Bataclan
On Thursday October 15th, 2015, my wife Nadine and I were in Paris for the beginning of our honeymoon. I decided to look at the concert listing for bands we might know who were playing while we were in town. It turned out that Metric from Toronto was playing at a venue near where we were staying called the Bataclan. We walked down to the venue and bought tickets for the show that was starting at 9 pm. We decided we could skip the opening act and mosey back for around 10 when Metric would likely be going on. We went home, had a few drinks and walked back to the venue for 9:40 pm. We walked in and realized that the band had started at 9 and we would only catch the last half of the show. We walked up and sat in the mezzanine and watched the band play another 10 songs before the show ended. We had a good time and strolled home afterwards.
Four weeks later, the Bataclan nightclub was stormed by 3 gunmen on the night of Friday November 13th, 2015. They walked into the front doors of the club at 9:40pm and opened fire on an audience of concert goers watching a performance by American band Eagles of Death Metal. They killed 90 people on the floor in front of the stage as well as hunting down others who were hiding throughout the venue and up in the mezzanine. The situation lasted over 3 hours with the 3 men detonating hand grenades in the club and finally blowing themselves up with suicide vets.
I get chills when I realize the parallels of our movements that night and those of the killers exactly four weeks later. I’ve seen the uncensored pictures of the aftermath, I can see where we were sitting. We walked in through the entrance at the exact same time. We walked up to the mezzanine where they they had walked to and began firing on the crowd. What bothers me the most is that if we had been in town four weeks later, I know I would have seen the listing for EDM and taken Nadine to the show because I love their music. But for four weeks time, I’m sure we would have walked up to the entrance of that venue either right before, right after, or at the exact same moment as those gunmen with AK-47’s. What would have happened?
Four weeks later, the Bataclan nightclub was stormed by 3 gunmen on the night of Friday November 13th, 2015. They walked into the front doors of the club at 9:40pm and opened fire on an audience of concert goers watching a performance by American band Eagles of Death Metal. They killed 90 people on the floor in front of the stage as well as hunting down others who were hiding throughout the venue and up in the mezzanine. The situation lasted over 3 hours with the 3 men detonating hand grenades in the club and finally blowing themselves up with suicide vets.
I get chills when I realize the parallels of our movements that night and those of the killers exactly four weeks later. I’ve seen the uncensored pictures of the aftermath, I can see where we were sitting. We walked in through the entrance at the exact same time. We walked up to the mezzanine where they they had walked to and began firing on the crowd. What bothers me the most is that if we had been in town four weeks later, I know I would have seen the listing for EDM and taken Nadine to the show because I love their music. But for four weeks time, I’m sure we would have walked up to the entrance of that venue either right before, right after, or at the exact same moment as those gunmen with AK-47’s. What would have happened?