So finally I didn't go to see REM in Wiesbaden with Blumfeld from Hamburg which used to be my fave German band about eight years ago as support. And I didn't regret it. What's the point of seeing a band you have loved ages ago which you still like but not as much as the first time you have heard them? And then you have to share them with thousands of people. Disappointment is programmed.

Instead I saw the Go-Betweens for the second time within three months and it was magic again. Not more than 300 spectators, we were five meters away from the stage. They just had arrived from Melbourne, the bass player had lost her bass on the airplane but had borrowed a bass from German friends. Everyone except Robert Forster wore sun glasses which they all took off when the night grew older. They played three or four songs from the last album but mainly classics. Even The Streets of Your Town. The sound was awesome, Grant McLennan sang as if it was his last day on the planet earth. They finished the set again with The House that Jack Kerouac Built and Robert did his crazy hands-dance thing again. It was perfect. A summer night in Germany as I like it. A rare thing of beauty, indeed.

P.S. I don't really know the Go-Betweens and when they were the indie guitar pop cult group in the 80s I never got into their music. It seemed bland and uninteresting at the time. The weird thing about yesterday's concert was that I knew most of the songs (probably from the previous concert) and that I had tears in my eyes when I heard them. There is something touching and intimate in their music I find very hard to nail down.

Robert Forster on stage is really weird. He has an aura. His facial expression can become very menacing. Suddenly in the middle of a song he opens his eyes wide, he frowns and seems to move towards the audience. I am not sure if he is acting. Maybe it is just a spleen.