the news to me over breakfast. A couple of hours later, it was my mum and me on a Rolling Stones-themed train with free drinks (lots of sugary soda for little me), a disco-carriage blasting all of the Stones’ biggest hits and lots of drugged out teens and tweens that you had to climb over on your way to the toilet. It was fucking amazing!
We arrived in Imst, Austria after a 7 hour train ride, walked up to the open air stage in pouring rain and hung out on an open field with thousands and thousands of other people, dreadfully waiting through the hour long sets of each support act, which happened to be Zucchero and Bryan Adams (!) in a very down-to-earth three-piece line up.
The Rolling Stones were the loudest band I’ve ever watched to date. They played for hours, including a middle part where a huge ass bridge would extend from the bottom of the main stage, leading the band to a tiny, club-sized stage in the middle of the fucking crowd. I was in heaven!
Throughout their show, I remember my mum having to randomly befriend an impressively tall guy in the crowd to sort of protect us from the mad asshole that got really upset about me standing on a little folding chair right in front of him. The jerk actually tried to kick me off twice. What a great reality check for a 12 year old!
After the show, we had to wait a few hours in the cold to catch our train back home to eastern Eustria – this time, it was just a regular ride with no other theme than maybe “no space anywhere” or “good luck getting some rest.”
I had to promise, not to mention anything about the trip to my schoolmates, so that my mum wouldn’t get any trouble from one of my teachers. Easily the unexpectedly coolest experience of my pre-puberty life!
To be completely honest, this story is not about the furthest I’ve ever traveled to see a show, but it’s a damn good story to tell and it would still make my top 5 distance-wise.
