I was in. After an endless hour in the freezing cold with the Murazzi river behind me, I finally made it to the warmth of the venue. Sure, it was almost impossible to breathe because of the smoke, but I was happy to finally be warm. The place was packed with people and it was hard to move around, but I could see the bar counter in front of me and my only goal was to make my way there to order a beer. I think I managed to do so after another hour of waiting in line. But I finally had my beer in hand. I could hear the music coming from the other room and I decided to go check out who was playing. Slowly, being careful with my beer, I made my way through the crowd. The venue had a strange shape. The entrance room, the bar area, was quite small and communicated with the concert room through a narrow corridor with seats and small tables on the side. The corridor was an old tram that was somehow built into the venue. At the end of this corridor, the concert room was so full that I couldn't even get in, not even with elbowing my way through. I stopped at a certain point, standing there holding my beer as if I was protecting the Holy Grail. Not bad band. They were playing blues. I didn't know the song, but it seemed famous. But at a certain point, the music got strange, the guitarist and singer turned to the drummer who started freaking out and went his own way. I don't know what got into him, but he was beating those drums as if he wanted to destroy the whole world. The other musicians looked at him incredulously. But that was the craziest drum solo I had ever heard. It went on for a quarter of an hour. You could see sweat flying off him with every movement, and then, suddenly, it stopped. He looked at his sticks as if enchanted. The crowd erupted in cheers and screams. Even his fellow musicians were applauding him. He got up, without looking at anyone, got off the stage, and left. The night ended there. My beer had become warm, but I chugged it down and tried to find my way out, walking back through the tram corridor. It was a strange night. A crazy drummer with his beat still accompanying me as I walked home alone. And I'm still thirsty.

Photo by Andrew Petrischev on Unsplash