The Ting Tings

I was really into The Ting Tings during that period. Katie White and Jules de Martino make these songs that feel caught between panic and beauty—everything’s precise and clean but there’s something nervous running underneath. A show came up in Berlin, free concert at a venue in Charlottenburg. I thought about going, actually seeing them instead of just cycling through the same three songs on repeat. Live is where you find out if the precision holds up, if it’s real or just production.

I didn’t go. Free shows blur together when you’re traveling. No commitment, so you forget about it. But the want was real. That specific hunger to see someone you’ve been listening to, to have it happen in front of you—that sticks around.