Last Friday night, 22 January, I bought a ticket to the first Stranglers concert I’ll be attending in March. In the instant my American Express Midnight Black corporate credit card (you know, the one only carried by us super-elite, the top one percent of the top one percent) was charged, my attendance was merely theoretical. I hadn’t bought my airline tickets yet.
See, that’s how we real fans roll. We commit to being in the audience, screaming our heads off and air guitaring furiously till the breeze in the mosh pit rivals the strongest AC, before we’re even sure how we’re going to get there.
The 02 Academy Brixton is the rock venue in London. No band has cred in the UK till they’ve played the hallowed hall. How many nights you’re able to pack it is a measure of your worth in the business. You do a Brixton, you’re in. You do two or three Brixtons, you might earn a pleasant nod from Damon Albarn. You do five or six Brixtons, you might get an enthusiastic growl from Iggy Pop. (Oh, wait, maybe that wasn’t a growl… he just talks that way.) Veterans and newbies alike stain the floor with their sweat; February sees The Cult and Twenty One Pilots there.
I’m excited to experience the Stranglers live again, especially because it’ll be within a legendary British fortress of rock n’ roll.