Alex is abroad in Munich, Germany, until August 2009.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, the ground is covered in snow and I had to fork over some Euros for a pair of gloves. The official transition into winter marks the end of fall, and the end of fall concert tours. Somehow quite a few of my favorite bands were playing Munich in the last two weeks, and I finally got some European concert-going experience to add to my boat load of other European firsts.

For some reason I thought before coming to Germany that I would be going a long time without an opportunity to see smaller U.S. bands, assuming that the only bands that played Europe were huge acts (Madonna, Britney, etc.) and indie bands that originated in Europe. A few weeks ago, though, I found myself in front of one of the many pamphlet display walls, and I picked up a booklet from the Munich equivalent of Ticket Master. As I scoured the pages for familiar band names, I was blown away by just how many small American acts were going to turn up in Europe. I headed to the ticket box (conveniently located in the cultural center where I have my French class) and bought tickets to see two bands that week.

Buying tickets in advance was a new step in the concert-going process for me. In Chicago you can always count on a variety of people to be selling tickets outside of even the most popular shows. I rely on these people to sell me tickets at face value so that I don’t have to pay the outrageously jacked up Ticket Master prices, and so that I don’t have to commit to the show four weeks in advance. It was a good move, this time, to purchase them beforehand, though, because when I walked along the outside of the venue of my first show, it was completely barren of scalpers of any kind.

Concerts function largely the same way in Europe as they do in the States, so I won’t bore you with the details of ticket-taking and crowd-standing. What was the most interesting about both of the concerts I saw, though, was the way that language influenced the shows. Both bands were English speaking, one from Ireland and one from Seattle, so I knew I was bound to run into some English speakers there. What I didn’t anticipate was just how many Germans, who didn’t speak a word of English, would be at both shows, or how distinctly the Americans would stand out.

The first show was the smaller of the two, and considerably less crowded. I stood comfortably next to a group of German girls from Stuttgart, who, although they spoke no English, had seen this particular band four to five times already. It was nice to be able to purchase a beer, and talk comfortably with my German neighbors before and after the concert, comparing life stories. I noticed some guys speaking English with an Irish accent when I was at the bar, but overall most people were speaking in German. It was a great show and when the opener dedicated a song to the new American president, Obama, I couldn’t help but cheer with all the Germans around me.

The second concert, on Friday of that same week, was when I really noticed the English speakers. This band was considerably bigger, so I headed to the venue a little earlier, and ended up waiting at the front end of a fairly long line. I was bordered by a group of six guys and three girls speaking loudly in English, and a German couple standing behind me. For the first time since I have been in Europe, I actually identified more with the Germans standing behind me than the Americans in front of me. I started chatting with the couple in German and never did talk to those Americans. It wasn’t because I was ashamed or embarrassed that they were American, or being loud (that tends to happen in big groups anyway), I just finally felt more of a connection with the people who share my new home city, and that was very refreshing.

Once inside, I went to the bar to get a beer, and was surprised to find all of the bar tenders speaking in English, even to those that spoke German to them. I’m not sure if that is a trend at English speaking shows, but they definitely kept it up the whole night. While standing in the small crowd gathered at the front of the concert hall, I ended up standing next to another, smaller group of guys speaking English. One turned to me and asked if I spoke English, and when I responded, “Of course,” he laughed and started talking to me.

It turned out he and his group of friends were American soldiers, who just got back from Iraq and had a long weekend off from the base, located a few hours north of here. I felt sort of silly asking him questions, but I had never really gotten the chance to talk to someone who had served in Iraq and I was curious about what daily life was like. He told me that while they are there, he and his fellow soldiers function essentially as police, talk to the citizens and try to find “the bad guys.” He recalled one day, when they were coming back from a mission in the desert, blasting Santana in their jeep, when one of the vehicles behind them got hit by a missile, and “just like out of a movie, man” they dismounted, pulled out the others and cared for them until the medic helicopter arrived. As he told the end of that story, one of his friends standing in front of him turned around and said, “Man, don’t tell that story, it’s bad memories, I ended up in the hospital because of that,” to which my new friend responded, “Yeah, but you saved a ton of people that day too, so it’s not so bad.”

We ended up changing the topic anyway, and ended the conversation with my asking if he would re-deploy. He told me that a few of them would probably get stop-loss, and he might re-deploy because it is good money. Once the band started playing, I got separated from the group, but I won’t soon forget that story. I never expected to run into American soldiers at a concert in Munich, but I am glad that I did.

Read Alex’s previous post | Read Alex’s next post | Meet the rest of our abroad bloggers