HIM

Just before leaving to the concert

HIM What?!?!?! HIM, (His Infernal Majesty) is a rock band from Finland; one of those bands that tends to sing to the obscure if you know what I mean. “Razorblade Kiss”, “Vampire Heart”, “Buried Alive by Love”, and “The Funeral of Hearts” are examples of some of their most famous songs. And yes, just like you I had no idea who they were. I had never heard about them until I arrived in Madrid almost 3 weeks ago. I’m a music lover; it’s as simple as that. When it comes to music I do not discriminate; I’m equal opportunity to all genres. So when Eliana told me she had 2 tickets for HIM’s concert in Madrid on March 4th I happily said: “Yes!!!! Count me in!!! I listened to a couple of songs days before the concert to find out that their music was not as heavy as I had expected and that I did truly enjoyed. As March 4th approached the excitement started to build up: it has been a while since I had been to a concert which is something that I truly enjoy. Specially a concert like this one which was held on a smaller venue where you really get to be closer to the artists so you get to see them as a real person and not as a black/blue/white/red dot (depending on the color of their attire) on the horizon and where you do not feel overwhelmed by thousands and thousands of people. I was also excited about the fact this was a hard rock concert. As a matter of fact I don’t remember ever going to any other hard rock/metal concerts in my life before.
The day of the concert arrived and so did our preparations for it. What were we going to wear?? That was of course the most important question. You have to understand that for a 34 year old engineer who’s never been to a hard rock/metal concert before going to see HIM was not just a plan, it was an event. So I wore my rocker outfit (just as I have worn my hip-hop outfit before) and off I was to the concert. We got to the place at around 7:30 PM and made the long line to get in, got in at around 8 o’clock and positioned ourselves strategically: in the middle of the crowd so we could jump and bump into everyone and bang our heads to the beat of the battery. Ja ja ja ja!!! NOT ja ja ja ja!!

La pinta (The look)

Paradise Lost is the name of the group who opened for HIM. They sang for about an hour and they were very good too. HIM came out at about a quarter after 10 o’clock and the crowd went crazy; but a good crazy. I have to say I was surprised to see how calm everything was. Knowing were we were, I was expecting maybe a fight here and there, people being escorted out by security guards/policemen and all of those sort of things you encounter when you find yourself in the late afternoon at a Calle 8 festival or the festival of the Colombian Independence in Miami. Everyone at the concert (except for me) knew all the songs and was singing along. My favorite part was when they did a cover of Chris Isaac’s Wicked Game.The concert ended at midnight so we were able to still catch the subway back home and made it there at around 1 o’clock in the morning. I had a great time and enjoyed not only the music but the experience as a whole. I came back wanting to know and learn more about HIM and realizing that I´m falling in love with HIM. (Scroll down for a video from HIM)

Paradise Lost -- Him

HIM

Him - The concert