Last weekend I went to my first rock concert (Pearl Jam) in Buenos Aires, or rather in the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires, at the sold-out Estadio Unico in La Plata. Although I’ve already been to a lot of rock concerts or festivals in Germany, I was positively shocked and surprised about differences between the audience and the whole atmosphere.
Firstly, I was really impressed with the organization of the whole event, except that the security people had some problems with the orientation so they made us walk in the wrong direction 3 times before we got to the right entrance to the stadium. Oh and if you are thinking about going to a concert of this size you should know that the timing is very different to the smaller concerts in the city. The doors opened at the announced time and the support act started to play really punctually (which – as you might know – is very unusual in Argentina!).
Before Pearl Jam started to play I just wanted to drink a beer with my friends but it turned out to be very normal that in the big concerts they don’t sell any alcohol! At first I was a little bit annoyed by that fact but after the concert I understood very well why they do that: obviously the Argentinean audience is just crazy (or as they would call it “re loco”) and with the people drinking alcohol it would be too dangerous. ¡Es un quilombo total! But don’t worry, it is unnecessary that the security guy – as he did when we entered – says “suerte” which means pretty much the same as “good luck”.
The good thing is that the fans sing all the songs even if they have no idea of what it means or even if they don’t know the lyrics! Sometimes it seems to be more like a football game…You should definitely learn some hymns of the Argentinean audience before you go to the concert, although you learn it very fast by listening to what they sing after every single song. Here is an example:
“Ole ole ole ole ole ole ola, ole ole ole cada día te quiero más,ohhhhhhh soy Pearl Jam (they just put in the name of the band or artist they’re listening to), es un sentimiento no puedo parar!”
As you can imagine now, the fans and the atmosphere is just stunning, but it’s like that almost all over the world.
There’s one thing to remember: Be prepared to lose your friends and not to find them again when you are in the stalls. Straight away during the first song, I lost them all and I didn’t see them until we met at the meeting point we (fortunately) had agreed on before.
After the end of the concert I was just so happy, satisfied and exhausted, so I wanted to buy quickly a T-shirt as a “recuerdo” but there is one thing I was angry about: the merchandising guys already took off and you could only buy a bad quality t-shirt from a guy selling it outside the concert area…But next time I’m gonna buy the T-shirt before the concert gets started to make sure that it is a “buen recuerdo”.
Right now, two days after the concert I still can’t stop smiling all the time and thinking about that great music event. I can recommend it to everyone; it’s an experience you shouldn’t miss. Can’t wait to go to the next concert and to enjoy the Argentinean way of celebrating the music!
