Day 11
Sunday November 9
After an epic gig like last night’s you’d think we’d be taking it easy today. You know, like Sunday morning. But no. We’re straight back on it with three gigs in the book for today, starting with us being back on a stage at 2pm. Meaning we have to arrive at soundcheck by 12noon. Meaning we have to be out of here by 11. Meaning we have to get up early – well, early when you’ve just headlined an epic metal gig and got home at 3am. So we’re both up by around 9am. We have to get straight onto social media-ing last night’s gig with all the thankyous and hellos, because if we don’t get this done now, the train will leave the station as we get on with the rest of the day, and anything from yesterday won’t get done at all. So yeah. Gigs today at 2pm, 5pm and 8pm.
Before we get onto all that, I’ll get to this bit first. During the day more shows come in for next Saturday meaning by the time we’re done today we have three shows that day too. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t massively systematically keep up with all this at the time – although some of it I did – and damn, no I can’t remember how it all went down now, so this is a good opportunity to have a look at an example of how this is all going. Just know that stuff like this is happening all the time. First, those three shows for next Saturday become two. So many other days have shows coming in and out, possibilities that don’t quite turn into realities and overlapping offers that just aren’t possible because, well, they overlap. There are other times Richard just happens to know that we couldn’t possibly finish one and then make it to the next offered one in time so they get refused. It truly is a flurry the whole time we’re here. Also during the day, Jessica from last night calls. She wants us to play a venue in the city centre called Capitan Gallo. We’re told this is a very cool and really quite prestigious place. Richard accepts and then tells us about this new fantastic item on the agenda.
Now onto getting out and about and doing this thing today. Our first trip today takes us right into the historic part of the city centre as we’re going to play in the central post office – Palacio de Correos. As well as still functioning as a post office as it has since 1907, today it also doubles as something of a cultural centre. Which is how we’re finding ourselves playing in here today among a whole day’s programming of live music.
As one would expect, this thing looks more like a palace than a post office and proudly takes its place on a majestic corner of the city. And inside it’s all high ceilinged lobbies and wide open spaces. We’re playing in one of those. At two in the afternoon.
We have to park the car a little way away which gives us an excuse for a lovely walk through this historic part of the city, the whole time in the shadow of Torre Latinamerica. This held the proud title of Mexico’s tallest building for almost 30 years.
This is really cool to see up close as we’re bustling and bumbling our way through these busy central streets. And then we see the beautiful post office building right ahead of us. As soon as we arrive we discover it’s a whole tourist destination in its own right with groups of school children coming and going. It’s complete with an X-ray security section before entry.
We go through this first lobby, then into the ornate central section which is set up as if for a recital with two largish blocks of chairs in front of a stage with a huge backdrop behind it and off to each side, creating a natural and open backstage area. We’re introduced to the organisers and the soundman, and they tell us we don’t have to worry too much about soundcheck. They understand we have a really simple setup so they just want to keep going with their music programme under the enormous domed window above. We’re also told our show has been brought forward to 1pm instead of two with the new plan being a quick on-the-fly soundcheck as we get started. So we’ve got an hour or so to get back out there in the glorious sunshine, have a look around and get some lunch. We have mild delusions about being able to have enough time to have a sit-down lunch somewhere but by the time we’ve explored and negated a few options we only have time for a pizza slice and extras from a seven eleven. Oh yeah. Mexico does do a lot of things that come right from the United States of America and this is one of them. The famous 7/11.
On the way back we come across one of those amazing little street exhibits you can find sometimes in major cities. And not so major ones. This is a little cubby hole type space in an area set back in a building. Inside are three meteors of differing sizes which fell on various sites around Mexico. You can even go and touch them, marveling that you’re actually connecting with something that came from space. Maybe even outer space. And they probably tootled round there for billions of years before their individual trajectory and the earth’s trajectory ended up coinciding with each other. This is a great little tourist and photo opportunity before it’s time to head back into the post office.
As we walk in, two Latin American duelling jazz guitarists are playing. They have a great show as they trade rhythm and soloing and at times seem to solo at the same time, with these moments working in wonderful harmony rather than against each other. They are truly wonderful musicians. We stop and enjoy at them for a while then realise we have a little unexpected job to do and we’re suddenly kind of pushing time. I’m quite sorry to say that we did get the names of these guys but not really the quite spelling, and when we tried to match that up with finding them online later on, we didn’t quite manage it. Or maybe they don’t have an online presence. In any case, in here we’re going to know them as Antonio and Romenio.
Right. did I say last night was our last big test? Right, well here’s another big test we hadn’t counted on at all and it juxtaposes right up against last night.
Before that show we were wondering before if we had enough big songs to storm a full set in front of a rock and heavy metal crowd. Now here we are about to play an afternoon at the post office and we’re wondering if we have enough small songs. So all of a sudden. We were anticipating an easy meander, but now here we are back stage scrabbling through our back catalogue and maybe songs we haven’t played in a while to see if we can actually make this work. We even consider a few songs we haven’t played in a long long time, not since back in the Clara and first European tour days. But no. We can’t just jump into any of them. Then we kind of realise that a few of our songs are quite versatile and can be played at quite a few different tempos to work in different ways. This gives us Insanity, Freefall, Fire, Where Do We Go – which definitely works in many different situations – I Really Like Koalas, Till Sunset Burns and 101 Ways To Fly. That’s seven. Let’s see how we go. We put Freefall towards the end. Let’s see what we can do with one or two others. But oh, there are a few other songs not quite in the set yet either that would have worked here. But then we also think we can make How You Rock’’n’Roll, Rock’n’Roll Tree and I Like You (Better When You’re Naked) work in here as well.
When we’re ready we head out to find a little of an expectant audience and loads of people out there in the background milling about. Not unlike playing a Utopia actually, which themselves are cultural centres. So as we play, people come in and people go out and we never feel like anyone’s walking out on us. We have 45 minutes to fill in here, and with the sedate nature of the occasion, we feel we’re able to chill a bit in between songs and keep things calm, and the way we’re playing some of our bigger songs a bit slower also helps to add time to the set. It’s also really great that Antonio and Romenio have stuck around and are really into it. What a privilege to play for two such great musicians and to have their endorsement and encouragement. Although we’ve planned for a more leisurely set, when we hit the final strait of freefall and we see people really getting into it, we look at each other and are like, right, yeah. We can take the temperature up. It really helps in this that our two guitarist friends are loving this new punk energy vibe. We now call out and ask if people are ready for us to step it up. As big a shout of yes as can come in an environment like this comes back and that’s it. We’re not quite going to go into Make Me Shine levels, but we can certainly pull out a full on Talk About The Weather and also play I Like You (Better When You’re Naked) with its full punk energy. Those done and we even get an encore shout from what started out as quite a sedate, sometimes grandma in the afternoon, kind of crowd. Well, what else to play but I Really Like Koalas? You know, I actually think putting a set together that would work in here was more of a challenge than choosing our set for last night.
Now we have a few hours before our next gig and Richard surprises us with, ‘Do you guys want to go up the tower?’ Oh wow. Oh yes. We hadn’t thought of that at all. I think in between all these shows and everything thing else we really haven’t been thinking of much else full stop. Having had a lovely greet with the organisers, we walk out with Antonio and Romenio who have stuck around to chat with us as well. We part with them out on the street and then make our way joyfully to the tower.
Now here’s a thing we didn’t have on our agenda for today. Halfway up the tower and as we’re queuing round the edges of this square structure to go up to the next section, we see there’s some kind of virtual reality attraction going on in the middle of the room. We just have to do it. Maja goes first and I get to see just how this thing works. On the floor is a plank which is designed to be kind of moveable. Well, it isn’t really just a plank. It’s more a weird C shaped thing with a board above your head making it a full kind of almost all round apparatus. She’s given the visor thing to wear and is then guided round the back of this thing, all of this happening in full view of everyone in the queue. Now whatever is going on begins. After a few seconds, Maja is invited to walk out onto the plank. She does so with a great deal of delighted reluctance. I’m not entirely sure how much delight is in there though. Now she’s out on the plank and it really does look like a bit of a scary experience. I think I’ll leave most of this for Maja to give her own account when she gets in here, but it really is something to see the end of her turn on the plank. All the way through there’s been a monitor behind her showing what she’s seeing. She comes off exhilarated, delighted that she’s done it but apparently quite glad that it’s over.
Well now it’s my turn to see what this looks like from a first hand perspective.
Instead of being taken round the back of the plank, this time, the operator asks me to stand on it and then gives me the visor to put on. OK. I do that and look around. I’ve been instantly transported to just outside the tower and am able to look around and see what is by now a familiar street view, although there are no people. But apart from that it all looks pretty much like what I’ve been walking round all morning. I’m suddenly quite apprehensive for what exactly is about to happen. What is it all going to be? I don’t have to wait long as the whole thing suddenly starts to move gently underneath me and then suddenly lifts off the ground.
Fast.
Already involuntary noises are coming out of me. I’ve never seen or felt anything like this and there are absolutely no signals going on anywhere inside of me to tell any part of me that this isn’t real. It is real and I am on a tiny narrow plank and being propelled hundreds of feet in the air. Those cars I was next to a few moments ago have now shrunk to almost invisible and I have now stopped somewhere near the top of the tower. I look around and yep, I am up in the air on a totally free floating plank which I can see that my feet are on. I hear a voice telling me to step forwards and reluctantly I do and just oh no. I am going no further. I’m kind of looking around a little now and able to look down some, but peer over the edge and really look down? Nothing you could possibly offer me would induce me to do that right now. Simply not part of any equation. There is no part of me at all that thinks or is able to believe this is all a game or make believe. This is not like some movie where you can look away and pull your head out of it and tell yourself it’s not real and you know it isn’t. No. This is real and it’s happening to me. Right now. Totally. I am high, high, high above the city. And terrified. A single step away from unstoppable freefall and whatever comes after that. This is a terrifying true life situation. All I want to do is to get down. Get off of this, just be anywhere else. And now the plank suddenly moves, shifting to the right and someone might actually scream when that happens. Allegedly that someone is me but you’ll never prove that. Just get me down just get me down just get me down. Although how that will happen I don’t really know. Except I do. I’m just not ready to fully admit it. I saw it happen to Maja. I know that at some point this thing will begin to descend and then do so very rapidly. And I’m just as terrified of that happening as I am right now. So what to do? It feels like I could fall off this thing any moment. And I’m just trapped up here, mildly blowing in the wind, although there’s nothing mild about it at all. I’ve never felt so helpless or scared as I am right now. Really, truly scared. Terrified. As far as decent writing is concerned, I’ve repeated that word a few too many times in too short a time now, but really, it’s the only word to use.
And now it happens. The plank starts to move down. Slowly at first, but only at very first, because then it begins to descend, not quite at freefall level but certainly much faster than you would want the average lift to do. And the ground is getting nearer and that car is getting clearer and everything is about to crash and I can do nothing to stop it. And now here’s the ground directly below me and I can feel myself cringe, almost try to pull back into myself. And then another one of those loud noises happen that may or may not come from me, then everything goes black and everything’s stopped. Oh wow. Is it over? Is it really all over? A voice tells me to take the headset off and I do and yep, there I am on a bare plank very much situated on the floor, and still surrounded by a crowd of queuers. But still, I sink to my knees in relief and it takes some time for the rapid, near hyperventilating breathing to stop and for the extreme exhilaration to leave me. And yes, there now really is some kind of feeling of triumph, of having been in some kind of real situation and now having been able to have got out of it. Far far more than any feeling I’ve ever had at the end of a rollercoaster ride. Because there I saw strapped in. Here, I was free floating, with no harness and nothing to hold onto. All that’s left is a ridiculously grateful feeling that it’s all over.
And a feeling that that was just the most amazing experience and now that feeling really is beginning to flood in.
OK. Now let’s do this bit. I know it wasn’t real, alright? And yes, I could have taken the visor off at any point. Although even with real heights, I find them something of a hypnotic and terrifying and exhilarating thing anyway and I know everyone has their own feelings on that, all the way up to phobias of glass lifts, or elevators if you prefer. But everything I saw above there is true. In the moment, it felt real and there’s a part of me, even now, that is a bit sorry I couldn’t have enjoyed it more. Taken the liberating feeling of knowing there was no real danger and had a look around. Have a look down. Because, and I hope I really am never in that situation as really real, this was an opportunity to experience it as near as you can and not be in any danger.
So yeah, use it. Have a look round. Have a look down. Truly enjoy the experience. Or at least try to take it in and not spend the whole time in near panic and wishing it could all be over as soon as possible, which is pretty much how I spent that time, which is what I’m a little sorry about. Hey, maybe even bounce about, dangle your foot of the edge. Look right down and lean right over. All the stuff you really should never do should you ever find yourself in such a real situation. I’m sure there are people who do all this. But then, there are people who do all that in the actual real as well. Or maybe the terror – albeit of the armchair variety – is part of the experience; as much as I have the mild regret of not having enjoyed it more, or not having tried to enjoy it more, I’m not completely convinced that, put in the same situation again, I wouldn’t react in the same way again. Believe me, with everything I said up there, this didn’t just feel real. It wasn’t just oh wow, isn’t this really realistic? No. It was real. Whatever part of the subconscious all those images and movements trigger, and whatever I could have chosen to tell myself – in the moment, I seriously did just seemed totally unable to do tell myself anything contrary to what I thought was happening – this was real. Would I react differently if it really was? Maybe. I’ll give you that. But please let me never find out.
Oh wow. Drama over and it does take me a minute or two to recover myself fully back to reality and Maja is emphatic when I walk over. ‘Isn’t that just mad?’ ‘It’s real, right? Isn’t it?’ I asks. With that, she nods emphatically, maybe still having some residual effects from her own experience. I look at Richard and ask if he’s not going to have a go? ‘Are you crazy?’ he laughs. ‘I watched you two do it. That was enough.’ With that, we’re now at the front of the queue to go up and now we’re on our way.
Up to the first viewing level of the tower. This is a large square with windows all around and of course, an incredible view across Mexico City. Really, we did already have something of a view at the midpoint where we did the VR thing, but this is now something different. And with the narrower point of view with the smaller room, there’s just a more in the round feeling, like you can almost take in everything at once. And that’s what we do. And, as we saw when we first came in on the plane, this is just vast. And also, now we see that the city has a few more tall buildings than we have thought for much of this time. It’s just that they’re a bit more scattered around, not fully concentrated into an almost single skyline like you see with London or New York. But like this, they rise as vertical punctuation points far and wide across this immense, seemingly city. And we can even see right to the far edges of it as thick carpets of houses come right against mountains, rise a little into them and then stop. I tell Richard here that, while it might not be possible this trip, sometime I would quite like to travel right to those outer reaches and see the exact moment the almost neverendedness of this place actually ends. ‘I’ve never even done that myself,’ he says. ‘I’ve never even thought of that. Yes, that could be interesting.’ With that, I kind of imagine that some future date and excursion has somehow been wordlessly agreed.
We make a few rounds and videos of all this, then Richard says, ‘Let’s go upstairs and you can get a better and shorter video of that.’ Oh, there’s an upstairs to this thing. I thought we were upstairs.
Now here we are back in London and I’m writing this in July, eight months later and I’ve just gone to get them, and I can’t find any video from the tower. I am very confused, but oh well.
Back to it and oh wow. What an upstairs. Below was all calm and serene, and there’s nothing calm and serene about this new place in which we now find ourselves. Surrounded by hard wire mesh, we are now outside and the square we have to walk around here is indeed far smaller than the protected, silent area we’ve just left. Here, the high altitude wind is whipping all around us and the view just seems that more real. And down there, way down there, we can see the wonderful building we played in less than an hour ago, and the courtyard within it. And now we’re looking more vertically than across the city, we can see so many of the city centre sights we are now kind of familiar with, none so spectacular as Zocalo Plaza, the centre of the old city and the huge Mexican flag which flies there. This is the site of the remains of the ancient Aztec city centre pyramids. Really, what a privilege all this is. A little more of all this and it’s time to descend – this time far more conventionally than our little virtual escapade of earlier.
So, first gig of the day and tower experience done, in all its parts. Just the two more gigs to do today. Oh, and a party tonight apparently.
Before any of that, we go back to Richard’s local neighbourhood where he’s going to introduce us to something quite special for lunch in what is another real experience of the day. This is street tacos and something me and Maja have been somewhat apprehensive to try. Well, just the whole streetfood thing really. We haven’t really felt like diving into that little part of Mexico City delight. But, as on our first gig day, if we’re with the locals and they’re introducing us to it, then yep, we’re all in.
Down the main street on the edge of a coursing, throbbing motorway type thing is an open fronted taco store. This is basic Mexican about as authentic as you can get. In the half open window out front, fresh round tacos roll out of the machine while next to it two taco makers in the process stand with full wedges of meat or the huge sausage also used in them. The meat is freshly grilled and as it’s ready, they pull and grind it all together then mix it as required, complete with their own herbs and spices. Generally an individual order is three tacos, then you find a table somewhere in the very homely and ramshackle dining area. And on each table is the by now fabled red and green sauces with which you finish everything off. It really is massively bustling in here, all aided and abetted by the taco and meat activity out front, the ordering going on out in the street and the various workers inside taking other orders, payment and constantly preparing newly vacated tables. This really is an experience all itself and the tacos are amazing and unlike anything we’ve ever had before, and we discover that three per person really is enough.
That done, we pile back in the car and it’s off and onto the next gig which is to be at a place called Utopía Ixtapalcalli in Iztapalapa, which is our own region. Which is why we’ve been able to come back here from the historic city centre and have this wonderful and local taco lunch.
We arrive at this gig to find that while they do have a lovely cultural centre, with it being another lovely day, music activity is out front in the courtyard. Two microphone stands have been set up, a kind of jazz duo is just finishing as we arrive, and the seats are arrayed in front of the microphone stands in two equal blocks of 40 or 50 or so, most of which are taken by curious locals come to see what this London group has to offer by the time we’re ready to go. OK. What kind of set to play here? It’s not going to be bombastic, and it doesn’t have to be totally gentle like we thought the post office one would have to be. We quickly decide we can settle on something like middle of the road pretty much, ignore the very biggest numbers but still go big enough on the likes of Rock’n’Roll Tree. So that’s what we do and yeah, without going blow by blow on this one, we get two encore calls. We only play one because when the second encore call comes, as grateful as we are, Maja declares that she’s starting to push limits, and we still have one more gig to get through today and with the evening nature of that, we feel that one’s going to be a bit more of a push energy wise. This has been a fantastically lovely afternoon meander, and like most of the other shows, another 45 minute appearance.
There is one extra element of all this. Being in the courtyard outside, we’re also visible and audible to anyone on the street on the other side of the wire fence. With that, every now and then people stop there and watch, most fantastically a 10 or 11 year old girl and her dad. And some of them decide to come inside and take their places on one of the available chairs, that girl and her dad being just two of them. Getting right to it, we’re in no illusion that so often, the appeal to these young girls is Maja up there and doing her thing. And when it’s all over, I make sure to suggest to Maja that she goes over and says hello, but of course she’s already on it. I really do think this is a memorable meeting for the kids involved, and maybe, just maybe a young fan brought on board to the cause.
Packed off and on our way again, with many well wishes and thankyous and claps still sounding in our ears, we’re in the car and onto the third and final gig of the day. This is going to be an all action large stage performance, outdoors again, and in front of an expectant almost festival audience. This is Utopía Papalotl, again in Iztapalapa and it’s an enormous complex of an example of one of these utopias, or cultural centres. To give you some idea of what one might look like, this one resembles a kind of modern high school premises.
We get there and the large seated area in front of the really quite highly raised and large stage is pretty much full. On stage right now is a huge ensemble and it becomes clear that much of the audience out here is their friends and family. But when they finish, most of the people in the seats stay and will now make up our audience.
Before all this, we have about half an hour of chill time which we take, bizarrely, in the back row of a darkened cinema like area just off of where we’ll be playing. Here, we make our setlist for this show, which is a very straightforward task, and realise something huge.
We just have this now.
We’ve been through our very first shows when we were all apprehensive that any of this would work at all. Through the major radio interview in Spanish. Then we had the rock and metal cauldron of Pata Negra which was followed by having to put together and deliver the exact opposite type of set in the tranquil settings of the old post office. . Into all that we can also add our street show of the Day of the Dead festival because yes, that was a little edgy as well as we wondered just how we would be received by a street festival Mexico City crowd. We’ve come through every test and played to a really wide variety of audiences. And all the way, our songs and performances have just worked. As for the very first show, that was on November 1. It is now November 9, the unexpected final test of the post office happened this morning.
All that done, now we just know that we’re able to deal with whatever stage and situation we’re thrown onto. With that amazing realisation, for the first time really, we have finally reached a place of peace before a gig and we can just prepare our set and go out and enjoy it. This next one is the first part of that new phase and yes, we just go out there now and take it. And the audience is with us all the way. And that’s a three hundred and sixty degree audience; tonight’s stage and audience area is set in something of quite a large and green park. So apart from all the people out front, there are also people walking out and about the place and who decide to stay where they are as they’re passing the stage to check us out. And behind us are other bands waiting to play and just musicians and their friends in general just chilling out in the outdoor backstage area. Did I say three hundred and sixty degrees? Make that two hundred and seventy degrees because there’s a wall to the right of us so no-one’s watching from there.
And as an added bonus, Paco of Los Ekis is here again to do our sound as we’ve seen him at so many of our shows. With that, he really has extensive experience of us now and almost doesn’t even have to sound check us. He just knows what we need and what to do and this adds another element of calm and assurance to the whole thing.
This show is practically a celebration. We’ve just thrown ourselves into all our others of course and fully enjoyed them, but this one we play with just totally free abandon and yes, the audience fully comes with us and the band members behind the stage are also bouncing along with it all too. And out front there’s a guy and a girl who seem particularly taken with what’s happening here.
When we finish, those two immediately come up to us and congratulate us and they loved it and all that. The girl is Marie Anne and she’s from an organisation called Internacional Cananea. Oh wow. Yep, we know that one. This is the group we have a gig with on Saturday. She heard we were playing here tonight and wanted to come and check us out and say hello ahead of our show with them. And here we are.
Remember that party we had for tonight, well it was supposed to be, or is, an outdoor affair either here or somewhere nearby. But by now the evening has turned cold, and unsurprisingly, all three of us are totally done. We’re just going to go home.
We get back, computers go on for a little housekeeping of today – we can catch up with the rest of it tomorrow morning – and Richard discovers and announces that we have a phone radio interview for sometime Tuesday with a guy called Rey Cruz. Seriously. It really never stops. In the most wonderful way.
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