I have been a huge fan of Jhene Aiko for quite a while now. I especially love her early work, like 3:16AM, The Worst and Comfort Inn Ending. She has this way of putting her emotions into words in a very raw and yet thought through matter, I love it. She has a dark side and she is not afraid to show it, even though that is not very common in the RnB scene.

Jhene Aiko in Amsterdam

So when I heard she was going to come to Amsterdam for a show, I really wanted tickets asap. I was too late though, and she was sold out, which was mainly due to her show being in a crappy venue called Paradiso Noord (Tolhuystuin) which only has place for 500 people. So bad.

Anyway, many weeks of frustration began. I was looking abroad, I was asking if it was not possible to have her play at a bigger venue and I was Ticketswapping like crazy. So did my friend L, which was awesome, cause she is way better at it than I am. Ticketswap is a website where you can sell your tickets and buy other peoples tickets in a pretty safe way, many venues are okay with the service which is awesome.

Ticketswap

And, people cannot make the tickets crazy expensive, cause they may only put 20% on the original price. You can put a request in Ticketswap, so you get a push notification when there is a ticket available for that specific concert. I had one on for Jhene Aiko from the getgo, but there were just no tickets available for many weeks. 1100 people were looking, but no one was selling.

The week before the concert the tickets started to go on Ticketswap, but everytime we were just a bit too late. I really wanted to go to this concert with L, because of the contents of Jhene’s songs, because it is just very special and as many tickets were sold before we knew it, it seemed like a very far away dream.

The Sunday of the concert was there, and I was super tired so I went to bed in the afternoon. L was still awake, refreshing Ticketswap the whole time when suddenly I got a whole bunch of text messages from her. She got one ticket and she wanted me to go, in case we could not get another one. Holy moly, a few hours of getting psycho were there, and we could not score a ticket, arrrgh.

Not alone

I was already getting ready to go alone, being a bit sad about it, while also being excited to finally see Jhene live. Then L called that she had another ticket, and I was so happy and yelling at her like she had won the lottery. The concert was about to start, so quickly she put on some clothes, and looked amazing as she arrived at my place.

The concert was amazing, though the venue was way too hot and way too soulless, Jhene really gave her all. She is so gorgeous, so talented, so deep, such a thinker, I really look upto her. She had a tough life and she turned it into something better, while also being aware of life being a struggle every day. I love her. And I loved going to the concert with L, as I would not have wanted it any other way. She really rocked getting us those tickets. Freaking wonderful.