How Three Cases of Mistaken Identity Got Me on the Guest List for a Rock Show

So there I am in Christiania, the rootingest tootingest frontier hippie commune imaginable, replete with a shady hash trade and a cozy vegetarian cafe, all within a five minute walk. I'm looking for that free tour I've heard so much about because I need to research life in Christiania for a news piece I've been commissioned to write.

I go to a place that I think is the Infocafe to get a tour, see two girls behind the counter, one of them is making kanelsnegl. She tells me to go to the next place over to get a tour. I look around and end up at the top a stairwell inside a music venue with a woman with an English accent asking me if I work there. I tell her no, and that I’m looking for a tour. I ask her if she works there and she says no, she's the tour manager for a band called Warpaint that's playing here tonight.

A guy in the back says he’ll be out in a minute. We hunt around for a lighter for the English woman's cigarette, peaking behind the abandoned bar, but coming up short.

A short energetic Dane comes out and introduces himself as Nicholas. I introduce myself and after the woman’s done explaining that they need to move the van to get the band set up, I remember why I'm there.

"Do you run tours?"

"Sure," he says. "We'll give all of you guys a tour as soon as we finish setting up." Oh wait, I realize, he thinks I'm with the band. Oh, wait, I realize. That's probably good. I look at the woman and she's caught on to the mistake but lets it slide and says I should come out to the van to help with the unloading.

We go out to a van where I meet Dan, who’s driving, and Andrew and Jeremy. Andrew’s in the middle row and I later learn he volunteered to sleep in the van because by the time he joined the tour crew the hotels had already been booked. He’s from SoCal and has an uncle who’s a maritime lawyer in SF and a cousin who writes for the Chronicle. The English woman introduces me as a friend, which is exceedingly nice of her. I learn her name is Jessica when someone asks me "So how'd you meet Jessica?" And I say "In Copenhagen. We're friends."

The other guy in the van is Jeremy who runs the sound board. He offers me a beef flavored potato chip, then a corn one that tastes like polenta/grits. Andrew adds that the beef-flavored chip with a tomato flavored one is awesome.

The van stops in front of a rusty cage on a electric pulley system that takes equipment from the ground floor up to the stage. Someone makes a joke about "Willow" and we walk up rickety metal steps to help unload at the top.

Now in my experience, the Christianites have been a bit closed off, and not too excited to talk about their hippie-tastic life style. However, I am now with the band, which pretty much is the backstage pass to life, not to mix metaphors.

I talk to Toby who also works at the venue who says it won’t be too busy because of a Barcelona-FCK game happening tonight in town. He plans on watching it. I tell him about the story I’m doing and he introduces me to a bunch of guys in the back who are drinking beers, smoking, and talking.

I ask if I can sit down and chat and Johannes is nice enough to tell me about Christiania and it’s virtues and struggles, along with help from Tobias (Who looks a little like Gareth from the British version of The Office) and a guy named Memo who didn't skimp on the eyeliner today. I hold an interview with all of them for the next few hours until it starts to get dark and I have to head home or risk getting a ticket for biking without my bike lights.

On my way out I thank Jessica for helping me break into Christiania. She shrugs it off and invites me to the show tonight and puts me on the guest list with a plus one.

Sarah and I come back three hours later for an epic show of '90s grunge rock by the band Warpaint who are totally moody and good. Jess has us sit at her table with her, brings us free drinks, hangs out and talks with us when she's not manning the merch stand, and even gives us a copy of the band's new album which is really worth listening to.

We didn't get home until 1:30, which kind of screwed Sarah over for her 8:00am class the next morning, but we didn't know the next time this kind of thing would happen. Usually mistaken identities create a moment of awkwardness, like when you wave at someone you thought you knew. But if enough mistakes pile on each other, you might just end up being someone awesome.