Day 15

Thursday November 13

I said a little while ago that when we hit Thursday morning we would be hitting the home strait. But when we do get here it really doesn’t feel like that at all. Yeah, we’ve got two gigs a day for these three days but none of that is on our minds. Everything all the time is about the next one and only the next one. That is the only gig that ever exists for us. And when we get there, despite all talk that we would, there’s no thought of pacing. So we should probably stop talking about that. You get to a gig and that audience in front of you is the only audience you can play to and the only audience you can win over right now. So you’d better get on with winning them over. Yeah, that’s something we’ve kind of learned in this Mexico adventure. No matter how many gigs you play, you don’t really go all the way to blase about them. You might feel that way in between, or even after as they all merge into one and no-one quite remembers what happened when or what any part of the agenda looks or looked like because it’s too big to think about and every gig in there is just another part of a number. But when you’re coming up to one, and when you’re actually playing one, this is the only moment that matters. You really do want to go in feeling like you’ve never played before while at the same time treating it like this is the last gig you’re ever going to do. If you do those two things, you can’t help but just put everything you have into it. We’ve felt like this even when we’ve had three gigs in one day and we’ve talked about pacing it, but then you get into the moment and that’s all there is. 

And we totally don’t have time to think about that right now because first thing in the morning we have to get ourselves up and sorted out to head off quite early. As soon as we wake up today we know we have a long day ahead of us. After yesterday’s epic excursion we’re up at 9am and on the road by 10:30. We have a 12:30pm lunchtime show at one of Mexico’s national universities UACM – Universidad Autonomo de la Ciudad de Mexico. And it’s huge with its student population hovering at around the 20,000 mark. This is just a little short of the size of each of Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

When we arrive we’re greeted by a guy we’re introduced to as Jonathan. This is quite a significant meeting because we’ve learned he’s been responsible for booking eight shows for us. These are the Utopia shows, so kind of in conjunction with Paco who’s also been doing the sound for most of them. 

Along with his colleague Nadia, he leads us to an enormous dressing room which in turn leads out to a wonderful outdoor auditorium facing a really quite large stage. And this dressing room is entered via a cactus filled large park area, which we also kind of adopt as an extension of our own dressing room. It’s so wide and open it really more feels like being in the desert. We decide to take advantage of this movie like setting to We film some social media videos out there, and also run through a few songs. All under the blue sky and surrounded by cacti and the occasional passing student. Among all this we also meet a few key members of the university’s entertainment team and learn that after this show we’re going to go to their own dedicated radio studio for an interview.

When we go out there to see the stage for the first time, the setting really is special. An awning covered rising auditorium seated area but the back of it is completely open and offers distant views of mountains. And there’s also something of a gap between the raised stage and the front rows. This is the first time we’ve ever entered a venue through a dressing room before having seen the stage which is a bit of a strange experience.

When showtime comes, we get a really nice build up from Aaron and walk out to find a really quite healthy sized audience and what feels like a healthy enough amount of curious expectation. Let’s get on with delivering that. And they really go for what we’re doing and we really ease into playing for them. So much so that when we come to Sand Bang and Maja does her seductive walk about the place under the sun, I go right out and just take a seat among a bunch of people and carry on playing from there.

Also, with this being a university, there’s also the natural process of lectures beginning and ending and staggered lunchtimes. With that, loads more people drift in as the show goes on. By the same token, a few leave, but we really do take that as people having to be somewhere else at that time. This dynamic produces one of the most special moments ever for The Diaries. A group of three people gets up to leave and by now we’ve learned not to read anything negative into that, but it does still give you an involuntary stomach pang all the same. Two of them leave with a lovely little wave but a third hangs back just a little. With that he approaches the stage and gestures to Maja who goes over to him, still singing. When she reaches the edge of the stage he presents her with a piece of paper containing a brilliant sketched drawing of both of us. We are totally recognisable, and there I am in one of my customary stage positions of foot on monitor. We don’t even have the chance to ask his name and he doesn’t give it. This all happens pretty much wordlessly and he’s off to catch up with his friends. Fortunately the current song ends while they’re still more or less in earshot and I’m able to get on the microphone to enthusiastically thank him and then explain to our wonderfully attentive audience what has just happened. With that, we already have our first story to tell on the radio and, instantly, what is now our most treasured possession outside of musical instruments. 

There’s more moments to treasure after the show as a whole host of people want to get photos taken with us, then it’s time to head to the radio studio as this epic early afternoon gigging experience comes to a close.

Walking out to the studio we start to get more of a feeling of the size of this place with, as I mentioned above, a student body of around 20,000. It’s all open walkways and open staircases, and four or five storey buildings and of course, constant activity everywhere you look. We’re led through all this by Aaron who by now we’ve discovered is also one of the DJs who is going to interview us on the university’s radio studio. Up another set of stairs and we come to a corridor open to the skies which leads to the studio door, outside of which we wait while the current DJ does his thing. We have about half an hour here, and during this time we’re joined by another few DJs and a producer. So by the time we’re ready to go in we have a team of three that is all set to interview us, although the main interview will be led by a guy called Jaier. But as well as that team of three, but we’re also joined by a few other people who just want to be around to watch and listen.

This radio interview for the programme Cultural Radio isn’t going out live, rather it’s being recorded for later broadcast. But they still play a few of our songs during the interview which is conducted really fabulously by Jaier who seats himself between me and Maja with Richard standing to the side, Aaron in front of us, and the producer at the desk and behind a glass screen, and he also pitches in from time to time. Richard is also involved and he helps with translations. But really, this feels like the Jaier show and he really has done his research on us and the conversation really goes wide ranging and far reaching. Being on with Maria was just epic and really fun and upbeat. Elisa on Musika Real was incisive, and also very well researched. Rey Cruz was a pretty cool and to the point experience and he was also very energetic. And now Jaier has introduced us to another dimension as the thing turns into a very natural multi way conversation, while every now and again he drops in another piece of research which shows he’s really come with all his homework done. He’s also clearly into the whole process as he delves into how songs happen, how we work together, how we think we’ve developed musically over the years. Just brilliant. Afterwards we’re stunned when he reveals that he was actually nervous about interviewing us. Mate, keep on doing interviews like that and you’ll have nothing to be nervous about at all. 

We do all this for about an hour, maybe even more. And as that hour develops, more and more people drop in to see what’s going on. It really does feel like words got out that The Diaries are in town and people really want to come and see what they’re all about. So much so that even once the interview is over we’re very keenly asked to stick around for a full on hang out as even more people come over to, as far as we can tell, meet The Diaries and join in the fun. Within all this we’re presented with Radio UACM merchandise including baseball caps, T shirts and then another amazing moment to rival what happened earlier on stage. But eventually we do have to call time on it all. We have another gig to get to. This is when one of the girls presents us with a souvenir to top it all. A coloured drawing she’s done of Maja while all this has been going on. 

For this gig, we’re going to go back to Richard’s first, and then Eduardo is looking after us for the night and driving us there and back. Tonight’s venue is called Capitan Gallo, we’re special guests, and we were booked by Jessica of WAPT Music Group after she saw us at Pata Negra on Saturday night.

As soon as we walk into the venue we see it’s something that just has to be filmed. Probably the most impressive grassroots live venues we’ve ever seen. On the way Eduardo has been telling us a little about it and we discover it’s three floors of live music. Most of the acts tonight will be full bands, and most of them will rock and metal. So yeah, Jessica saw what we did headlining a metal bill a few nights ago and we like, yep, these guys will work on my bill. Even the entry is dramatic. It looks more like a warehouse door than a bar door and there are two bouncer guys outside who will open the door for you. If we weren’t playing tonight I’m not altogether sure we’d be too confidently approaching this place and asking to be let in. But they politely step aside and open up and we’re in, and immediately into a square basic bar with activity already on the stage. We’re not playing on this floor so we walk through to the steps on the other side of the room. These are wide open so you can see the floor you’re leaving and the floor you’re coming to as you start to arrive. Up there and all full swing on the second floor as well. We have a quick look then continue up the stairs, all the way to the top. This last staircase is narrow and closed in, so it’s with some drama that we approach the top and Jessica is there to greet us and we hear the full enthusiasm of the audience we’re about to play to. A few more steps, we both hug Jessica hello, then we see the fantastic venue we’re about to play in. Someone is just finishing to a huge reaction and we see now that the back of the bar is kind of like an open balcony overlooking the street we’ve just come from. It’s practically an open air gig but inside. This is the famous Capitan Gallo. Kind of bench seating round the outside and a variation of low and high tables about the place and pretty much all occupied.

There are a few bands left to play before us so we can hang back and just take it all in for a while. And these are heavy bands. When it’s our turn to take to the stage, we have that by now almost familiar feeling we experienced in Pata Negra. But more than feeling that people are looking at us thinking, what the hell are you doing here with just one acoustic guitar and a female singer, there’s more an air of respectful curiosity. Like, yeah, the setup is basic but we didn’t get here by accident. OK. What have you got? Yeah. It’s very much like that, people almost leaning in with interest.

As always, we think the way we play this beforehand is every bit as important as how we actually play when the time comes. There could be a bit of a lions’ den feeling here. In fact, there really is. But what these guys are starting to feel and understand from our body language is that we are also lions and we have come to play. On all the same terms. Then it’s time to go and we hit them immediately with the intro riff of Give Me The World which puts us straight on the front foot. That has them looking at each other like, oh, OK. As soon as Maja comes in, full punk, full metal, full confontation, they know it’s on. After this, Make Me Shine hits them right between the eyes and we are all on the same wavelength now and this room has fully committed and they’re with us. Now we own this room, we can bring it right down with Sand Bang as Maja goes out and by now fully owns the room and everyone in here. I leave her to it and do what has almost become my party piece for this song by now. I go to the back of the room and stand with members of the audience watching the show with them as I carry on playing.

Where Do We Go is our latest song, written just before coming to Mexico. But already we have such faith in it that we have been using it as a closer and we decide to do the same, even in here. Among all the punks, metallers and hardcore heads, it goes down amazingly as we have the whole room waving their arms along to it all. Oh yes. If that song works in here like this, it will work anywhere. And having stared down and totally triumphed in Pata Negra and now in here where we are now fully accepted, we really feel that we do too. 

And as we come off the stage, the people in here confirm that same thought as we get an immediate huge hug from a guy who looks like a rock’n’roll trucker. And then the same treatment from a few guys who are about to go on and play after us to close the night. They are the heaviest most kicking act we have seen in Mexico and we even jump in and join the moshpit they create. That does add an extra layer of yeah, we’re in this too. But as they look out and sing to us, mixed in with firm handshakes and hugs of acceptance and brotherhood, they also know. Yeah. We belong here. It also proves that what we did at Pata Negra and how we were accepted among all the metal bands there was no fluke. We’ve been saying all along that we belonged on these kinds of stages and it’s taken a trip to Mexico City to finally be able to prove it. All that’s really left to say is thankyou very much Jessica for having this faith in us and inviting us along to be part of tonight. And thankyou Eduardo for getting us here.

As we join the rest of the room for the continuing evening, among saying a lot of nice of other things, Jessica asks if we’d be up for doing a show with her on Saturday out of state. We have no idea where this would be. Of course we say yes. Right now, our last show in Mexico is at 5pm on Saturday. That gives us enough time to get to Jessica’s show in the evening, right?