By Katie Booms

GVL Study Abroad Columnist

We were assigned a rock concert for homework, but we could not get tickets. Czech politicians had bought them all.

The National Theater is iconic to Prague. It was built to construct national identity, with money raised by average Czechs. Now the theater houses prestigious drama, opera and ballet. This week, it also hosted an old dissident rock band.

The Czech band The Plastic People of the Universe are most famous for being persecuted. During the restrictive era of 1970s Communism, they became a huge symbol of rebellion. Soon the band could only play in borrowed houses in the country. When the police found those houses, they burned them. Most of the band ended up in jail.

Needless to say, it was hard to imagine these old rockers on a stage with velvet curtains and gold neo-Renaissance architecture. Their music is anything but prestigious.

The night became stranger when my professor had to call the band’s drummer and sneak us through the back of the building.

Maybe I should have been less surprised that the Czech government had reserved the National Theater for the short Plastic People concert and the Tom Stoppard play "Rock n roll." In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse this November, it seems as though every event in Central Europe has turned into a celebration of political freedom.

I was not prepared for suits and champagne. In turn, the politicians looked like they were not prepared for straggly beards and amplifiers. Most of them waited in the lobby until the band left and the play started. Several people who sat down put their fingers in their ears.

My classmates lined up in the aisles near the stage. We stood out because of our bookbags. We were also the only ones clapping.

The music was pretty terrible. But, it was loud and full of energy. It also felt like a historical moment. The band was straight out of the documentary we had watched in class. Only, they had more wrinkles and they were not treated as heroes.

Afterward, we met the bassist and saxophonist in the private bar for performers. They went through bad Czech wine and told us they did not want to talk about politics. Then we talked about politics.

I will be home in less than a week. I still do not know how to describe Prague, but this will be one of the stories I tell. Prague is a rare place where history and the present interact. It is a place where I am hardly surprised to find old heroes in the back of a smoky bar.